Hey guys,
I’ve got a TRX-1 from Whistler that I have set up to broadcast online. It’s working great. Here is my antenna situation. I started with one of those all-purpose / all-band PVC pipe home made deals from MaxxTenna on Ebay and 50’ of RG6 running to my roof. It worked well for what it was. There were some folks online who told me I was probably not getting peak performance from an antenna like that, and it was probably just a rubber duck or tin foil inside a pvc tube.
So, then came the upgrade. A Centerfire folded dipole tuned to VHF specifically. With a 300 to 75 ohm transistor. Same location, same cable.
Same performance... In fact, it seems like the dipole has more background noise and less clean audio being received. There was one frequency (digital vhf) that was being picked up with the MaxxTenna but the transmissions were not readable (digital distortion). I was hoping the new antenna would grab this frequency more clearly. It hasn’t yet. Same digital noise.
Now I’m looking again. I’m hoping someone can talk me off the ledge here. I live in a mountainous area and it’s possible that the one signal I’m looking for is a lost cause unless I have significantly more height. It’s possible that I am picking up everything I’m going to get at this point, regardless of the antenna.
So basically I’m just looking for general thoughts on the situation from others who have been in the same boat.
My antenna restrictions basically are that I have to be able to mount it on an existing 1” metal pole on my roof. And I’m trying to keep it as low profile as possible to keep the wife happy.
Believe it or not, I’m thinking about going back to the all-band homemade PVC thing!
Thanks guys.
I’ve got a TRX-1 from Whistler that I have set up to broadcast online. It’s working great. Here is my antenna situation. I started with one of those all-purpose / all-band PVC pipe home made deals from MaxxTenna on Ebay and 50’ of RG6 running to my roof. It worked well for what it was. There were some folks online who told me I was probably not getting peak performance from an antenna like that, and it was probably just a rubber duck or tin foil inside a pvc tube.
So, then came the upgrade. A Centerfire folded dipole tuned to VHF specifically. With a 300 to 75 ohm transistor. Same location, same cable.
Same performance... In fact, it seems like the dipole has more background noise and less clean audio being received. There was one frequency (digital vhf) that was being picked up with the MaxxTenna but the transmissions were not readable (digital distortion). I was hoping the new antenna would grab this frequency more clearly. It hasn’t yet. Same digital noise.
Now I’m looking again. I’m hoping someone can talk me off the ledge here. I live in a mountainous area and it’s possible that the one signal I’m looking for is a lost cause unless I have significantly more height. It’s possible that I am picking up everything I’m going to get at this point, regardless of the antenna.
So basically I’m just looking for general thoughts on the situation from others who have been in the same boat.
My antenna restrictions basically are that I have to be able to mount it on an existing 1” metal pole on my roof. And I’m trying to keep it as low profile as possible to keep the wife happy.
Believe it or not, I’m thinking about going back to the all-band homemade PVC thing!
Thanks guys.