good base antenna

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sadman3

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ok here goes. i dont really know alot about scanner antennas was looking for a good base outside antenna for pickaway and MARCS system conventional frequency was looking at the laird FG8246 omni base antenna seen it on scanner master but dont know enough about scanner antennas to say if it will work or not most of the time i monitor pickaway and MARCS i also have a pro197 if that helps any thanks for any help
 
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ok here goes. i dont really know alot about scanner antennas was looking for a good base outside antenna for pickaway and MARCS system conventional frequency was looking at the laird FG8246 omni base antenna seen it on scanner master but dont know enough about scanner antennas to say if it will work or not most of the time i monitor pickaway and MARCS i also have a pro197 if that helps any thanks for any help

I'm no expert, but the one thing I know is that antennas are tuned to a specific frequency, or range of freqs, so if your only monitoring one specific area, say 800Mhz, you would want something tuned close to 800... it all depends on your area(s) of interest..I'm not farmiliar with the system you mentioned, so I cant give you a specific examples, hopefully someone in your area can..

There are antennas that cover a wide range, I have a discone that works ok across its range(10-1000Mhz), but it is not at all comparable to my tuned 1/4 wave (220Mhz) when listening in that same range(100-400Mhz), you end up sacrificing overall quality the wider the frequency range/capability of the antenna, in my experience at least.. :)

check out this link, good info for you to consider before buying :

Antennas - The RadioReference Wiki
 
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jackj

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I'm using an old Discone that I bought years ago from Radio Shack. It is rated to cover from 25 to 1200 MHz and it works pretty good on 144 through 800 MHz. If you are not going to transmit then you really don't need to spend that kind of money, you can get a good antenna for $50 - $75.
 

sadman3

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thats good sounds like it would save me money and thats always a good thing i need to keep this low profile though been looking around found 2 that look good the WBV 60 wideband base and the WBD 40 discone antennas just really looking to pick up pickaway county and the countys around pickaway and marcs thanks for the help what would i need to do this do you have to tune scanner antennas like CB antennas
 

wa8pyr

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ok here goes. i dont really know alot about scanner antennas was looking for a good base outside antenna for pickaway and MARCS system conventional frequency was looking at the laird FG8246 omni base antenna seen it on scanner master but dont know enough about scanner antennas to say if it will work or not most of the time i monitor pickaway and MARCS i also have a pro197 if that helps any thanks for any help

Some of the things to think about are:

1. You location and what you want to receive - do you really want to be limited to 800 MHz?
2. Where you intend to mount the antenna - can you mount in the attic or does it have to be outside?
3. What to feed it with - get decent coax but don't go overboard. RG-6 is usually great for scanners.

If you really are OK with limiting yourself to the 800 MHz, then a single-band option would be fine; however, you're going to pay a heavy premium for a commercial-grade antenna. Add to that the extra cost of top-notch feedline and connectors (most commercial-grade antennas use N connectors, which are larger and more expensive).

On the other hand, you can start out with a reasonably-priced antenna made for scanner use along with some reasonable quality feedline and probably get very suitable results. When living in Dublin, for many years I used the Radio Shack 20-176 mounted outside on the vent stack on the roof and fed it with RG-6. I was able to receive a great deal of VHF, UHF and 800 MHz traffic for at least 20 miles in any direction. My total cost outlay for this was about $30 plus the time involved in mounting the antenna on the roof

The RS 20-176 - Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna - RadioShack.com

I live south of Grove City now and use a Radio Shack clone of the Channel Master "Monitenna" (no longer available) mounted in the attic, fed with RG-6. With it, I can generally pick up stuff for at least 40 miles in nearly any direction.... and that's from the attic.

My recommendation is start small and see how it works out. You may find that the simplest solution is the best. If you mount anything outside, make sure the connectors are well sealed with coax-seal so moisture doesn't get into your feedline.

By the way, I still have my old 20-176. It's pretty weather-beaten but it still works and is mounted in my attic where I have it fed with RG-6 and use it to monitor local systems. Still works just fine.
 

jackj

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thats good sounds like it would save me money and thats always a good thing i need to keep this low profile though been looking around found 2 that look good the WBV 60 wideband base and the WBD 40 discone antennas just really looking to pick up pickaway county and the countys around pickaway and marcs thanks for the help what would i need to do this do you have to tune scanner antennas like CB antennas

The discone antennas are not tunable and it doesn't look like the WBV-60 is either. I'm a little dubious of what looks like a standard vertical antenna that claims wide-band performance. They usually do it with coils which tends to increase the angle of radiation above the horizon. Others have reported good performance with them but I stay away from them. As I said, my discone has worked well for over 15 years now and that's the one I would recommend for scanner use. My only problem with the WBD-40 is the fact that they use 'N' connectors. They are excellent 50 ohm connectors but they are expensive compared to a PL-259 or BNC. If you are leaning toward the discone type of antenna then look at the one sold by Radio Shack. It is cheaper at $75 and uses a SO-239 (matches with a PL-259) connector. Use a good quality coax and you're set.
 

sadman3

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that one looks good to dont really wont to be limited to 800MHz this antenna looks good but if i go with this one and what would i need to hook up the coax to the scanner witch is a BNC i think or would this work HA-BNC Antenna to Handheld CB Radio Adapter its at radio shack was trying to stay at one sit to order everything but will try others if i have to
 

jackj

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Connector

that one looks good to dont really wont to be limited to 800MHz this antenna looks good but if i go with this one and what would i need to hook up the coax to the scanner witch is a BNC i think or would this work HA-BNC Antenna to Handheld CB Radio Adapter its at radio shack was trying to stay at one sit to order everything but will try others if i have to

You have a couple of options if you go with the RS discone. You can order a hunk of RG-8 with PL-259's on the ends and then use a SO-238 to BNC adapter at the scanner. Or use a short piece (around 1') of RG-58 with a PL-259 on one end and a BNC on the other and use a barrel to connect the PL-259s together. I would not recommend using RS coax, order your coax on the Internet and get a good brand.
 

sadman3

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hope this works dont relly know how to put pics on here but if i got coax with PL-259 connector on both ends could i just use something like this BNC Male to UHF Female Connector dont know much about connectors so i dont really know what to really look for thanks for all the help with this
 

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That should work fine yes, if your coax has the matching PL-259 connector as you said, someone confirm that connector # lol...to many different connectors and adaptors :)
 

jackj

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scan-o-matic13 is right. The reason I added the suggestion for a short pigtail of RG-58 is because RG-8, if that is what you buy, is pretty stiff. RG-58 won't put as much of a strain on the adapter.
 
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