Lowering antenna

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nezza

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Hi Members,

I have a antenna mast approximately 4 meters long which is about 1 meter off the ground attached to a wooden fence using saddle clips. Now I have lowered the mast so it's now touching the ground (loosened saddle clips to let it slide down).

Since the mast is now resting on the ground, I have noticed a big improvement in reception on my scanner.

My question is, does having the mast touching the ground improve reception? The fact I lowered it a meter I thought I would lose reception.

Thank you.
 

ecps92

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My first guess is, Yes since it is now Grounded

Make sure you do have a Proper Ground Connection

Height is not always a good thing, it is more Location, Location, Location
Hi Members,

I have a antenna mast approximately 4 meters long which is about 1 meter off the ground attached to a wooden fence using saddle clips. Now I have lowered the mast so it's now touching the ground (loosened saddle clips to let it slide down).

Since the mast is now resting on the ground, I have noticed a big improvement in reception on my scanner.

My question is, does having the mast touching the ground improve reception? The fact I lowered it a meter I thought I would lose reception.

Thank you.
 
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Ubbe

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Is it a scanner, what model? What type of antenna?

If it is a short wave antenna the heigh is important. If it's a VHF/UHF antenna the ground is not important for the sake of reception. If it is a big antenna that capture a lot of RF and the scanners receiver are not up to the task, it could overload and de-sense.

When having a scanner and using an external antenna, and sometimes also with the included whip, it is important to also have the most basic things in the toolbox: A FM trap filter and a variable attenuator. If the scanner also are used to feed streams to the internet you should also have a ground loop isolator.

The next thing to have is an antenna amplifier to be able to determine if you need to increase the signal or not. Then you can handle most antenna situations. Without these tools you will have no clue what's going on.

/Ubbe
 

KE5MC

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Lewisville, TX
Hi Members,

I have a antenna mast approximately 4 meters long which is about 1 meter off the ground attached to a wooden fence using saddle clips. Now I have lowered the mast so it's now touching the ground (loosened saddle clips to let it slide down).

Since the mast is now resting on the ground, I have noticed a big improvement in reception on my scanner.

My question is, does having the mast touching the ground improve reception? The fact I lowered it a meter I thought I would lose reception.

Thank you.

Touching the ground is not likely to help especially for a scanner (receive only). More likely lowering the antenna changed something mechanical about the feed line's connection to the antenna. Big improvement on receive would direct me to look closely at the mechanical connection of the cable to connector and connector to antenna.

Mike
 

wyShack

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Often in today's world the problem is not sensitivity- Most scanner are actually 'too sensitive" lowering the antenna could improve reception in several ways. Sometimes lowering the antenna a bit 'blocks' a nearby transmitter that may not even be in the same band, but is causing the scanner to 'back down' on receive. nearby FM broadcast transmitters often 'wipe out' air band listening-often enough that filters are sold to 'cure' the problem. If it works, it works-logic may or may not apply.
 

bharvey2

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Mar 12, 2014
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As has been mentioned, your scanner front end is probably getting overloaded with the increase in antenna height. If you stick with RG6 and F connectors, attenuators can be had with different attenuation levels inexpensively. You can get a number of them of different values and try them out. They can also be connected in series.
 
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