Old Yagi TV Antenna

[erbo7761]

Hey All,

Not too familiar with antennas so I was wondering if you could help.

Have an old Yagi TV Antenna mounted to chimney from way back when (was there when we moved in).

Found the old coaxial cable today and was wondering if I can set it up for scanning? Images

If it is able to be used for scanning what frequencies might I be able to hear?
I also understand it is a directional antenna and that I will most likely only hear frequencies from the direction it is pointed in.

 

[cmdrwill]

Nice antenna, that was way back when they built good antennas.
One problem, the TV antenna is horizontal and most all Land Mobile is vertically polarized.

But please give it a try on your scanner, you may be surprised.

 

[jwt873]

It looks like a log periodic design to cover both the VHF and UHF channels.

The old NTSC TV channels were:

VHF low band -- 54 to 88 Mhz
VHF high band -- 174 to 216 Mhz
UHF band -- 470 to 890 Mhz

With many of the UHF channels being taken over by cellular and other land based communications, you may find the antenna does well on those frequencies.

You'd need to change it from horizontal to a vertical configuration. It will be directional, so you'd need some way of rotating it. Or you could fix it in the direction of a service you listen to a lot.

 

[Deziel0495]

I used one for years. Didn't move it or adjust it, left it as is. Picked up everything I wanted it to. Mostly scanned VHF and a 800 MHz trunking system. Worked great!

Try it and see what works best for you.

 

[NDRADIONUT]

Switch to vertical and use a pvc pipe to remount it....

 

[gewecke]

As said, just try it like it is! It very well may do just fine although most will tell you to switch it to vertical polarization for correct signal orientation. On the the other hand, don't fix what may not be broke! :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[erbo7761]

Thanks everyone! The antenna is mounted at my parents house so they pretty much told me, "don't touch it, it's so old you'll break the house." So I'm pretty much just stuck with it the way it is...for now.

So far I put a BNC on the end of the RG-59 and got that working well. Picking up VHF and UHF, even getting some 800MHZ channels being broadcast from a different direction. Did some transmission tests with a Baofeng and got over a mile to come in clear as day. UHF >VHF.

 

[krokus]

Did some transmission tests with a Baofeng and got over a mile to come in clear as day. UHF >VHF.

They are not meant for transmitting, and are the wrong impedance, so be careful. You could damage your radio.

Also, if there are any splitters in the line, they are not meant for transmitting, either.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[gewecke]

+1 With Krokus, advice. That antenna is NOT designed for transmitting on any radio, only receiving! Continued transmissions will cause your talkie to smell funny ... Your scanner however, will be happy & probably you too. :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[Nutes]

I used one for my first scanner. Didn't change a thing. I even used RG6 Cable. It did very very well from about 123.0000 to 462.0000 MHZ.

 

[K5MPH]

I have used one of these antennas for scanner radio back in my younger days,worked pretty good.....

 

[k9rzz]

For listening, just hook it up and go for it. It is designed for a specific range of frequencies and if you were to plot the pattern for it on other frequencies it will look so random it doesn't make sense to change which way it's pointing, or making it vertical. It will certainly be better than a rubber duck antenna. It WILL give you an outdoor antenna with some height and that's a good thing.

 

[TxScanner]

I've got a HDTV antenna on the roof of my house, its a Clearstream 2V, its vertical, and i ordered a coax to bnc adpater, im going to connect it to my 652 scanner, and see if i can pick up anything, main purpose, is picking up the Local VFD's better, they are still on the 154.xxx freq's. Not sure if it'll do anything, but its worth a shot.

 

[cmdrwill]

Some of these so called DTV antennas are not capable of receiving the VHF channels. So at 154 it may not be very good. But give it a try.

 

[TxScanner]

Got my adpaters in the mail today, splitter, and some extra coax cable, and guess what, it actually works!!!...who knew...I've got a Clearstream 2v Vertical DTV antenna, mounted on a old Dish mount on the side of my house, and the cable was connected to my tv, connected the cable from out side to the splitter, then a coax from it to tv, then another coax to my scanner. So far so good, not picking up anything that i wasnt before, just waiting for a fire call, so i see if it picks them up any better.

 

[jim202]

Mounting a large antenna to a chimney is not a good idea. I know this was done way back when. But the vibration and constant movement from the wind will do in a chimney. If you look closely, it almost looks like you have cracks in the mortar between the bricks that are between the upper and lower straps. This is generally what generally happens with chimney mounts.

The rest of the posts provide some of the other details.

The front of the antenna is the short elements and the back is the longer ones. Like has already been said, the LMR systems use vertical polarization. The TV antennas are set up for horizontal use. This will cause about a 30 db loss in signals due to the different polarization. That's a whole bunch of signal going down the drain due to the antenna being set up wrong.

Remember that for every 3 db loss, your cutting the signal level in half.

 

[TxScanner]

Got my adpaters in the mail today, splitter, and some extra coax cable, and guess what, it actually works!!!...who knew...I've got a Clearstream 2v Vertical DTV antenna, mounted on a old Dish mount on the side of my house, and the cable was connected to my tv, connected the cable from out side to the splitter, then a coax from it to tv, then another coax to my scanner. So far so good, not picking up anything that i wasnt before, just waiting for a fire call, so i see if it picks them up any better.

Had some bad weather roll through this morning, was able to head all the local city VFD's on my 536 using the DTV antenna outside. Sounds pretty good so far. Seems like the wind affects the traffic alot more than it used to, get alot of choppy transmission's these days, especially when there is any wind. Maybei ts the digital age of scanning..

 

[gewecke]

I have a indoor HDTV patch antenna for when netflix servers are down. I'm real tempted to try it on my pro-197. Its works great with Dtv channels so we shall see! Its a Leaf Ultimate amplified antenna, anyone ever try this? :wink: 73, n9zas

 

[cmdrwill]

I have a indoor HDTV patch antenna for when netflix servers are down. I'm real tempted to try it on my pro-197. Its works great with Dtv channels so we shall see! Its a Leaf Ultimate amplified antenna, anyone ever try this? :wink: 73, n9zas

One problem, the TV antenna is horizontal and most all Land Mobile are vertically polarized. So you should turn the antenna 90 degrees to vertical polarization. See how that works.

 

[KC4RAF]

As many others have posted about the

polarity of the TV antenna, turning it vertical will improve signal reception a lot. Back in the 90s I tried that with one of our old, not in use tv antenna and was flabbergasted how will it worked. So I then bought one of those RS rotators and mounted on my tower. Man, I was picking up LEOs, FD, ambulances, business, etc. in a very wide circle. So go for it, you'll love it. BTW, as was also mentioned, DON'T transmit on it...very bad things can happen to your transmitter.

edit: since your tv antenna is a yagi, it is very directional; so if you can mount it on a rotator it'll help you pull many signals out of the mud. just a thought for you....