Old TV antenna into a Yagi question.

[zonian149]

I have an old tv antenna that is 14' long. I want to turn it into an antenna for our local police departments wireless mic frequency of 170.245. I tried making a jpole for that frequency, but it didn't perform any better than my scantenna, so I thought I would try making something with some gain. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on doing this. I found a yagi calculator and with 13 elements I would get about 12db gain which makes it seem like it would be a project worth doing. Most of the info I have found on yagi antennas is for HAM applications. Is a yagi my best choice for wanting to monitor a single frequency. Since this is going to be a receive only antenna I was wanting to keep it simple, so any help would be appreciated. I realize that wireless mics are very low power, but there is activity close that I would like to be able to pick up better. Thanks--Gary

 

[donc13]

I have an old tv antenna that is 14' long. I want to turn it into an antenna for our local police departments wireless mic frequency of 170.245. I tried making a jpole for that frequency, but it didn't perform any better than my scantenna, so I thought I would try making something with some gain. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on doing this. I found a yagi calculator and with 13 elements I would get about 12db gain which makes it seem like it would be a project worth doing. Most of the info I have found on yagi antennas is for HAM applications. Is a yagi my best choice for wanting to monitor a single frequency. Since this is going to be a receive only antenna I was wanting to keep it simple, so any help would be appreciated. I realize that wireless mics are very low power, but there is activity close that I would like to be able to pick up better. Thanks--Gary

Yea...it'll work, but turn it sideways, so the elements poing up/down, not sideways. If it's got UHF elements on it and a signal combiner, you can remove that...you only need the VHF section. The frequency you're interested in is just below TV channel 7.

 

[zonian149]

Thanks for the reply. I already have a newish tv antenna that I use for general scanning that I mounted on it's side. On the old tv antenna, I have removed all the elements and I am wanting to put them back on at the proper spacing and length to create a new antenna just for monitoring the 170.245 frequency.

 

[k9rzz]

Give it a go, even if you just get it 'close' it should work pretty well.

Spend some time with Google and you should get enough encouragement to proceed.

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Signal3and2]

Good luck listening to their mics unless they're within a couple blocks, even with your yagi.

 

[zonian149]

My ST2 Antenna mounted in the attic picks them 1/2 mile away now, so I am hoping that the will impove on that a little bit or at least make the signal a little stronger. If not it will be a fun project and a learning experience.