Scantenna Balun

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dgoodson

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Have mercy on my soul, for I have searched the forum and not found the answer... though it does smell like a dead horse....

Can I, and where can I, buy a balun for a scantenna that has an SO-239 receptacle, or at least a BNC female... or am I destined to use adapters to go from Type F connector to my PL 259 plug?

Thanks for the anticipated mercy

dg
 

LarrySC

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The scantenna requires the original 4:1 300 ohm to 75 ohm balun connected to the original RG-6 coax. Any other connectors needed would be "F" to PL or whatever is needed. If you tried to use a balun with PL you change 4:1 ratio and the PL is not rated to 900 mHz, only 600 mHz. You would really need to explain WHY you need to change this.
 

kf4lne

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it comes with that balun because its a cheap common part that can be had at wal-mart or rat shack where as a balun with a UHF, BNC or N connector is probably going to be a specialty item and a rare one at that and be very exspensive. I guess you want to use a large coax such as LMR400 or similar, my suggestion would to be to hit up the local electronics shop and buy a length of RG11 and the F connector on one end and a PL or N connector on the other with an adapter to fir your scanner. I am using RG11 for my antenna with a PL259 at the antenna and a N connector in the back of the scanner. yes, i know, scanners come with BNC connectors, unless you take it apart and line the plastic case with aluminum heat duct tape and replace the BNC with a chassis mount N connector :)
 

sony

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LarrySC said:
The scantenna requires the original 4:1 300 ohm to 75 ohm balun connected to the original RG-6 coax. Any other connectors needed would be "F" to PL or whatever is needed. If you tried to use a balun with PL you change 4:1 ratio and the PL is not rated to 900 mHz, only 600 mHz. You would really need to explain WHY you need to change this.

I am not sure if this is related but I just got a scantenna and compared to my now gone Channel Master I notice the plugs on the end of the cable is like the cable TV cable with the wire in the middle. There are BNC connectors in the bag.
Now my channel master was different it had on the end of the cable a pin shaped connector which went into a BNC connector into scanner. Is the cable system the same between these two?
 

LarrySC

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They both supplied RG-6. When CM first came on the market they were still making scanners with the old Motorola Car antenna plug. They supplied a BNC adp as well. That way you could use antenna with an old xtal scanner or one with a BNC. It was easy to plug Mon into BNC adp. ST just uses the standard "F" connector. Lots of "F" to other adp's for any type of hookup. It's not worth the trouble to change it because the PL/SO type are not rated to 900 mHz and you would have LOSS.
 

sony

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LarrySC said:
They both supplied RG-6. When CM first came on the market they were still making scanners with the old Motorola Car antenna plug. They supplied a BNC adp as well. That way you could use antenna with an old xtal scanner or one with a BNC. It was easy to plug Mon into BNC adp. ST just uses the standard "F" connector. Lots of "F" to other adp's for any type of hookup. It's not worth the trouble to change it because the PL/SO type are not rated to 900 mHz and you would have LOSS.

So now I have the Scantenna so the connectors on this antenna should work fine. They are BNC connectors.
 

mancow

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I can't help but think that people worry too much about adaptors in an RX only system like that. The thing isn't tuned for anything specific and they probably used the most common and cheapest items that would work like mentioned eariler.

I may be wrong but would a PL type adapter really cause any noticable loss? I have used them on a run of LMR400 for years and I can't tell the difference. Once you get above a Ghz then things probably go south from there.
 
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