Home repeater/booster??

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Peanut_SJU

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Hey, I'm looking to increase the signal inside my home for my scanner. Anyone know of a product to wirelessly boost the signal within the house. Rather than running an antenna from the roof to the scanner itself? I scan 800mhz range. Would a cellular booster work perhaps?

Ideas??
 

gewecke

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Hey, I'm looking to increase the signal inside my home for my scanner. Anyone know of a product to wirelessly boost the signal within the house. Rather than running an antenna from the roof to the scanner itself? I scan 800mhz range. Would a cellular booster work perhaps?

Ideas??

Which scanner? which bands are you interested in? A cellular booster might be expensive and would probably work well for 700/800 mhz. trunking, but doubtful on lower bands.
You might look into a magnetic antenna or on glass antenna for a single pane window?

73,
n9zas
 

DickH

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You might look into a magnetic antenna or on glass antenna for a single pane window?

Not effective since glass does not impede RF. Just putting the scanner close to the window will do it.
 

gewecke

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Not effective since glass does not impede RF. Just putting the scanner close to the window will do it.

Well I thought since he said antennas on the house weren't a option, a on glass mobile scanner antenna on the outside of a single pane window might suffice.

73,
n9zas
 

talkpair

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Hey, I'm looking to increase the signal inside my home for my scanner. Anyone know of a product to wirelessly boost the signal within the house. Rather than running an antenna from the roof to the scanner itself? I scan 800mhz range. Would a cellular booster work perhaps?

In short, "no"

About your only option is to use an antenna that favors the 800 MHz band on your radio, then find a spot in the house where it works best.
 

Peanut_SJU

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Thanks for the ideas...I don't mind putting an antenna on my house...but I don't want to be tied down to where it ends within the house. I want my Uniden BCD396T to function near as it was connected to an external antenna on a house. I just figured with house-mounted cell boosters plentiful that either something designed for scanners or something repurposed could be used in this fashion. I appreciate all ideas.
 

DickH

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Thanks for the ideas...I don't mind putting an antenna on my house...but I don't want to be tied down to where it ends within the house. I want my Uniden BCD396T to function near as it was connected to an external antenna on a house. I just figured with house-mounted cell boosters plentiful that either something designed for scanners or something repurposed could be used in this fashion. I appreciate all ideas.

Another thing you can do is put up a good antenna either in the attic or on the roof and run the co-ax to a convenient place to set up the scanner. Then run the audio into wireless headphones. That will let you hear all over the house, even for a short distance outdoors.
 

K9DAK

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Make an Audio Repeater

Agreed, the best thing to do is find a place in your house where it works well and park it there. If you need portability, however, you might try this: Convert the Fisher-Price Baby Monitor into a Repeater

When I lived in San Diego there was exactly one spot in my house where my BC-220 would get everything I wanted to hear. With this little repeater (I used a Radio Shack model) I could leave the scanner there and still go work in the yard, garage, whatever, just taking the monitor receiver with me. It also kept the scanner from getting banged up, dropped, etc. I still use it to this day, plugged into the line out jack of my ham rig upstairs, parked on 50.125 so I can hear any 6M band openings.
 

digitalanalog

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.....

Agreed, the best thing to do is find a place in your house where it works well and park it there. If you need portability, however, you might try this: Convert the Fisher-Price Baby Monitor into a Repeater

When I lived in San Diego there was exactly one spot in my house where my BC-220 would get everything I wanted to hear. With this little repeater (I used a Radio Shack model) I could leave the scanner there and still go work in the yard, garage, whatever, just taking the monitor receiver with me. It also kept the scanner from getting banged up, dropped, etc. I still use it to this day, plugged into the line out jack of my ham rig upstairs, parked on 50.125 so I can hear any 6M band openings.
 
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kb2vxa

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A word of warning about cell "boosters" properly called repeaters. I've seen a number of FCC "pink slips" sent out for unlicensed operation of a transmitter after checking with the carrier and finding none listed at the point of operation. Yeah, yours has to be approved and licensed by the carrier regardless of what you use it for.
 
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