Office Faraday Cage

[FuzzyTexan]

My office might as well be a faraday radio blocking fortress LOL.

Dang it's annoying that I can't pick up a signal stronger that a blip of 1 bar on my BCD436HP.

Metal roof and walls are killing me!

I have a window where I point the antenna.

I'm thinking about putting the scanner in the window and Bluetooth to headphone.

Rant over [emoji13]

 

[Dispatrick]

Have this problem in my dispatch center lol. we have no windows and it's an interior room off of a lobby. we do have a scanner hooked to an antenna on our roof. But trying to use a portable is impossible for reception. not even NOAA can break though unless you place it near the lobby window, and it's still not a steady signal.

 

[ScannerSK]

I wonder if one of those antennas that turns the electrical wiring of the entire building into an antenna (marketed for television sets) would be any bit better in this situation?

Shawn

 

[JamesO]

Often offices are a very hard place for RF gear.

Metal roof, metal studs, concrete floors with rebar, metal window frames, masonry walls, windows are often Low E glass with a metailized vapor deposited on the inside. Add to this all the "noise" in the environment with multiple cell phones, many computers and monitors, network wiring strung all through the ceilings, computers with Wifi and Wifi hot spots.

It is a challenge, good luck.

 

[FuzzyTexan]

Often offices are a very hard place for RF gear.



Metal roof, metal studs, concrete floors with rebar, metal window frames, masonry walls, windows are often Low E glass with a metailized vapor deposited on the inside. Add to this all the "noise" in the environment with multiple cell phones, many computers and monitors, network wiring strung all through the ceilings, computers with Wifi and Wifi hot spots.



It is a challenge, good luck.

LOL you know it!

4 servers, 6 monitors, 2 UPS, switches in my office. I guess I'm lucky to get 1 bar lol.

 

[mikewazowski]

I used to do a lot off mind numbing work sitting in the basement of a nuclear reactor facility. Always brought a scanner but found I was pretty much limited in what I could hear. The local 800MHz trunking system was more miss than hit but I had no problem listening to the control room technicians on their uhf portables.

 

[n0xvz]

Funny, in my last job the building was a Faraday cage. Even the most powerful broadcast radio stations had a hard time getting through.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[K9DAK]

I guess I'm lucky... the metal walls of my interior office provide just enough attenuation that I'm able to receive the local simulcast Phase II site with about 95% good copy!

 

[atombaum]

I feel your pain

I am lucky. Live in the sticks. Nice and quiet. Low noise floor.

My office might as well be a faraday radio blocking fortress LOL.

Dang it's annoying that I can't pick up a signal stronger that a blip of 1 bar on my BCD436HP.

Metal roof and walls are killing me!

I have a window where I point the antenna.

I'm thinking about putting the scanner in the window and Bluetooth to headphone.

Rant over [emoji13]

 

[lmrtek]

You need a passive rf repeater

You can for example put a amplified tv window antenna on the window and instead of hooking it up to a TV, you simply use another non amplified antenna to re radiate the signals into the office area

I've done this sort of thing since the 80s and it yields good results

 

[MallardHunter]

I am also in an office, partly underground, with no direct line-of-sight to a window - trying to use a 436HP.
This antenna (w.3-inch mag mount) has worked well - at least in the 800Mhz realm.
Comtelco All-Band Low-Profile Scanner Antenna | Scanner Master
I tired a variety of others, searching for the antenna unicorn. I have no opportunity to utilize an external antenna. Placed this on top of a big, metal cabinet, right in the middle. Not getting any bars but can hear - everything - I think.
YMMV

 

[pb_lonny]

I am lucky that I work 1.6km from the main 800MHz trunking site for our city which my UBCD436PT spends 95% of the time listening to. Anything else it very hit and miss.

 

[FuzzyTexan]

Maybe I'm just to close to the tower! I went outside and get flashes of 1 then 5 bars back to 1.