Radio Shack discone antenna

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Aaron88

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I have a Radio Shack discone antenna for my Uniden BC92XLT and it does a great job at receiving brodcasts but I have heard people complain about them falling apart and I paid nearly 75$ for it. I live in southern Ohio and can normal snowfall cause the elements to snap off? I just installed this antenna last June. We also don't get very many ice storms here that often but the last one we have caused us to lose power for over a week back in 2003.
 

hsdtech

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Aaron,

I had one that I no longer use because of the element problem. I would recommend putting some Plumbers thread tape on the threads to help with the problem.
By the way, from my own experience, I now have the A.W. Scantenna and it outperforms the discone on all bands, again IMHO.
I still do have the R.S. 20-176 "sputnik" antenna though.

G.L.
 

joetnymedic

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I have the 20-176 and like it the other antenna doesn't work that well for me. But that said it may not work well for me, but you might love it. It's in the users opinion. Believe it or not I think the 20-176 works better.

Joe
 

Aaron88

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I also have a radioshack outdoor FM only antenna that I hook my scanner up to and it works decent but it is a directional yagi antenna. Well my discone looks pretty sturdy but sometimes looks can be decieving. I do go up on the roof every month to inspect it and I also spray rust preventer on some parts of it.
 

K2KOH

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I had a discone from RS up when I lived in Dutchess. It lasted five years, and lost some elements becuase of my own carelessness when I took it down to change coaxial cable. Stood up to wind, ice and snow. Maybe I was just lucky.
 

Aaron88

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How much of an influence does lightning have on reception? There is a cold front moving through our area and there have been storms all day and the persons voice on the scanner will cut out every five seconds for one second and could it be lightning? This does this on all the antennas I have tried it on. My antenna is grounded.
 

hsdtech

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Man I wish a cold front would come down here to LA!
Yes you are probably hearing lightning. What we "hams" call it when we are talking on the radio and there is lightning around, are "lightning crashes".
You will hear static and the reception cutting in and out.
 

Aaron88

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At first I figured it was a poor ground but there is no storm for probably 50-300 miles away right now.
 

twolf816

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i agree with aaron88's looks can be decieving comment....i had a rs 20-176 for 4 years, i paid around 20 bucks for it....dosnt look that strong im my opinion; withstood 2 tropical storms, wind, rain, louisiana heat, great reception..and the only maintainence i did was to heatshrink the connections

but its 108-1300mhz claims are bs
 

Aaron88

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I found out why my scanner was cuting in and out. I had the Close Call feature on. It is a Uniden model.
 

Aaron88

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hsdtech said:
Aaron,

I had one that I no longer use because of the element problem. I would recommend putting some Plumbers thread tape on the threads to help with the problem.
By the way, from my own experience, I now have the A.W. Scantenna and it outperforms the discone on all bands, again IMHO.
I still do have the R.S. 20-176 "sputnik" antenna though.

G.L.

Will thread tape nullify reception?
 

hsdtech

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Aaron88 said:
Will thread tape nullify reception?


Thats a good question. I'm not sure. I have never done it myself. If your going to keep it at least get a small wrench and tighten down those elements real snug.
 
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