I have had an Omni-X scanner (TV) antenna on the side of my (HOA) house for a few months, and it started to show worse performance than it did when I installed it. I decided to try an ST-2 in its place as I had a couple in the garage collecting dust. No worries, I broke out the ladder and up I went. I pulled the Omni-X and put the ST-2 in its place.
Now many scanner people, me included, consider the ST-2 the best scanner antenna ever made. I have 2 in my attic, and they work pretty well there (good news). I gave another to a friend of mine who helped me install my attic antennas and he put it on his roof; it performed very well for him. This time however, the reception was less than stellar at my house (bad news).
So did some checking and from what I could figure out the coax was fine (good news), so it was likely the antenna, the lightning arrestor or the balun. I ordered a pair of new baluns from Channel Master (always good to have a spare!) and went to HRO to get a new lightning arrester. I figured if either of these were NOT the issue I could retain them for future use.
In my setup here the antenna is mounted to a piece of PVC pipe that fits inside the satellite dish mount I have on the side of the house. This is one of those angled pipes, that allows me to get the antenna a foot or so away from the house. I would have used metal pipe but pipe that size is difficult to obtain and work with, so I went with the PVC.
Up the ladder I went to retrieve the ST-2. I disconnected the ground wire from the lightning protecter, removed the two stainless steel bolts holding the PVC mast to the mount and lifted the assembly up and out. It was still connected to the coax, so I hung the antenna onto the mounting bracket while I unraveled the waterproofing tape. I had to cut it with a razor knife, when I dropped the knife (bad news), I had already cut the last of the tape and retracted the blade (good news). Thankfully it missed the wife by several feet on the way down (more good news).
After I freed the antenna from the coax, I lifted it up off the mount and started to hand it down to the wife standing off to the side of the ladder. I don’t know how or why but I dropped it (bad news), and she scampered out of the way (good news). While it missed her (good news) it broke off the lower main stem (bad news).
I brought the now broken antenna into the garage and salvaged the end caps from the boom as I was missing one from my other spare ST-2. I figure I will keep it for a while and see if I can repair it down the road. I pulled my second spare from the cabinet in the garage and mounted it to the mast. This time I tried something different. I used a jumper from the antenna to the bottom of the mast and mounted the lightning arrester there instead of up at the antenna itself. It is only 4 or 5 feet and that will make it a lot easier to connect and disconnect in the future. I also ran a ground wire up to the boom of the antenna as, being mounted to PVC it is not grounded. (More on this later.)
I also had to order a new adapter as the lightning arrester I had used male-female connections, the new one had females at both ends. That was my fault for forgetting this when I bought the replacement. That also had a part to play in using the jumper to the antenna, I had a perfect length jumper with N-Male connectors at both ends.
In the meantime, I convinced the wife that I needed a new ladder. I have a 26-foot Little Giant convertible ladder, but it is heavy and difficult to extend by myself. I am a big boy, so I need a heavy-duty ladder lest it break under my not insignificant weight so the ladder I get has to be sturdy. The wife tries to help but with her recent injury and lack of strength I cannot rely on her for lifting. I decided to get a new fiberglass extension ladder, a 24-foot Class 1A ladder rated for my weight. It is easier to set up and move around by myself. As a former firefighter I am experienced and comfortable with ground ladders, and this one has my life a lot easier. With the pull-rope to extend and retract, it is a whole lot easier to set up by myself.
Back to the antenna: after I dropped and broke it, I replaced the broken one with the other spare. In the garage (which is airconditioned!) I replaced the balun and connected the N-N jumper thru a N-to-F adapter and sealed it with coax seal. I ran the jumper down the PVC mast and mounted the lightning protector to the mast about a foot from the bottom. I connected the jumper to it and sealed it with coax seal. I then secured the coax and ground jumpers to the mast with coax seal in a couple spots.
The wife and I got up early and went out at 6:30 AM on a Sunday morning to set up the ladder and reinstall the ST-2. Living in suburban Phoenix you get used to doing outside work early in the morning before it gets hot. While it is not really hot yet (the high that day was supposed to be only 105) it still is a lot more comfortable when it is only 80. I set up my new extension ladder for the first time and it was definitely worth the $500 I paid for it. It was half the weight of the Little Giant, a lot easier to wrangle and extend and more stable when I was working at the top. I bought a 24-foot model, I probably could have gotten away with a 20 but then I would have to extend it all the way or reduce the angle, it was worth the extra $80 for the 24-footer.
I have a bunch of those 5-gallon buckets that I use for everything around the house. When I am working on my antenna, I just put whatever tools and hardware I will need in the bucket. I have a giant “S” hook carabiner so I can hang the bucket on the top of the ladder and grab whatever tool I need. Works great!
So up the ladder I went. I got up to the top and secured my bucket to the top rung and the wife handed up the antenna and mast assemble to me. I dropped the mast into the satellite dish mount and rotated it so that the holes matched. I then connected the coax to the lightning arrester and climbed down the ladder to test the antenna before I sealed the coax and bolted it down.
When I got into the office, I found that it worked well. I was able to hear the WX stations in both Payson (70 miles) and Phoenix (35 miles with mountains in between). Once I was satisfied with the performance I went back up the ladder, placed the stainless-steel bolts thru the mount and mast and tightened them down. After sealing the bottom connection and tidying up the cables I put everything away.
Since I live in an HOA I have to abide by their rules. I get it, I knew what I was signing up for when I bought this house. The HOA does keep the neighborhood looking neat and tidy, almost antiseptic but I don’t have to look at a neighboring home with 5 cars in the driveway on blocks or a purple house down the street. The HOA however cannot regulate TV antennas or satellite dishes, they even say so in the Design Guidelines. So, the ST-2 is actually a TV antenna that I can also use for scanner reception. I can pick up several Phoenix and Prescott area TV stations, actually better than I did with the Omni-X before.
Over the next few days, I compared this to the performance of my best performing scanner antenna; a Diamond DX50N in the attic. The performance was pretty similar between the attic-mounted Diamond and the exterior-mounted ST-2. There were some things the attic antenna worked better on and some the ST-2 did. I suspect perhaps that ground wire I ran from the boom to the ground bus might affect it, I will try removing it at some point to see if that improves things.
I also want to try a mast-mounted pre-amp using a bias-tee power injector down the road. As I prefer the Stridsberg units I might get their wide-band pre-amp and mount it in the attic, just inside from the vent where the coax leaves. This will keep it nice and dry, I can then run a 10-foot jumper to the antenna and just mount the lightning protector directly to the balun. This will have to wait until winter however, it is just too hot to work in the attic this time of year.
I will see how this ST-2 works out. I will also keep an eye out for alternatives that have more of a TV-antenna look but better scanner performance.
Now many scanner people, me included, consider the ST-2 the best scanner antenna ever made. I have 2 in my attic, and they work pretty well there (good news). I gave another to a friend of mine who helped me install my attic antennas and he put it on his roof; it performed very well for him. This time however, the reception was less than stellar at my house (bad news).
So did some checking and from what I could figure out the coax was fine (good news), so it was likely the antenna, the lightning arrestor or the balun. I ordered a pair of new baluns from Channel Master (always good to have a spare!) and went to HRO to get a new lightning arrester. I figured if either of these were NOT the issue I could retain them for future use.
In my setup here the antenna is mounted to a piece of PVC pipe that fits inside the satellite dish mount I have on the side of the house. This is one of those angled pipes, that allows me to get the antenna a foot or so away from the house. I would have used metal pipe but pipe that size is difficult to obtain and work with, so I went with the PVC.
Up the ladder I went to retrieve the ST-2. I disconnected the ground wire from the lightning protecter, removed the two stainless steel bolts holding the PVC mast to the mount and lifted the assembly up and out. It was still connected to the coax, so I hung the antenna onto the mounting bracket while I unraveled the waterproofing tape. I had to cut it with a razor knife, when I dropped the knife (bad news), I had already cut the last of the tape and retracted the blade (good news). Thankfully it missed the wife by several feet on the way down (more good news).
After I freed the antenna from the coax, I lifted it up off the mount and started to hand it down to the wife standing off to the side of the ladder. I don’t know how or why but I dropped it (bad news), and she scampered out of the way (good news). While it missed her (good news) it broke off the lower main stem (bad news).
I brought the now broken antenna into the garage and salvaged the end caps from the boom as I was missing one from my other spare ST-2. I figure I will keep it for a while and see if I can repair it down the road. I pulled my second spare from the cabinet in the garage and mounted it to the mast. This time I tried something different. I used a jumper from the antenna to the bottom of the mast and mounted the lightning arrester there instead of up at the antenna itself. It is only 4 or 5 feet and that will make it a lot easier to connect and disconnect in the future. I also ran a ground wire up to the boom of the antenna as, being mounted to PVC it is not grounded. (More on this later.)
I also had to order a new adapter as the lightning arrester I had used male-female connections, the new one had females at both ends. That was my fault for forgetting this when I bought the replacement. That also had a part to play in using the jumper to the antenna, I had a perfect length jumper with N-Male connectors at both ends.
In the meantime, I convinced the wife that I needed a new ladder. I have a 26-foot Little Giant convertible ladder, but it is heavy and difficult to extend by myself. I am a big boy, so I need a heavy-duty ladder lest it break under my not insignificant weight so the ladder I get has to be sturdy. The wife tries to help but with her recent injury and lack of strength I cannot rely on her for lifting. I decided to get a new fiberglass extension ladder, a 24-foot Class 1A ladder rated for my weight. It is easier to set up and move around by myself. As a former firefighter I am experienced and comfortable with ground ladders, and this one has my life a lot easier. With the pull-rope to extend and retract, it is a whole lot easier to set up by myself.
Back to the antenna: after I dropped and broke it, I replaced the broken one with the other spare. In the garage (which is airconditioned!) I replaced the balun and connected the N-N jumper thru a N-to-F adapter and sealed it with coax seal. I ran the jumper down the PVC mast and mounted the lightning protector to the mast about a foot from the bottom. I connected the jumper to it and sealed it with coax seal. I then secured the coax and ground jumpers to the mast with coax seal in a couple spots.
The wife and I got up early and went out at 6:30 AM on a Sunday morning to set up the ladder and reinstall the ST-2. Living in suburban Phoenix you get used to doing outside work early in the morning before it gets hot. While it is not really hot yet (the high that day was supposed to be only 105) it still is a lot more comfortable when it is only 80. I set up my new extension ladder for the first time and it was definitely worth the $500 I paid for it. It was half the weight of the Little Giant, a lot easier to wrangle and extend and more stable when I was working at the top. I bought a 24-foot model, I probably could have gotten away with a 20 but then I would have to extend it all the way or reduce the angle, it was worth the extra $80 for the 24-footer.
I have a bunch of those 5-gallon buckets that I use for everything around the house. When I am working on my antenna, I just put whatever tools and hardware I will need in the bucket. I have a giant “S” hook carabiner so I can hang the bucket on the top of the ladder and grab whatever tool I need. Works great!
So up the ladder I went. I got up to the top and secured my bucket to the top rung and the wife handed up the antenna and mast assemble to me. I dropped the mast into the satellite dish mount and rotated it so that the holes matched. I then connected the coax to the lightning arrester and climbed down the ladder to test the antenna before I sealed the coax and bolted it down.
When I got into the office, I found that it worked well. I was able to hear the WX stations in both Payson (70 miles) and Phoenix (35 miles with mountains in between). Once I was satisfied with the performance I went back up the ladder, placed the stainless-steel bolts thru the mount and mast and tightened them down. After sealing the bottom connection and tidying up the cables I put everything away.
Since I live in an HOA I have to abide by their rules. I get it, I knew what I was signing up for when I bought this house. The HOA does keep the neighborhood looking neat and tidy, almost antiseptic but I don’t have to look at a neighboring home with 5 cars in the driveway on blocks or a purple house down the street. The HOA however cannot regulate TV antennas or satellite dishes, they even say so in the Design Guidelines. So, the ST-2 is actually a TV antenna that I can also use for scanner reception. I can pick up several Phoenix and Prescott area TV stations, actually better than I did with the Omni-X before.
Over the next few days, I compared this to the performance of my best performing scanner antenna; a Diamond DX50N in the attic. The performance was pretty similar between the attic-mounted Diamond and the exterior-mounted ST-2. There were some things the attic antenna worked better on and some the ST-2 did. I suspect perhaps that ground wire I ran from the boom to the ground bus might affect it, I will try removing it at some point to see if that improves things.
I also want to try a mast-mounted pre-amp using a bias-tee power injector down the road. As I prefer the Stridsberg units I might get their wide-band pre-amp and mount it in the attic, just inside from the vent where the coax leaves. This will keep it nice and dry, I can then run a 10-foot jumper to the antenna and just mount the lightning protector directly to the balun. This will have to wait until winter however, it is just too hot to work in the attic this time of year.
I will see how this ST-2 works out. I will also keep an eye out for alternatives that have more of a TV-antenna look but better scanner performance.
, you'll have to replace it by the second monsoon season, if you want it to keep working optimally that is. I always keep an eye on the antennas I see pop up on and behind houses while walking and I remember seeing someone put up an ST2 one summer. By the next summer it was all bent up and that was being partially protected by a tree. Thankfully you have extras though so no problem.
