Pre-amp 3100

[tracer69]

Has anyone ever tried this (PRE-AMP 3100) ,
if so does it really work?

Or should i just put the antenna up higher...

http://www.greamerica.com/shop/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

 

[N_Jay]

Has anyone ever tried this (PRE-AMP 3100) ,
if so does it really work?

Or should i just put the antenna up higher...

http://www.greamerica.com/shop/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi

Pre-amps are most usefull connected close to the antenna.

How long is your transmission line?

What type of cable are you using?

How close to the antenna can you put the amp?

Are you in a low noise or high noise area?
City or rural? Near any transmitter or cellular sites?

What are your curent reception problems?

 

[tracer69]

I Have about 100FT (2 50 ft pcs) RG 58U and the join is in the house.
I could put the amp in the join of the 2 50 ft pcs.

I'm in a low noise area (rural).

There no current reception problems at this time (knock on wood ) i just wanted to know if people are using this Pre-amp and if it works .

You did bring up a lot of good questions , I guess they all make a difference....

do you think it would make a difference for me ?

 

[N_Jay]

I Have about 100FT (2 50 ft pcs) RG 58U and the join is in the house.
I could put the amp in the join of the 2 50 ft pcs.

I'm in a low noise area (rural).

There no current reception problems at this time (knock on wood ) i just wanted to know if people are using this Pre-amp and if it works .

You did bring up a lot of good questions , I guess they all make a difference....

do you think it would make a difference for me ?

You must be in a good location, or you don't use 450 much, or 800 at all.

I would try it at the 50' point, but it would be better if you replaced the cable before it (ant side) with something better then RG-59.

 

[DXKW]

antenna preamp

you are running to 50 foot sections of rg58u ? what do you use to connect
the two sections together a barrel conn. ? it so you are losing 3 db at the connection. also what kind of antenna do you run ? on the gre preamps
they do work i use the black one on my hand held a lot for 800 mhz.




thanks

 

[Dubbin]

Mine seems to work just fine. It wont pick up anymore then what you can get without it but it will help clean things up a bit.

 

[K0ATC]

There is no need for the pre-amp, your real problem is the type of coax you are useing and the amount you are useing, that is a very very high loss coax. Im sure you could find a way to trim off close to half of that coax if you found a different way to route it to your radio. That would cut half your loss, if you wanted to take the time to find the shortest route, "through walls and ceilings" and buy some low loss cable you won't believe how much better reception you will get. All that pre-amp will do is amplify the noise along with the signal and you will not be happy with it, you will get better results and be much more happy with a short run of low loss coax.

RS

 

[tracer69]

Hi All
Thanks for taking the time to educate me in the world of COAX and I also did come reading on the subject. I'm loosing ALLOT of db's... So tomorrow I'm off to look for better coax (1 piece ).
Thanks
TC69
8)

 

[cassidy1190]

hey I think, in my situation, I do need the pre-amp. I just wanted to run it by you guys first.

--------------
My Setup:
I have to 6ft rg58 coaxle cables(joined about half way up) which run from my PRO-2052 up to the roof where I have a radio shack discone antenna.

my antenna:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=20-043

Where ever there is a connection I have it tightley rapped in electrical tape, so I dont losse db gain.
--------------

I can barley pick up the NJ state police(800MHz motorola type II trunked system), and I am actually in a fringe area. I have to put my head up against the scanner to hear what the heak they're saying sometimes since the reception is so bad, lol :lol: . Also I think I live in the only town that doesnt opperate off of a repeater :lol: , so sometimes jsut listening to my local police is bad, not as bad as state police though.

So before I bye this thing, is it the right amp for me? should I go with one with more or less gain? Should I not get one at all?[/url]

 

[Dubbin]

Dan if I was you I would replace that rg58 with some rg8 before I didnt anything else. Also make it one run so you dont have any extra loos from connecters.

 

[SAR923]

Dwayne has the right idea. RG 58 is lousy coax to begin with and splicing pieces together induces a huge amount of loss no matter how much electrical tape you're using. Replace that cable with either RG8 or RG6 with the right connectors already on or F connectors with adaptors for your antenna and scanner. You'll be amazed at how much better your reception is and you won't need a pre-amp.

 

[cassidy1190]

which is better, RG8 or RG6?

 

[SAR923]

Either one is fine unless you're buying from Radio Shack. Their RG8 is terrible quality cable but their RG6QS is very good quality with good F connectors. The loss figures are much better than most RG8 cable as well and it's reasonably cheap.

 

[cassidy1190]

the only thing is I need it to be BNC connectors for the cable, can I get the RG6QS with BNC? Is there a converter I can get for it?

 

[Dubbin]

the only thing is I need it to be BNC connectors for the cable, can I get the RG6QS with BNC? Is there a converter I can get for it?

You can put bnc connectors on what ever cable you get.

 

[SAR923]

RS has F to BNC and F to PL259 adaptors. If you know soldering and feel comfortable replacing the F connectors with the correct connectors, you can cut down the loss a little. If not, the adaptors induce only enough loss that you'd notice it if you're after real fringe type signals.

 

[cassidy1190]

can anyone refer me to a website, or jsut tell me how to put BNC connectors onto a cable? lol reall noob question, i know.

 

[Dubbin]

can anyone refer me to a website, or jsut tell me how to put BNC connectors onto a cable? lol reall noob question, i know.

Its not hard at all. All you do is solder them on.

 

[N_Jay]

can anyone refer me to a website, or jsut tell me how to put BNC connectors onto a cable? lol reall noob question, i know.

Its not hard at all. All you do is solder them on.

Without . . . . .
Overheating the connector
Softening the coax insulation
Pulling too much solder into the connector
or
letting one of those anoying strands of braded shield cause a short

But other than that it is easy!

 

[click23]

These solderless conectors from the shack seem to work good for me.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=278-185