New Questions

[minicrocop]

Hi Guys... just wanna preface this by saying I am very basic at all this and know very little.

I live on the side of a mountain in PA. I run out of a station that has area in 3 different counties which means three different sets of channels. The system is old and it is what it is. Here is what i know.

The main county I live in Adams, scanner freq are 46.01 or something along those lines.
The 2nd and 3rd use the 495 freq.
Mutual aide is 154.280

Problems:

I cannot hear mutual aide at all inside my house yet. I can here it in my truck, an old 16 channel uniden. The 46's come in well in fact Franklin switched from 46 to 490's but still are on the 46 and I can hear them. I however can not hear the same broadcast on the 490's.. The base scanner at home is brand new radio shack. So I don't know why I can hear it in the truck but not 20 feet away inside.

Now antenna wise, I use the cell phone look alike in the truck.
The home antenna is a white CB antenna that I use to use in the truck. So is this antenna okay to use at home with the base scanner? The antenna is mounted on a wood fence about 5 feet from the ground. Would moving this antenna to the roof be okay? It would mean more cable length. Also with this on my roof, do I need to run a ground wire to the ground and if so, how?

So yeah very adhd here but ideas and thoughts are welcome. I really need to be able to hear mutual aid as my station is 10 minutes away so i got to beat feet.

Thank you

 

[ka3jjz]

A CB antenna would likely work OK (not great) on 46 mhz but really suck at 490. You would undoubtedly profit from a discone and good coax, but the fact that you are on the side of a mountain could present issues. Depending on where the UHF transmitter is in relation to you, it's possible going into the house is shielding you somehow. It's also possible the transmitter is being partially blocked by the mountain, however that's sheer speculation at this point. It's very difficult to be precise in a situation like this one.

Height is very important here. In general, the higher the better, but there are additional challenges to consider, such as grounding the mast properly (not the antenna) - and perhaps adding some lightning protection on the coax itself. I'll leave more comments on that to the semi-pros we have on this site :.>>

best regards...Mike

 

[N8IAA]

I'm going to guess that the white CB antenna is kinda like a Firestick. Won't do any good on the 154.280, or the 495 frequency. It is basically locked into 26-27MHz range. Will work OK on 46MHz. You need to get an antenna that will work on 150-160MHz. It may work on the 495 frequency too. A dual band ham antenna for 146/450MHz should improve the reception. The side of the mountain you live on, is it facing towards all three counties? If not, you won't hear all that you want.
HTH,
Larry

 

[DickH]

Here is something you can try that won't cost you anything. Put a piece of wire 18 inches long into the antenna jack. 18" is about the right length for 154.28. It should also do OK on 490 and you might hear something on 46.