Skyd
Member
While I wait for winter to be over, I may as well plan out my antenna locations and coax runs for my listening station.
I have 2 places I could put a scanner antenna. The antenna itself I need to be somewhat wide band but I don't need lo-band or 700/800/900mhz. 140-500mhz would do. So if I can spring for it, the OmniX is probably the way I'm going to go.
So that being said, the real question is location. Let me give you my two options and explain them best as I can.
Option #1
On the front of my house where the antenna will be slightly above my ridge line. The coax length here would be minimal, 15 feet maybe from the antenna to the scanners. Sounds great so far. The down side - it's about 20-25 feet from the power lines that run down my street. I'd be far enough away for safety so the only real concern there is interference. Bonus: There's already some RG-6 quad shield run from a now unused satellite installation.
Option #2
The Back of my house. This is much farther from any power lines, 50-60 feet. But - the coax run would be closer to 75-100' and I'm going to have a couple of ham antennas back there as well. HF and 2 meter. The scanner antenna will probably need to mount lower than the horizontal plane of the ham antennas and so will be below the ridge line of my roof.
Both locations present their own challenges with proper grounding, both are addressable and not really a consideration for purposes of this discussion.
So I've done a little research and reading but can't really find much other than from the safety side of things. Don't place the antenna where it can fall and come within 10' of power lines. I'm good with this either option I chose, so I'm more concerned with performance and possibly ease of installation if performance is negligible.
Thoughts?
I have 2 places I could put a scanner antenna. The antenna itself I need to be somewhat wide band but I don't need lo-band or 700/800/900mhz. 140-500mhz would do. So if I can spring for it, the OmniX is probably the way I'm going to go.
So that being said, the real question is location. Let me give you my two options and explain them best as I can.
Option #1
On the front of my house where the antenna will be slightly above my ridge line. The coax length here would be minimal, 15 feet maybe from the antenna to the scanners. Sounds great so far. The down side - it's about 20-25 feet from the power lines that run down my street. I'd be far enough away for safety so the only real concern there is interference. Bonus: There's already some RG-6 quad shield run from a now unused satellite installation.
Option #2
The Back of my house. This is much farther from any power lines, 50-60 feet. But - the coax run would be closer to 75-100' and I'm going to have a couple of ham antennas back there as well. HF and 2 meter. The scanner antenna will probably need to mount lower than the horizontal plane of the ham antennas and so will be below the ridge line of my roof.
Both locations present their own challenges with proper grounding, both are addressable and not really a consideration for purposes of this discussion.
So I've done a little research and reading but can't really find much other than from the safety side of things. Don't place the antenna where it can fall and come within 10' of power lines. I'm good with this either option I chose, so I'm more concerned with performance and possibly ease of installation if performance is negligible.
Thoughts?