Thinking about getting this antenna to go with my BCD 396XT, PSR 800 and possibly a PSR 900 in the future. I will be monitoring public safety systems like Cherry Hill, Burlington County (Northcentral and Northwest), Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware counties from the New Jersey side...Berlin, NJ to be exact. I currently have a RS 800 antenna to monitor these and it works well on the 500 stuff as well. From my location using the duck, any of the above systems will be barely listenable from a sweet spot in my house. Philly comes in the strongest and though garbled, it is somewhat listenable from a certain spot. Even a slight improvement would help. But not too much! Because being there is a 800mhz NJSP system antenna within 3 miles of my location, too much gain would bring on overload, especially on the GRE. And I don't really have access to an outdoor location or attic, thats why I am looking at the NMO style antenna. So how good is it on 500mhz? 800? Any other suggestions?
Monitoring Philly area with the Larsen NMO 150/450-800
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I've been using that antenna trunk mounted on my car for at least 5 years or more with a BCD996XT and the BC796D before that. It works quite well on 500MHz along with the bands its advertised for. I can even hear some 900Mhz Ham stuff with it pretty good. I do have a pre-amp in line also. I can hear Cherry Hill and Camden city from my driveway in Medford pretty good. No go on Philly until I get into the western side of Marlton. It really doesn't get good until I'm well into Cherry Hill.
It's weird you can hear Philly some what from there with the RS portable antenna, I get about the same results on my base setup with an 850MHz yagi about 35ft high on my roof with a pre-amp inline pointed right at them. I think I'm in a null for that system. It's not copyable really and I rarely listen to them. However I can hear Montgomery County's 800MHz system loud and clear along with Camden city and Cherry Hill.
I've read folks get decent results using the Larsen and other mobile antenna's as a base antenna with a mag mount and a good ground plane near a window or outdoors. Every situation is different so results will vary.
It's weird you can hear Philly some what from there with the RS portable antenna, I get about the same results on my base setup with an 850MHz yagi about 35ft high on my roof with a pre-amp inline pointed right at them. I think I'm in a null for that system. It's not copyable really and I rarely listen to them. However I can hear Montgomery County's 800MHz system loud and clear along with Camden city and Cherry Hill.
I've read folks get decent results using the Larsen and other mobile antenna's as a base antenna with a mag mount and a good ground plane near a window or outdoors. Every situation is different so results will vary.
phillydjdan
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You folks should also consider your attenuation settings. I use a pro-96 & psr-800 with the radio shack 800mhz duckie, and while travelling within philadelphia city limits i often have to turn on my attenuator. It turns a choppy garbled signal into a perfect one. If you say you can get montco clear but not philly, i would suspect that would help you.
You folks should also consider your attenuation settings. I use a pro-96 & psr-800 with the radio shack 800mhz duckie, and while travelling within philadelphia city limits i often have to turn on my attenuator. It turns a choppy garbled signal into a perfect one. If you say you can get montco clear but not philly, i would suspect that would help you.
I think us folks out here in Jersey 15-20 miles outside the city have the oppisite problem. Just weak signal out here, I can barely hear Philly's control channel when I tune it manually from my shack. When I drive into Cherry Hill the reception improves dramaticly. Paralleling the city along I-295 in Jersey the singal is decent until I get south of the city across from Deleware county then I start to lose it. By the time I reach Logan Twp in Gloucester county along I-295 Philly is no longer readable from the mobile. I think Philly uses direction antenna's that are pointed inwards towards the city to maximise the coverage where they need it most unlike Camden and Montgomery County.
phillydjdan
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I dunno, I just think that if you can pickup Montco but not Philly, and you're using a directional antenna pointed in that direction, that you may be getting over-load. I know the first think I would do is try the attenuator. As far as mobile use, that's indeed another story...
The Philly system is designed to focus their signal within the city limits. Depending on which way the wind is blowing you might catch it across the river. But that antenna is one of the best around.
Thanks for all the input guys. Yea now I just found out that Camden County is going to put up a 700 MHz antenna less than a mile from my location for their new system. : / There is already a cell tower at that location which doesn't seem to affect my reception of 800 but I wonder how much more powerful this antenna will be, and if overload in the 700's can affect your reception in the 800's. Now, I just have to figure out where I would want to mount this antenna, being I don't have access to an attic. Its a 2nd floor room with limited amount of window space. I do have a metal closet door but it's obviously not flat, and I don't know if theres a way to mount it to that without the antenna sticking out sideways. I probably don't need lots of coax being I'm not going to mount the antenna far from the radio. I just want to know what I'm getting myself into. :>D
IMHO the antenna you are considering is one of the best all around for lowER-profile mobile mounting. It gives great performance from 33-900MHz in my extensive driving around the eastern seaboard. The only antennas I've found that can compare are huge and scream SCANNER ON BOARD.
That is very encouraging news that so many people had so many positive things to say about it, and even whatever other resources I could find online (and its so hard to find reviews or youtube on this stuff) people had mainly good things to say about that antenna. One question, though. Would it be better to mount this outdoors? I may have access to an air conditioner unit that sits up against the building, but the kitchen window right over top the AC unit gets ok reception for being on low ground. The only problem is since we do get lightning sometimes here if this would put my antenna and the AC unit at higher risk for getting fried. With the magmount and antenna itself being exposed to the elements, would each have a shorter life expectency? It's about 30 feet from there to the upstairs window where I'll likely be monitoring from, I wonder if the coax would fit through the window and still allow it to close and lock properly. Just some thoughts, input welcome and greatly appreciated!
w2xq
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I notice a significant reception difference between the area east of Medford and Mount Holly and the area around Mount Laurel (I-295 and NJ 38). It is a matter of getting out from the shadow of the ridges that run NW-SE through the central part of the county. In my area, I can't connect to K2AX-145.15 Winslow or many of the Camden County repeaters; Google Earth shows significant terrain elevations from my area to the southwest. Some ridges are 100 feet higher, not to mention the trees. Out to Mount Laurel, and the signals from the repeaters in the Camden and Philadelphia are significantly better. Reception on the PRO-206 of the Philadelphia and Camden area and state towers in Berlin and Bordentown jump up significantly compared to the signal levels around here.
Using Google Earth, I draw a line between between two points. Right-clicking on that line opens a terrain cross-section. I find the results are very interesting and informative. HTH.
Using Google Earth, I draw a line between between two points. Right-clicking on that line opens a terrain cross-section. I find the results are very interesting and informative. HTH.
Humm. I use Google Earth quite often when listening to North/SouthSTAR freq to locate the landing zone. But I never thought of right clicking on a drawn line. I just tried it, and all I was able to do was zoom and unzoom. I'll have to try it again later. Thanks for the tip.
w2xq
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Rick, sorry, I glossed over the process. Using the ruler, draw the line between points. In the ruler dialog box, save the path. The line turns from yellow to red. Then right-click on the line, and choose "show elevation profile." Run the cursor over the profile (lower window), and a red arrow tracks on the line on the map (upper window). It's pretty slick IMHO. HTH.
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Thanks. I'll have to try that sometime. I may get both the larsen ane the diamond rh77ca. I can use on as a mobile, one as a portable, both as a base, and maybe take the diamond with me to lancaster whenever I'm up there. If I can just get delco, bucks, philly, amd montco with even a little improvement I would be happy.
So I did get the larsen tri-band and while it was a real disappointment on 800 I did find a good sweet spot to pick up bucks, ocean, and a few delco frequencies. VHF came booming in I even heard a lowband frequency. Now I know I can get to the upper attic I think I'm going 800. I only have a few feet but it can be done. Any ideas?
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