KC3MER
Member
Can anyone make a suggestion about a good outdoor Disc Cone antenna for my TRX-1 police scanner?
Can anyone make a suggestion about a good outdoor Disc Cone antenna for my TRX-1 police scanner?
https://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/diamond-d130nj-5016Can anyone make a suggestion about a good outdoor Disc Cone antenna for my TRX-1 police scanner?
I just bought the Diamond D-130NJ from Gigaparts about an hour ago. Do you mind telling me what coax you are using. I am going to purchase the coax with both ends N type and a jumper N type female to BNC male.I can suggest the Diamond D130NJ discone, as I have had great results with it. I have it on outside mast 25ft high on side of house and I put it thru 8-port Stridsberg multi-coupler and feed several scanners with it. I have a coax feed that I alternate with SDS100, TRX-1, and BC125AT and it works great.
JD
kf4anc
Thank youI was able to score a Diamond DJ-130N many years ago for free. I put it up as a temporary solution for a VHF transceiver at home.
I'm usually not much of a fan of consumer/hobby grade antennas, so I figured I'd replace it in a year or so with something better.
It's probably been up for 10 years. No issues, still works as well as the day I installed it. Hasn't lost any elements.
A couple of things if you are going to purchase one:
Get the N connector version. N connectors have a bit better performance at higher frequencies. Probably not a huge difference, you might not even be able to notice, but if you have the choice, get the N.
Mount it properly.
Waterproof the outdoor coaxial connections. Not a wrap of electrical tape, but proper waterproofing. That would be a layer of electrical tape overlapping 50%, wrapped from bottom to top. Put a layer of Coax Seal or similar moldable sealing tape over that. Then another layer of electrical tape, from bottom to top, overlapping 50%.
Keeping water out of the coaxial connection is key.
I just bought the Diamond D-130NJ from Gigaparts about an hour ago. Do you mind telling me what coax you are using.
I am going to purchase the coax with both ends N type and a jumper N type female to BNC male.
I'm using LMR-600. I had a bunch left over from a project at work. It's only about a 35 foot run from my antenna to the radio.
Depending on your cable run, you can get great results with something smaller and less expensive.
But, since discone antennas are 0dB gain, you don't want to use anything with too much loss, or too long a run. You want to make sure you are using coaxial cable with a low enough loss to get an appropriate amount of signal to your scanner.
That's the way to do it. A short RG-58 jumper with a female N on one end and a BNC, or what ever matches your scanner, on the other end. That keeps the strain of the heavier coaxial cable off the radio's antenna jack.
I need about 50 feet of coax
I just bought the Diamond D-130NJ from Gigaparts about an hour ago. Do you mind telling me what coax you are using. I am going to purchase the coax with both ends N type and a jumper N type female to BNC male.
That could be one way to do it but the professional antenna installers I've seen, and also how I do it, are to first put the rubber mould or vulcanising tape on first, to make it water tight, and the electrical tape on top of that to protect it from the enviroment and animals. Haven't really seen that first layer of electrical tape being applied, neither in real life or in instructions that comes with an antenna connector sealing kit or in videos.That would be a layer of electrical tape overlapping 50%, wrapped from bottom to top. Put a layer of Coax Seal or similar moldable sealing tape over that. Then another layer of electrical tape, from bottom to top, overlapping 50%.
That could be one way to do it but the professional antenna installers I've seen, and also how I do it, are to first put the rubber mould or vulcanising tape on first, to make it water tight, and the electrical tape on top of that to protect it from the enviroment and animals. Haven't really seen that first layer of electrical tape being applied, neither in real life or in instructions that comes with an antenna connector sealing kit or in videos.
/Ubbe