Scantenna Install...

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btritch

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I installed my scantenna today...NOW I have it unplugged due to weather conditions but I am hearing 70 miles plus!!!! Crystal Clear! I even heard a city that was 80 miles away for a little bit...I secured it for wind like the WIKI said, NOW if it works and hold up, I'll be alright. It was solid when it went up...hope it stays, suggestions, comments, etc. are welcome...
 
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btritch

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well, it's 55 feet from the ground to the top of the crown...It's about 7 feet or so from the top so about 48 feet or so I figure...I wanted to go all the way to the top but I was afraid that the wind would wipe it out the higher I got so I stopped there, It's picking up 70 to 80 miles now though...so I guess it's fine.. Now I just have to figure out how to take the RG 6 coming off it into the main room and split it into the other room using the RG58 already used unless it'll hurt, Then I'll change it, But to answer your question, it's anywhere between 45 and 50 feet approximately.. Quite aways, The old one I took down the wind got was only about 30. it was just above the house but it was really old and made more for low band so it didn't work that great! If this one holds it works GREAT what time I've heard it so far, LOL....Going to split it off later when I figure out the technique if it doesn't pull the signal down a bunch...
 

mancow

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Grab one of these:

http://tinyurl.com/2ptwjk

I use one on my scantenn and also my 800 beam. Well.... I did until the whole antenna mast crashed down on the roof at 6:30 in the morning during a recent wind storm.

Anyway...they work really well.
 

RADIOGUY2002

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Cable

I would have used a better grade cable then rg-6 although its not bad either. But overall pretty nice setup. I want one too!!
 

Chevyman22360

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You have yours mounted very similar to mine. I have a Rohn HDBX 64' Tower, I used RG-11 cable, seems to work better than the RG-6. I will post some pics of my setup one of these days.
 

SCPD

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RADIOGUY2002 said:
I would have used a better grade cable then rg-6 although its not bad either. But overall pretty nice setup. I want one too!!

I second the motion. By some LMR-400 and it will make such a difference that your mouth will drop when you sit in front of your scanner. I did exactly that when I hooked up a rooftop antenna that has a built in pre-amp. The peak of the roof is about 32 feet off the ground.

Once I installed the LMR coax (I had used some cheaper RG-8 before) it opened up a whole new spectrum of listening. I live just below 8,000 feet on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, just east of a low pass of 9300'. This pass is located near the head of a river canyon. I can pick up VHF signals from repeaters located on the west side of the California Central valley at a distance of 150 miles. Not bad for something on the other side of one of the country's major mountain ranges! I pick up an 800 MHz repeater to my north at 65 miles, full quieting and there is a 9300 foot ridge in between, and it is not line of sight to the repeater due this ridge and some other mountains on the eastern slope of the Sierra. I was never able to do this until I installed the LMR-400. This coax is expensive, but the world it opens up for you is worth every penny.

In the southern terrain you live in, which is more gentle than our western terrain, you should do very good with good coax at the height you have your antenna at. Boy I wish my condo association would let me put up a tower like that.

BTW, I've used RG-8 coax from 2-3 different manufacturers in an attempt to make the installation less pricey. I could not find any that came close to the performance of LMR-400.

***EDIT*** I'm looking at that corner of Arkansas and 80 miles from the corner looks like you might be picking up Jonesboro, Arkansas. Am I correct?
 
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btritch

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I'm 25 miles north of Jonesboro in Paragould, Greene County, However, I COULD if they weren't digital.. Don't have a digital scanner as of yet..I say yet because I plan to get one SOON! I may keep an eye out for LMR 400 cheap....HOw much gain will I lose splitting RG 6 to two rooms using a 900 - 1000 mhz cable tv splitter? enough to notice?
 

wrr20891

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Probably, most two way splitters are advertised as having 3dB loss, or half the signal. Which makes sense since you are sending the received signal to two different coax lines.
 

btritch

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Now since I used a TV splitter I can tell a little loss but not much BUT with both radio's on at the same time, They're bleeding on one another, What's a good way to split then with little loss and to prevent bleeding?
 

nexus

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btritch said:
I'm 25 miles north of Jonesboro in Paragould, Greene County, However, I COULD if they weren't digital.. Don't have a digital scanner as of yet..I say yet because I plan to get one SOON! I may keep an eye out for LMR 400 cheap....HOw much gain will I lose splitting RG 6 to two rooms using a 900 - 1000 mhz cable tv splitter? enough to notice?

I agree get LMR-400 at least for the majority of the run down your tower, and into the house. Once you get to your room, then drop it down to RG-58 or RG-8X. Here is some information for you to think about... RG-59 and RG-6 are going to be about the same loss. This is all PER 100 FEET or coax...

RG-59/RG-6 at 150mhz is 3.5 db LOSS
RG-58 at 150mhz is 6.0 db LOSS
at 450 mhz the loss is greater at 7.5 db and higher.

The higher you go in frequency the more your loss will be per 100 feet. Now here is LMR400...

LMR 400 per 100 feet - at 150 mhz 1.5 db loss and 450 mhz 2.7 db loss...

3 DB is HALF of your signal. If you have say 100 feet of RG-6 and you're listening to a department on 155.640 mhz and your antenna has a gain of 2.5 db. You're going to have a loss of 3.5 db, then subtract 2.5 db of gain, you'll come out with a loss overall of 1.0 db loss. And 3 DB is half of your signal. So a quarter of your signal is lost.

But if your antenna is NO GAIN, and I think the scantenna is a unigain antenna, meaning NO GAIN, you have a loss of 3.5 DB. so Over half of your signal is lost in the coax. There are probably several other things you'd hear if you have better coax.

LMR400 at http://www.universal-radio.com is .79 per foot
and at http://www.texastowers.com its .69 per foot.
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/cable/coax.html

BTW, all my kin is from up there... grandma is from baldknob, got family in searcy, agusta, mccory, weldon, swifton, my cousin is the postmaster for newport. list goes on and on and on... every time we have a hurricane down here, we go up there heh.
 
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