OmniX Scanner Base Antenna

[GaRebel]

- Will it make any difference if this antenna is mounted on the side of the tower, about 4 ft away from the tower, pointing out with the elements vertical, instead of on top of a tower?

 

[doctordialtone]

- Will it make any difference if this antenna is mounted on the side of the tower, about 4 ft away from the tower, pointing out with the elements vertical, instead of on top of a tower?

Assuming the tower is metal, yes you will suffer some minimal signal blocking due to the tower.

On top would be best.

 

[ka3jjz]

There is a possibility that the tower might interact with the antenna on certain frequencies (VHF high, perhaps).

 

[GaRebel]

Assuming the tower is metal, yes you will suffer some minimal signal blocking due to the tower.

On top would be best.

Tks. Won't miss anything from the other side of the tower.

 

[doctordialtone]

Tks. Won't miss anything from the other side of the tower.

As ka3jjz said, there is the possibility of electrical interaction between the antenna and the mast. Depends on the frequency and the spacing.

Additional Tips

 

[Ubbe]

They usually recommend to have an antennas elements 1 wavelenght from other objects. That's 6 feet at 150MHz, so I wouldn't think it would make much impact on the antenna at 4 feet. Any metal behind an antenna changes the directivity depending of the wavelenght distance.
You could probably have one of the elements 1/4 wavelenght from the tower to increase signal strenght but sacrifice it at other frequencies.

http://www.kathrein.fr/media/basicantenna.pdf

/Ubbe

 

[cmdrwill]

- Will it make any difference if this antenna is mounted on the side of the tower, about 4 ft away from the tower, pointing out with the elements vertical, instead of on top of a tower?

Omni X antenna antenna needs to be mounted vertical on a horizontal arm, aka side mount. As Ubbe mentions the antennas elements 6 feet at VHF away from the tower would be the minium lenth for the side mount. That will still put the Omni X elements too close to the tower which will distort the antennas reception pattern. Not to mention the torque on the side mount from the wind.

 

[shajoe44]

Could you please post a picture or diagram of your description exactly. Thanks

 

[prcguy]

Here is a picture showing the approximate radiation pattern for side mounting a vertical antenna. This chart has distance of the antenna from the mast horizontally along the bottom and the diameter of the mast or tower on the left side vertically.

 

[shajoe44]

Thanks