I am a recently retired from accounting and just getting into using a scanner. I purchased a Whistler digital scanner (BNC Connector) and just ordered a Tram 1411 base antenna. Here is the issue. I have an old 23 channel Cobra CB base station and I want to use the same antenna to operate both. Is this possible? Also, what cable would be best -- RG6 or RG58. I assume I can use a splitter inside the home to switch back and forth between the two radios? Sorry for probably asking dumb questions. Am researching as fast as possible. Thanks for any advice.
The Tram 1411 is a discone and it's advertised as being useable for transmitting from 26MHz to over 1200MHz.
It'll work as a CB antenna, but probably not a really good one. You'd get better performance from a dedicated CB antenna.
You cannot hook the two radios to the same antenna at the same time. As was stated above, the 4 watts RF from the CB won't play nice with the soft mushy bits inside your scanner. Likely it'll result with a damaged scanner.
You need to do one of two things:
Separate CB and Scanner antennas.
or.
As stated above, a switch that would let you select between the two radios and the one antenna.
As for the Coaxial cable, of the two the RG-58 is going to provide the best impedance match for the CB, but the RG-6 would probably work with slightly higher SWR. The RG-6 will probably get more signal to/from your antenna (which is what you want).
Unlike popular misconceptions, your CB will not instantaneously blow up if you use the 75 ohm rated RG6 cable. There will be a slight mismatch, but probably not enough to be an issue. The slight impedance mismatch will create slightly higher SWR and will lose some of your signal as power reflected back to the radio and be dissipated as heat in the final RF transistor. Over time this can do damage.
Depending on the distance from your radios to your antenna, you will probably do better with a higher grade coaxial cable. The longer the cable is, the more signal you will lose. If you use a low end cable, you can have enough lose in the cable to lose signal. Lose enough of the signal and you won't hear what you want to.
Ideally you really want the antenna as high up as you can get it. The higher it is, the farther away the "RF Horizon" is. Since many UHF/VHF frequencies work more by line of site, the more your antenna can see, the more you'll hear.
If you use cheap/low grade coax, you'll lose a lot of the gains from the higher antenna.
What really matters is how long your cable run will be.
I won't recommend a cable without knowing how long the run is and what you budget and expectations are. Share some more info and we'd be able to offer some additional help.
