Interesing antenna issue

[scosgt]

Living in New York, I rarely use a scanner in my since it is illegal here, along with guns and soft drinks and just about everything else.

Yesterday I took a ride to Valley Forge PA, which meant a bunch of miles down the NJ Tpk and then along the PA Tpk. I had never had much luck receiving a whole lot along this route in the past.

I had the PSR 800 in a mount just below dash level. I had set up 5 different V folders, with just about everything in the RR database along the way. I was again not really hearing much. At a rest stop in NJ, I switched out the RD 800 MHZ antenna for a Diamond RH77CA.

HOLY COW. The scanner totally came to life! I got all kinds of trunked systems, in PA I got Montgomery County then Bucks County, Digital, loud and clear. Got SEPTA and PTC Disp 4 no problem. Even got one hit on Philadelphia PD, but that is probably too far off the pike to really get it from what I have read.

So it seems that in the car the Diamond antenna made a huge difference, in the house it does not. I get NJSP booming in on the RS antenna in the house, and again I live in NY.

So it is strange, nothing is wrong with the RS antenna, it works fine in the house. But for some reason, the Diamond works WAY better in the car.

 

[n5ims]

The Diamond has pretty mediocre performance on 800 MHz so you were probably in an area where you were getting too much signal using the RS antenna and switching to the Diamond reduced the signal enough that the overload was eliminated so things sounded better to you. The strong signals could've come from nearby cell towers or even simulcast systems where you were picking up multiple towers instead of just a single one.

 

[scosgt]

No, I just was not picking up ANYTHING with the RS antenna. That is why it is so strange.

 

[scosgt]

To clarify, I also had many conventional freqs loaded. This is not an 800 MHZ issue at all.

 

[VE6RHS]

Some times too much antenna is worse than a poor antenna. If there's a lot of nearby transmitters, too much antenna can overload the front end of the receiver, effectively making it "deaf".

Next time you get a chance, try turning on the attenuator in the scanner and see if the scanner magically starts receiving. If that works, you're experiencing receiver overload.

 

[scosgt]

I seriously doubt receiver overload going down the NJ Turnpike at 70 MPH. And there is NOTHING around there. It is not a populated area around the tpk,
And in PA, this is the first time I ever got much of anything in a scanner. It is farmland, NOT RF rich at all.

 

[scosgt]

Of course, there may be engine RFI that is causing an overload.