Robkd5kcv
Member
Anyone know where I can get the old rs 20-014 scanner antenna ?
Scanner antenna
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iMONITOR
Silent Key
That antenna was discontinued decades ago and was never that great to begin with. Maybe in it's hay-day people were impressed but there are better options today. What bands, frequencies do you monitor and maybe we can make some suggestions of alternatives.
Robkd5kcv
Member
actually it was a great antenna when i had one, you can use any thing to receive with its just how you use it , height ect, but anyway ill probably get a discone of some type , thanks for your input
Wow, those things were on close out in 1999 for like 7 bucks.
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Oh the memories, I still have a few sputniks in the shrink wrap I picked up during the bankruptcy. This antenna was great out on the East End when all of the police were on 39.XX.. sigh.
Also worked great on Suffolk County's VHF High repeaters.
KF0SKV
Member
I had that antenna when I lived in the Denver area in the early 90's. I thought it was a fantastic antenna, it hauled in lowband DX by the boatload. CHP, Missouri State Patrol, east coast fire departments, et al, were all on tap during the early 90's solar cycle.
Robkd5kcv
Member
yes sir , wish i could find amother one , im going to try and make one
GTO_04
Member
Robkd5kcv
Member
roger that
Oh yes I agree, it does go way back and they stopped selling them a long time ago, it did have a tendency to suffer wind damage and I had to replace a few of them. Just like the Sputnik. One good hurricane and it was gone LOL.
If I get a chance later I'll look at old RatShack catalogs but I'm going to say that antenna was definitely from the early seventies, it could not have been more than 10 bucks
I think it would be very hard to find in usable condition today.
I found it, I just arbitrarily picked a 1983 Radio Shack catalog as I figure it would have been in there by then. Same catalog number.
Now I want one too!😆
Now I want one too!😆
Robkd5kcv
Member
roger, if i had the schematics for it id made myself one like it
Robkd5kcv
Member
haha yes i saw that post !
KF6PSL
Newbie
Hey Robkd5kcv,
I have the RS #20-014 antenna downstairs in various states of disassembly ready for a rebuild. The antenna was my father-in-law's that I actually purchased for him back in the 90's when he got into scanning. The white plastic cross bars are toast, but everything is still there and ready for clean up and re-assembly. I measured my antenna and had an 18-year-old image of the base phasing stub (?) from djeplett (thanks!) where I overlayed the measurements for the three existing vertical elements (VHF-Lo, VHF-Hi, UHF) from my antenna. It is attached for reference.
- Q: Did you build your own since April and how did it turn out?
- Q: I wanted to modify mine for the 800-MHz band (if that is even possible) and was wondering if I were to add a fourth vertical element (off the center horizontal bracket "phasing stub" that currently holds the base of the three other elements) what vertical length should it be?
- My calculations show it should be about ~3.5" OAL (for 1/4 wavelength) but would that include a new horizontal 2-1/8th phasing stub arm as well? That would make the vertical antenna element ~1" tall (?) That doesn't seem right.
- Or is the length (height?) of the 800-MHz element just calculated from the vertical elements?
Welcome color commentary from others.
Brad KF6PSL
Sandy, Utah USA
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Robkd5kcv
Member
thanks for the post , havent made mine yet , i was trying to figure out how long the center lead in the antenna should be , would you happen to o know without taking it apart?Hey Robkd5kcv,
I have the RS #20-014 antenna downstairs in various states of disassembly ready for a rebuild. The antenna was my father-in-law's that I actually purchased for him back in the 90's when he got into scanning. The white plastic cross bars are toast, but everything is still there and ready for clean up and re-assembly. I measured my antenna and had an 18-year-old image of the base phasing stub (?) from djeplett (thanks!) where I overlayed the measurements for the three existing vertical elements (VHF-Lo, VHF-Hi, UHF) from my antenna. It is attached for reference.
View attachment 146500
- Q: Did you build your own since April and how did it turn out?
- Q: I wanted to modify mine for the 800-MHz band (if that is even possible) and was wondering if I were to add a fourth vertical element (off the center horizontal bracket "phasing stub" that currently holds the base of the three other elements) what vertical length should it be?
- My calculations show it should be about ~3.5" OAL (for 1/4 wavelength) but would that include a new horizontal 2-1/8th phasing stub arm as well? That would make the vertical antenna element ~1" tall (?) That doesn't seem right.
- Or is the length (height?) of the 800-MHz element just calculated from the vertical elements?
Welcome color commentary from others.
Brad KF6PSL
Sandy, Utah USA
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KF6PSL
Newbie
If you look at the photo I attached above, the center VHF-Lo element (lead?) is 70" long...and that includes the 1" stub below the spreader bracket that connects the VHF-high and UHF elements to the center. Does that help? Is that what you were looking for?
woodytxp71
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I had one of these growing up back in the 80’s great for VHF low band Especially for skip Until it took a direct lightning strike. That scanner was Obliterated and antenna parts all over the yard lol. I wish I could find another or may try to build one
Ubbe
Member
That's no phasing stub. It's just a mechanical way to connect three 1/4 wave antennas in parallel. You can easily do something like that yourself, one antenna element for each band you want to receive, although the longest element will probably pick up most of the frequencies due to all the metal in the air. Omni-X are just the same thing but connects everything at the same point and tilt the elements to isolate them a bit more.
That scanner antenna has element lengths that correspond to 42Mhz, 60MHz and 178Mhz if all are 1/4 wave. But the 60MHz could be 3/4 wave for 180MHz, and the 42MHz will be 125MHz as a 3/4 wave and if the shortest are 3/4 wave it is a 530MHz element. All elements will interact as in a ST-2 antenna so it will pick up most of any frequency as a 1/4 wave or 3/4 or any other multiple.
The 1/4 wave for 42MHz will do a lot better than a discones shortened top whip but for all other frequencies it would probably be more efficient with a discone as it has a more consistent reception over the frequency ranges and the radio-shack will have dips and peaks all over the frequency bands but if a peak happens to be where you monitor then it will receive better than the discone.
/Ubbe
That scanner antenna has element lengths that correspond to 42Mhz, 60MHz and 178Mhz if all are 1/4 wave. But the 60MHz could be 3/4 wave for 180MHz, and the 42MHz will be 125MHz as a 3/4 wave and if the shortest are 3/4 wave it is a 530MHz element. All elements will interact as in a ST-2 antenna so it will pick up most of any frequency as a 1/4 wave or 3/4 or any other multiple.
The 1/4 wave for 42MHz will do a lot better than a discones shortened top whip but for all other frequencies it would probably be more efficient with a discone as it has a more consistent reception over the frequency ranges and the radio-shack will have dips and peaks all over the frequency bands but if a peak happens to be where you monitor then it will receive better than the discone.
/Ubbe
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