Getting back into Scanning, Is my Discone still a viable antenna?

[mparker]

I am getting back into scanning after be out of the hobby for almost 15 years. My old setup worked great! I had a BCT15 and a Hustler Discone in the attic. I pretty much stopped scanning because my local PD did a rebound making my BCT15 unable to monitor.

I am wondering if I get a sds200 is that discount in the attic still a viable antenna for the the new P25 systems or should I get something more tuned for 800mhz? Also how is the performance of the stock whip on the back? Ideally the later would be the best because of the years I removed the feed line up to the attic.

What are your thoughts?

 

[doctordialtone]

What are your thoughts?

I use a Discone for my SDS200. It works great, so you should have no problem, depending upon how things have changed with what you intend to monitor.

I used the stock whip for quite a while to monitor our state's trunked system with no problem.

Bottom line, you won't know until you try.

Good luck.

 

[mmckenna]

P25/digital doesn't make any difference when it comes to the antenna. What matters is the frequency.

Your antenna should work fine for 800MHz. Do a quick look to make sure it hasn't been damaged and that the coaxial cable is in good shape.

Usually these radio systems are designed for some level of hand held radio coverage inside buildings, so you may do fine with the stock antenna.

 

[SatHunter]

How important is height & cable length with a discone? Mostly being used for air band, 2m, 162 - 165 mhz & UHF 450 - 465 mhz.

 

[GadgetGeek]

I use a Discone for my SDS200. It works great, so you should have no problem, depending upon how things have changed with what you intend to monitor.

Same.

 

[mmckenna]

How important is height

In most cases, those frequencies will be line of sight, so the higher up the antenna is, the more it can see.

& cable length with a discone? Mostly being used for air band, 2m, 162 - 165 mhz & UHF 450 - 465 mhz.

Cable length and choosing the correct coaxial cable for the application are key. All coax has loss. Longer cable means more loss. Also, higher frequency means more loss.

 

[SatHunter]

In most cases, those frequencies will be line of sight, so the higher up the antenna is, the more it can see.



Cable length and choosing the correct coaxial cable for the application are key. All coax has loss. Longer cable means more loss. Also, higher frequency means more loss.

Thanks for the advice! I have it outside close to my radio room about 8 ft high. I’ll keep it where it is and increase the height by about 14 ft 👍

 

[mmckenna]

Thanks for the advice! I have it outside close to my radio room about 8 ft high. I’ll keep it where it is and increase the height by about 14 ft 👍

Good plan. Keeping the radio and antenna as close together as possible and using the least amount of cable to get between the two is your best plan.

As opposed to those that want to put their radio and antenna 200 feet apart and run "Amazon's Cheapest®" RG-58 between them...

 

[radioman2008]

an interesting thing about my discone, it does the best job of picking up the Military satellite pirates 240-270Mhz , vs any of my other dual band verticals.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I use a discone now (ICOM) and once owned a Hustler discone. That was the 2nd worst antenna that I ever owned (except it was good on low band VHF). Not all discones are the same and that is the bottom of the barrel in my opinion. A good discone has 6 or 8 elements for the disk and cone, not a mere 3 and its design predates 800/900 MHz. And the distance between the disk and cone needs to be smaller for good upper frequency end. The best discone I had was a Diamond with the vertical whip (I made a mistake when I replaced it with the ICOM).