Scanner Antenna Difficulties

[ZachSmith]

I've recently attempted to upgrade my antenna on my car from a through the glass radio shack antenna, to the Maxrad BMAXSCAN1000. I've got it mounted using a trunk mount over on the left side of the trunk, about a foot back from the windshield. (this is on an 05 Impala.) The coax was slightly shorter than required so I added a three foot piece from radio shack. The trunk mount is RG58A/U. The radioshack says RG58 and the interior just has one thick wire rather than a bundle.

(As you can tell, this isn't my deparmtent). I used a purchased splice to connect the two, then ran the end of one into a no solder BNC connector to run into my BCT 15. Well, I pick up a signal, but when I switch between my old through the glass antenna and the new, the new offers much less clarity. Is this because I'm using two different types of coax? What else could be the issue? I was very certain I would see better performance from a trunk mounted antenna rather than the through the glass.

Thanks for reading and hopefully you get a laugh out of it.

 

[DPD1]

That antenna isn't high gain, but you should at least be about the same as the old one. I'm not sure what you mean my splice. There should be two connectors at the add-on, then the one at the radio. My guess is that a connector isn't making contact somehow. The quick attach ones are pretty shaky and can sometimes not make a proper connection with the cable.

 

[kb2vxa]

I'll go with Dave on that one, those connectors are the pits. You can always borrow a multimeter (every electronics hobbyist should own one) and check for continuity and shorts. On the other hand you can start over using BNCs throughout and a female-female adapter as the "splice".