what does that mean? overloading the frontend of my scanner. and yes i do have alot of obstructions. im thinking about going op another 20 feet though.
i get real poor signal strength on my phone and my aircard connect on my computer shows real low bars as well.. does this relate in any way?
Basically, what I was suggesting. If you have a nearby source of RF that is fairly strong and is near the frequency you are trying to receive, it will "over power" the front end of the receiver to such an extent that your receiver won't be able to hear the more distant station. The reason i mentioned nextel was because they operate very close in frequency to many 800mhz trunked systems. I have heard, over the scanner, conversations between officers and dispatch not being able to hear/understand each other while "near the nextel site".
As far as the aircard and cell phone goes, I don't know about that. The Nextel is notorious because because of their proximity to the public safety band. GSM (at&t for one) can be close. Most other are using 900, 1800 or 1900 mhz. You can google all kinds of info regarding the cell bands and see if there is any relationship.
Also, talked with my dad last night, he travels through Houston every week. According to him the 800 system gets out pretty good. He's hearing it mobile from ~20 miles out.
I'm leaning towards your antenna being weak or "deaf" on 800mhz. I don't know what kind of antenna you have, I will say the Radio shack discone doesn't seem very good in the 800 band, great on others just not impressive on 800. I plan on experimenting with some other antennas I have, just to see how far away I can hear on 800, but I'm waiting for warmer weather. The rg6 isn't that bad, assuming about 60 feet for your total run, your losing about 3.5-4 db( a little over 1/2 power). You could get a little better with lmr400, not enough to warrant changing out the rg-6, though.
jeff.