Help with reception

[shotclock]

I'm new to the scanner world and just bought a Uniden BC-246T to use at the racetrack and to listen to my local police calls.
I live about 2 - 3 miles from the police station and can barley pickup the dispatcher and very often can not pick up some of the police cars. I can pick up my sheriffs cars from all over the county and pick up the EMS calls around the county.
1) What could I do to increase receiving the police calls?
2) If I put up a tall antenna outside the house would that increase the clarity of the traffic?
3) Would getting a base station instead of a handheld make any difference?

I would appreciate any help on this subject.

Thank you.
David Nipper

 

[captclint]

I live about 2 - 3 miles from the police station and can barley pickup the dispatcher and very often can not pick up some of the police cars. I can pick up my sheriffs cars from all over the county and pick up the EMS calls around the county.

It appears as if Sheriff, EMS, and local police all use repeaters in your town Rutherford County, (TN) Frequencies , so I can't totally explain why you can't hear police. They are using 45W output (see FB2 under class) for all but one UHF repeater: FCC Callsign WSB879 Details vs 75W for the sheriff: FCC Callsign WFS750 Details However, they all seem to have antennae located right in town in the same area, so I don't think that difference is enough to account for your problem. However, portables are very sensitive to location. Try different areas of you home. Check the locations of the transmitters in the map links to see just how close you are (repeaters are almost never near the actual public service buildings)

Yes, an outside antenna will help with UHF frequencies, but getting decent coax cable is also important when using an outside antenna. RG6 is a very good cable, but RG-58 is cheaper, and would be OK for 50' or less. You would need one end to have a BNC connector for the scanner (may require an adaptor to convert from PL-259 or "F", to BNC), and the other a PL-259 for the antenna. Radio Shack has a fairly decent antenna for your type of freq's: Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna - RadioShack.com No, a base station would not be any better, but it would require an outside antenna. Using your portable with the same outside antenna would be just as good.

 

[rfradioconsult]

Are you listening to the repeater output frequency or the repeater inpuy frequency? If you are listening to the input frequency you will have very spotty and intermittent reception, you need to be listening to the output frequency. The UHF band is separated by 5 MHz between the input and output channels, the mobiles will transmit 5 MHz higher; so you need to listen to the lower frequency i.e., 460.xxx and not 465.xxx.

 

[shotclock]

Reception

Thank you all for your comments. I will get an antenna and get it setup.