RS800! Naked! 1 Night Only!

[spacellamaman]

So to all you cheapskates on here, take notice, your King is dead!

Going through my garbage bags of Radio-Shack-closing-booty, I found myself realizing I am probably good up through Y3K before I have to buy a Remtronix. Assuming a loss thru attrition of one a year...

I have always been amazed at the performance of these suckers in waayyy out of designed ranges and have at various times tried to discern the special sauce without risking destroying one. They cost big-bucks ya know. Knowing I am in good shape down in the bunker in that regard, I gave it one more shot with Google last night, and the closest relevant result, was a post i made on here:

How well will the Radio Shack 800 MHz antenna perform on 900?

I just bought a Pro-91 and am interested in scanning the 902-928 band, would the RS 800 MHz handheld scanner antenna still yield decent performance here or should I just stick to the all-purpose duck included on the scanner?

forums.radioreference.com

four years ago.... I knew the Time Had Come!

So! Out came the snips, pliers, Exacto knives and box cutters! After 20 minutes of work, there was a brief intermission, for alcohol. And bandaids. And then a Dremel.

Anyhoo....I just got done taking pics of a BUCK NAKED Radio Shack 800 mhz antenna. Since I hate killing time transfering/uploading stuff on my slow connection/computer, only to be flamed by everyones brother, (and due to the fact that odds are real good this has been done a thousand times before, and with pics posted, I just managed to never find them) I am going to allow a brief period for yays, nays, and most importantly, to allow the usual suspects get their "whaddaya do that for stupid?", "OLD" and "i did that back in 1978" outta the way.

After which I will post the pictures, cause i've had a hair up my...for years now, and i was gonna tear that baby apart no matter what

 

[spacellamaman]

So no one objects? Good, cause I just found where I misplaced the camera.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

End fed 5/8 wave with matching coil?

 

[cmdrwill]

End fed 5/8 wave with matching coil?

Maybe.

 

[pb_lonny]

Thanks for posting this, very interesting.

 

[wtp]

it should still work and look like a terminator with the skin removed.

 

[mitbr]

I got a beer and climbed into my pj's and all I saw was a naked rs800 antenna ahhhhh......
Tim

 

[DJ11DLN]

I wish I'd thought of doing that. I was down on these antennas several years ago because the very first one I bought was defective. After finally figuring out that it really ought to work better than a random bit of tinfoil (hey, I read it on RadioReference, so it must be true, right?) I tried another one and got a pleasant surprise. The "bad" one lived in a drawer with some white tape around it for awhile and left during one of my anti-packrat campaigns.

And I may not be good through y3k but I sure took advantage of the RS fire sale to stock up...still got a few in unopened packages. No, they ain't for sale.

 

[spacellamaman]

well fellas, thank you for all the kind and civil type replies. my spirit doth be boosted. now as for what this exercise has revealed in practical terms.... ummmm i dunno. still rather mysterious and the technical analysis stuff is way beyond my pay grade and abilities.

if there is anything (different pics, exact measurement, further dis-assembly if possible etc) that i could do to help any of ya'lls with teh higher learnin's going's on to further analyze this thing here, lemme know.

also, the positive response to this thread, has caused quite a bit of consternation, fear and loathing within the rest of the family of misfit antennas 'round here. I have made a declaration that if "reception doesn't improve, Sacrifices, will have to be made".

While there has been much grumbling amongst the herd, reception has yet to improve. I predict that soon the Volcano's hunger will be satiated!

 

[eyes00only]

Another thanks. I always wondered what mine would like naked.

 

[trentbob]

Great to see that antenna taken apart, it truly is a superior handheld antenna, doesn't matter what radio you're using it on.

Just some history on the antenna it was developed by GRE who who rebranded it with the Radio Shack name. When Radio Shack went out of business and GRE went out of business a former employee of GRE started remtronix company and of course it's the same exact antenna except remtronix added SMA and SMA 100 mounts. Probably everybody knows this.

It's a great antenna and a standout.

PS... I also bought fist fulls of the RS 800 during the closeout Radio Shack sales but I still bought a remtronix with their proprietary SDS 100 mount.

 

[N9JIG]

I too ended up with a dozen of these as RS closed them out for $5 each, I went around to several RS stores snapping up these, the RS version of the ST-2 as well as the USB cable for RS/GRE scanners. They all were closed out the same summer at different times so I snagged as many of each as I could.

I ended up giving several of the RS800 antennas to CARMA members at a CARMA meeting a few years later as I was cleaning out the basement in anticipation of moving out of state but kept one or two. I still have the base antennas and USB cables in use at the new house.

I often thought of having a friend who was an X-Ray tech photograph some of my favorite antennas but never got around to asking.

Thanks for the inside look!