Scanner Radio Signal Boosters.

[Allan_Love_Jr]

Hello Group. I hope this the right place for this topic.
I already have one GRE Scanner booster for my Scanner in my Truck to help boost RR signals. My Question is. Are there any other companys or Web sites out there that make and sell Scanner boosters like Radio Shack did once? Thanks,Allan.

 

[MB]

I purchased a low noise 20db GaAsFET preamplifier from Advanced Receiver Research and It was the best investment I have ever made. It has been running non stop for two years now. I can pickup transmissions from miles and miles away in an area that has many mountains. This company has many options for different frequency ranges along with wideband preamplifiers... check out their website:

http://www.advancedreceiver.com/index.html

 

[muhockey86]

What exactly is a pre-amp, and how much of a difference does it make for $60-$75?

 

[usnasa]

hello all do these signal boosters really work ? i have a discone anteena only 20 feet off the ground and cant really go higher , would it help to get a booster and which one to get i am new at this hobbie and whatever u can tell me would be a huge help to me? thanks

 

[mciupa]

hello all do these signal boosters really work ? i have a discone anteena only 20 feet off the ground and cant really go higher , would it help to get a booster and which one to get i am new at this hobbie and whatever u can tell me would be a huge help to me? thanks

What I would be worried about would be boosting unwanted signals , such as commercial paging systems and such.
A directional dedicated band antenna is always the best option. Think about where on the radio spectrum the majority of your monitoring lies. VHF-HI ? UHF-LO ? UHF-800 ?
The discone tries to do it all , but can be considered a jack of all trades... master of none

 

[LarrySC]

From an old timer. The first rule of thumb. The best amp is a good [correct] antenna. Correct means cut exactly for VHF/UHF/800. Not a wet kite string or a flat top aircraft discone. The exact cut antenna will ATT those other unwanted signals because they are not resonant to the cut. Look for specific freq ant's with GAIN. Good Luck to all.

 

[Al42]

hello all do these signal boosters really work ? i have a discone anteena only 20 feet off the ground and cant really go higher , would it help to get a booster and which one to get i am new at this hobbie and whatever u can tell me would be a huge help to me? thanks

From 20 feet your horizon is just over 5 miles. If your scanner can't pick up a signal from an antenna 5 miles away you don't need a preamp, you need your scanner repaired.

 

[Allan_Love_Jr]

Just the Antenna alone I can pick up the UP Detector over 10 Miles with just my hand held.

 

[z96cobra]

hello all do these signal boosters really work ? i have a discone anteena only 20 feet off the ground and cant really go higher , would it help to get a booster and which one to get i am new at this hobbie and whatever u can tell me would be a huge help to me? thanks

I went to RadioShack and bought the model 15-2507 amp. It works awesome for most of the stuff I monitor (VHF). Stuff I could barely hear comes in crystal clear, and I also pick up a lot of "more distant" stations now. I'm using the RadioShack discone @ 20 feet also, and I live in a river valley, surrounded by hills. The amp is $60 and I also added one to the TV antenna so I could receive Digital TV stations out of Cincinnati.

Roger

 

[amusement]

I went to RadioShack and bought the model 15-2507 amp. It works awesome for most of the stuff I monitor (VHF). Stuff I could barely hear comes in crystal clear, and I also pick up a lot of "more distant" stations now. I'm using the RadioShack discone @ 20 feet also, and I live in a river valley, surrounded by hills. The amp is $60 and I also added one to the TV antenna so I could receive Digital TV stations out of Cincinnati.

Roger

Very creative. I tried a FM/UHF/VHF amplifier from Radio Shack. It was 10dB of gain across the VHF freqencies. It was a poor design and created more interference then I could here through. I suspect it was a class B push pull transistor configuration.

I wonder if they new ones are field effect transistors?

 

[jmp883]

LarrySC wrote:

From an old timer. The first rule of thumb. The best amp is a good [correct] antenna.

Absolutely. Now if you have to compromise on your antenna (for whatever reason) a signal pre-amp MIGHT help. I have a GRE amp on my listening post (check my shack photo on the photo thread) and it was money well spent. I live in northeast NJ, about 35-40 miles away from NYC. I live in a valley and have a multi-band antenna on my old TV antenna mast about 10-15 feet above the roofline of the house. Before the amp I could only receive the immediate surrounding towns. With the amp I can receive roughly the upper third of NJ, several southern NY counties, and FDNY.

A friend of mine who only lived a few miles from me also bought one and for him it made no difference. His house was on the side of the mountain that formed one side of the valley I live in. His antenna was high enough to hear all things I couldn't without using the amp. I also took the amp with me to my parents house in Omaha, NE and found out it wasn't needed. In addition to listening to the local Omaha area I was able to listen to Chicago and Kansas City ATC Centers and hear both sides of the conversations just using the back-of-set antenna that came with BC-780! The amp, when on, seemed to actually attenuate the signal.

For me the amp works......it all depends on the circumstances surrounding your listening post. Hopefully you'll be able to borrow one to see if it'll help before spending the money to find out it doesn't work.

Good Luck!

 

[Cressida81]

what/where is that formula you use to determine what length you need for a specific freq?

 

[N_Jay]

what/where is that formula you use to determine what length you need for a specific freq?

The ARRL handbook or ARRL Antenna book might be a good start (You will learn a bit about ham radio in the process).

BUT, for those of the "Cell Phone and Internet" age, you could just use Google. :wink: :wink:

 

[hotdjdave]

Wavelength/Antenna Calculators

what/where is that formula you use to determine what length you need for a specific freq?

Here are some wavelength/antenna calculators:
http://www.csgnetwork.com/freqwavelengthcalc.html
http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennagenericfreqlencalc.html
http://www.qsl.net/kd4sai/antencal.html
http://hamcams.com/antcalc.htm
http://www.k3dn.org/antcalc.htm

Here is a simple tutorial on antenna wavelength:
http://www.signalengineering.com/ultimate/antenna_basics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength

Other Radio/Antenna Calculators:
http://n5xu.ae.utexas.edu/rfsafety/
http://www.jcoppens.com/ant/qfh/calc.en.php


Here is the formula (with variations):
c = f λ
λ = c / f
f = c / λ

where:
c is the speed of light, 3.00 X 10^8 (to the eighth power) meters per second
f is the frequency of the wave in hertz
λ is the wavelength of the wave in meters

For "c," use 300 to find the measurement in meters, use 984 to find the measurement in feet, and use 11803 to find the measurement in inches. Note: meters is the most common.

For f, use MHz.


Here are the pictures of the formula simplified:

To find any figure if you know the other two, cover the unknown figure; the positions of the two remaining symbols show you if you have to multiply (when the are side by side) or divide (when they appear one over another as a fraction).

 

[hoser147]

Jmp883 is right on the money with his answer I have a couple of the GRE amps and it seems to work fine in some instances and really no difference in some locations. However it is no subsutute for a good antenna........hoser147

 

[bigred04]

I just bought a gre power amplifier and tried it on my 396 here at work

to try and boost a nearby county that i wasnt recieving real well in the 490 range

and when hooked up i dont get anything but take it off and recieve it

am i over powering the radio antenna we have here at work or what?

range is set to 15 and gain on the radio is at 0 although i have played with it alot

gre says 20db 100mhz to 1 ghz

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

Gee, you guys sure know how to muddy the waters! The guy asked a simple enough question, he deserves a SIMPLE answer.

OK BNSF (Where have I seen you before?) here's your answer(s).
If you think you need a receiver preamp your system is deficient, poor antenna, coax or receiver or any such combination.

Let's start with the antenna. Since you're listening to RR frequencies it can be very specific in it's frequency range and should have a bit of gain to go with it. Antenna Specialists makes a great commercial Hi Band 3dB gain 5/8 wave that can be cut by the chart to the band segment of interest. Mine was cut for the 2M ham band and it worked great, it's rugged and should give many years of trouble free service. You can easily scrounge one or it's parts at a hamfest or your local 2 way radio shop for peanuts.

As for the coax, it comes with sufficient length of RG-58 for a mobile installation, it's a mobile antenna. (;->) Don't let anyone talk you into changing it, that's difficult and not worth the trouble, such a short bit hasn't enough loss to be a problem which is why these antennas come with it already attached to the mount.

For the radio itself, you may consider investing in a Motorola or other commercial unit, the receivers pee all over scanners. More sensitivity, better selectivity, virtually no intermod or other interference problems and they're practically indestructable. That's why you'll find them on the head end of just about every web feed on your computer. Hey, if you want to listen to the railroad, use the radio the railroad uses.

"UNIDEN BCT-8
UNIDEN 396T
NEXTEL AND A
RUBBER DUCKIE"

Which one do you take into the bath tub or all of them? (;->)