SDS100/SDS200: OUTDOOR ANTENNA
- Thread starter dc171
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Any outside antenna should improve reception. Your results may vary. I wouldn’t be concerned with overloading however… although the SDS100 may have tighter selectivity settings than it’s sister base model, the SDS200, the radio should play better without any overload concerns.
Generally yes they CAN help, if for no other reason than your antenna will be higher above the ground. There are lots of drawbacks too. You need to protect against wind and lightning, you need to use the best cable to go from antenna to your scanner and you need to drill a hole in your house for the cable.
But it also depends on how far away you are from the towers for the transmitters and how high those "hills" are. I live in Colorado, our "hills" are the Rocky Mountain but then so are the transmitter antennas on those hills.
But it also depends on how far away you are from the towers for the transmitters and how high those "hills" are. I live in Colorado, our "hills" are the Rocky Mountain but then so are the transmitter antennas on those hills.
Welcome to the forums:
Everyone's RF environment differs. In your supposed environment I wouldn't be too concerned with overloading unless you have towers in your backyard or in extreme close proximity to you. In an urban environment you'd be more prone to intermod from different stations transmitting on the same frequencies possibly with differing power outputs, tones & voice emissions but I'd need not worry about this in a rural setting. Definitely worth mounting an outdoor antenna as high as you can get it and far away from any electrical sources. You'd be amazed at all you can possibly pick up. When conditions are right I can pick up VHF & UHF LMR stations from over 100 miles away
Everyone's RF environment differs. In your supposed environment I wouldn't be too concerned with overloading unless you have towers in your backyard or in extreme close proximity to you. In an urban environment you'd be more prone to intermod from different stations transmitting on the same frequencies possibly with differing power outputs, tones & voice emissions but I'd need not worry about this in a rural setting. Definitely worth mounting an outdoor antenna as high as you can get it and far away from any electrical sources. You'd be amazed at all you can possibly pick up. When conditions are right I can pick up VHF & UHF LMR stations from over 100 miles away
Made a world of difference putting an external up for me. Extremely flat here too. I'm running a SDS200.
I pose the following as a question, not an argument;
Lightning looks for the easiest path to ground. And that causes people to think “If I don’t afford a better path to ground, lightning won’t seek out my antenna. Instead, it will hit the neighbors TV antenna”! This is NOT the way it works however. An antenna mounted in an attic is just as susceptible to a lightning strike as an outside mounted antenna. Any externally mounted antenna should be grounded. In your defense, I accept that reasoning but have trouble understanding the science behind it, because the plumbing in our houses all have vent pipes that allow sewer gasses to vent and they all vent out through the roof! If that vent pipe is metal, (not all are-some are PVC plastic) and that makes it a good conductor to ground. Why haven’t there been more lightning strikes to these metal vent pipes? Or for that matter, the cooking vent pipes that exhaust kitchen odors and steam we see above our stoves? A little help here would be appreciated. But I follow along with what the amateur radio operators (hams) are supposed to do when installing an outside roof mounted antenna and ground the mounts to a copper rod 4-6 feet long, driven into the ground.
Lightning looks for the easiest path to ground. And that causes people to think “If I don’t afford a better path to ground, lightning won’t seek out my antenna. Instead, it will hit the neighbors TV antenna”! This is NOT the way it works however. An antenna mounted in an attic is just as susceptible to a lightning strike as an outside mounted antenna. Any externally mounted antenna should be grounded. In your defense, I accept that reasoning but have trouble understanding the science behind it, because the plumbing in our houses all have vent pipes that allow sewer gasses to vent and they all vent out through the roof! If that vent pipe is metal, (not all are-some are PVC plastic) and that makes it a good conductor to ground. Why haven’t there been more lightning strikes to these metal vent pipes? Or for that matter, the cooking vent pipes that exhaust kitchen odors and steam we see above our stoves? A little help here would be appreciated. But I follow along with what the amateur radio operators (hams) are supposed to do when installing an outside roof mounted antenna and ground the mounts to a copper rod 4-6 feet long, driven into the ground.
I understand what you’re saying but can’t answer the science question. Lightning can strike anything, I lesson the chances by having mine in the attic opposed to having it outside.
They get hit just as frequently.
I know this is off the subject but this is the antenna tower I have weather stations mounted to. It is 25ft tall, I have it bolted to a 6x6 steel square tube that is 4 feet in the ground and it has never been stuck by lightning. It has been up almost 15 years. I know it’s just a matter of time as is anything in the air is. How ever my weather stations are isolated from the steel with pvc pipe so when it gets hit hopefully my stations may survive.
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@dc171 - I too live in a rural area and an outdoor antenna is a requirement for great reception. The OEM antenna for the SDS100 is poor at best. Get yourself an outdoor antenna mounted on the rooftop, tower, or in the attic and you will not regret it. You should also consider feeding your outdoor antenna with low loss coaxial cable (e.g. LMR400). Depending on the frequencies you want to monitor, RG6 is also a good option.
The SDS100 has the same radio as the SDS200, just packaged differently. I don't believe the SDS100 has tighter selectivity settings.
The SDS100 has the same radio as the SDS200, just packaged differently. I don't believe the SDS100 has tighter selectivity settings.
JethrowJohnson
I love P25
How do you protect a radio antenna from lightning anyway? Just putting it far enough into the ground? If so, how does that make any difference at all? I don't understand.
I was wondering the same thing when I read that....
I was under the impression that they were essentially the same (RF section anyway) also.
Because wood is a fair insulator. In all my decades using, helping install and maintain radio/TV antennas, I have never heard of an inside the house antenna being hit. Electricity, like water, always takes the path of least resistance. The wet outside of a house and/or roof is a lower resistance path. As unbelievable as this may sound, lightning actually strikes UP from the ground. Antenna active elements are never grounded which is why an antenna grounding block for coax cable typically has a spark gap from the center conductor to the body of the so-called lightning arrestor that goes to the ground spike just before entering the structure.
And yes, my experience doesn't mean that it hasn't ever happened. I have NOT done studies of it, just read many of them over the years.
JethrowJohnson
I love P25
I actually learned this in science class once. If I remember right, the electricity from the sky comes down while electricity from the ground goes up and they meet in the middle.
dc171,
Research, Research, Research all you can and read related posts on this site then decide what is best for your application. Ask more questions if needed, there are alot of knowledgeable people here that can give advice.
Research, Research, Research all you can and read related posts on this site then decide what is best for your application. Ask more questions if needed, there are alot of knowledgeable people here that can give advice.
Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur 2nd Edition
Good practices for electrical safety, lightning protection, and RF management.
home.arrl.org
Lessen the chances? By how much? It’s not measurable. Which makes any assumption that the attic mount is safer than an outside mount
If you are familiar with the document a summation from you would be helpful… there’s a hell of a lot of material to sift through…
I did a search on “A guide to lightning protection on a residential roof compared to the attic.” and found a few items (signal strength, lightning protection, etc.) that helped on the comparison.
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