HP-1 Needs better antenna?

[dianajune]

Not long ago I posted about my new HP-1 scanner, which I just couldn't get to start up. So, I returned it and a replacement was sent.

The only issue I am having now is that it probably needs a better antenna. I can pick up stations in the next county over (south of here) better than I can in my own county. And the village police station is within walking distance of my home and I can't even pick up that.

When I moved the scanner to a different part of the room I was able to pick up stations out of the other county next to this one, but north of here and farther away than the other county.

What's up with that? Is there something I'm doing wrong? I put in my zip code, chose a 30-mile range and thought I was all set. Maybe it needs a better antenna (telescoping as opposed to this short rubber thing)?

If you have any recommendations for another antenna please let me know. Tx!

 

[W8RMH]

It depends on many factors besides your scanner. The terrain, band, where the transmitters are actually located, antenna height, transmitter power, etc, etc. Your village police may be dispatched by the county whose transmitter is miles away.

Antennas are frequency specific. Stock scanner antennas are made to cover a wide band to work fair on all frequencies rather than great on certain ones. A scanner antenna tuned for the frequencies you want to receive will always work better. What are you trying to receive?

Putting your county and state in your location will help as well, so we can look at the systems and frequencies. Click on your username in yellow at the top of the page and enter your location and click Save All Changes.

 

[yank108]

Comet Baby Antenna

I read up on this antenna and have to say it works wonders for me. Amazon.com: Comet Original CH-32 144/440/900 MHz Tri-Band Miracle Baby Handheld Antenna - BNC Connector: Electronics

 

[dianajune]

It depends on many factors besides your scanner. The terrain, band, where the transmitters are actually located, antenna height, transmitter power, etc, etc. Your village police may be dispatched by the county whose transmitter is miles away.

Antennas are frequency specific. Stock scanner antennas are made to cover a wide band to work fair on all frequencies rather than great on certain ones. A scanner antenna tuned for the frequencies you want to receive will always work better. What are you trying to receive?

Putting your county and state in your location will help as well, so we can look at the systems and frequencies. Click on your username in yellow at the top of the page and enter your location and click Save All Changes.

I'm trying to pick up local, county and state police (talk and tactical), emt, fire, military, railroad and business. The village police have a tower just outside their office, so I assumed that being the case, picking up their signals would be easy. I was wrong.

I've had this scanner on at the same time as the online version at this site and would hear calls that should have appeared on my scanner.

Am I supposed to program the frequencies I would like to listen to? I thought that when I set it up, their database downloaded everything I needed.

I can try moving the scanner around some more, perhaps near a window? The terrain is mostly flat. It's a small village not far from the city of Syracuse. I can pick up more Syracuse stuff than anything from this area.

Jefferson County, which is further from here to the north, comes up as well.

If a telescoping antenna would help, does it have to be one specifically made for handheld units, or could I use one for a car but mounted on a windowsill? I don't have a vehicle.

Tx!

 

[dianajune]

Do I need to get a bnc/sma connector for this? Sounds like a good choice. Only thing is, (and I know this will probably sound stupid), but this antenna is very short compared to the one that came with my HP-1. I don't understand how the reception would be better, but then again, I'm relatively new to scanners!

 

[Voyager]

Of course, that won't work for everyone. It's not a high performance antenna.

I too use one of the ultra stubby antennas, and while they have their place, they will not perform well on weak or distant signals. In my case, I use it for strong signals only.

 

[I_am_Alpha1]

Welcome

Welcome to the wonderful world of P25 digital and the inability of Uniden to decode it. I used to stand up for Uniden and blamed simulcast for the decode issues until I programmed in a single frequency P25 system and it can't decode it. I haven't looked up your system, but going by what you say I assume it's P25. Changing antennas will not help--it's the scanner itself and there are no better on the market as of today. As you discovered, moving the scanner will change it's decoding because some of the issue is with simulcast, but the rest is inability to decode correctly. The system next to your house may be overloading your receiver because it's so powerful and so close--or the signal could possibly be skipping over your house because of the type of antenna being used--narrow beam to increase range. Lots of factors and nowhere near plug and play. Just keep playing with it to find your best spot.

 

[W8RMH]

The Comet CH-32 is a good antenna for handhelds, I have two, but for your HP-1, inside I assume, I would recommend the Diamond SRH77CA. You will also need a right angle adapter. That's the best I can recommend without, again, knowing what frequencies you want to receive. This antenna is a good wide band coverage antenna.

 

[dianajune]

Welcome to the wonderful world of P25 digital and the inability of Uniden to decode it. I used to stand up for Uniden and blamed simulcast for the decode issues until I programmed in a single frequency P25 system and it can't decode it. I haven't looked up your system, but going by what you say I assume it's P25. Changing antennas will not help--it's the scanner itself and there are no better on the market as of today. As you discovered, moving the scanner will change it's decoding because some of the issue is with simulcast, but the rest is inability to decode correctly. The system next to your house may be overloading your receiver because it's so powerful and so close--or the signal could possibly be skipping over your house because of the type of antenna being used--narrow beam to increase range. Lots of factors and nowhere near plug and play. Just keep playing with it to find your best spot.

I've been experimenting with this scanner for the past couple of days. I learned how to program extra frequencies using the software that came with it, then took the scanner on the bus to see if moving around outdoors would improve reception. Not much, but some.

For the heck of it, I added frequencies for the local Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds and Walmart. I was able to pick up some transmissions for Wally world but not the local restaurants. I programmed the frequency for our local bus company but did not pick that up.

I'm leaning towards this being an antenna issue because the signal strength meter is down to nothing most of the time.

I hope to get this fixed soon. It's a very expensive paper weight!

 

[dianajune]

The Comet CH-32 is a good antenna for handhelds, I have two, but for your HP-1, inside I assume, I would recommend the Diamond SRH77CA. You will also need a right angle adapter. That's the best I can recommend without, again, knowing what frequencies you want to receive. This antenna is a good wide band coverage antenna.

After my experiments with this scanner I am leaning towards this antenna. However, I cannot find a right angle adapter on this particular website. Did I miss it? They have such a long list I couldn't find it. Here's the link:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/diamond-srh77ca-4983.html

 

[Voyager]

Doesn't look like they have the adapter. You want a 90 degree SMA male to female adapter.

 

[W8RMH]

After my experiments with this scanner I am leaning towards this antenna. However, I cannot find a right angle adapter on this particular website. Did I miss it? They have such a long list I couldn't find it. Here's the link:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/diamond-srh77ca-4983.html

The Antenna Farm doesn't have the adapter. Click on the link I posted for "right angle adapter".

Text in blue and underlined is a link.

 

[kafw4202]

I recently got the HP-2 myself and am in a weird corner close to 5 counties but very rural. The zip code function was what was messing up my reception. I used google maps to find my exact co-ordinates and entered that for location and my reception improved x10. I recently made a Favorites list also and added EVERYTHING for the 5 counties and state/national and then went through the favorites line by line to exclude everything I did not want.. and even or 5 counties it was smaller then the auto list and scanned better. (The list was all the law/ems/fire/land-forest/military/fed). I also bought a tiny suction cup antenna for cheap on Amazon and it receives better then several others.

The zip code and city function uses the center of each for the location so if you are at the edge of a county, city, or zip it might help to go exact.