Scantenna Performance Report

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nd23rin

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OK, so I just put up a new model scantenna on my roof about 20-25 feet up with the included 50ft feedline. My neighborhood is very tree covered, meaning big spanish oaks and such. I am using an ICOM IC-R20, which by the way is fantastic.

OK, so I must start by saying the R20 has great ears, even with the stock telescoping antenna.

Anyway, I have noticed that in a range of 450-465, the scantenna seems to pick up lots more activity that the stock antenna does not, however on the 442ish range for HAM repeaters, the telescping actually outperformed??

QUESTION....why would that be the case

Airband sensitivity is slightly better on the scantenna, but not a huge difference.

QUESTION...should there be a huge difference?

800MHZ stuff is definately stronger on the scantenna.

QUESTION, are there any other important bands where it may excel?? Am I expectig to much from the scantenna....should I use LMR400??

Thanks!!
 

N1BHH

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I don't know exactly what the actual bandwidth of the antenna is for the various ranges, but I suspect the UHF drops of below 450. I just bought one myself and have yet to put it through it's paces. Have some rough weather moving through the area, so today isn't the day for antennas. I'll be checking mine out in the coming months once it is installed.

The outer dipole on this antenna appears to be a little short of a full wave at 440, so it would work better at 460 than any other. The matching network looks like it may have some possibilities in experimentation. Just for chuckles, I have mine hooked up to my TV temporarily, just laying horizontally and it works just fine for that. After all it's built by a company that makes television antennas, among others.
 

kb9hgi

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tilleyhat said:
Did you test it in 800-900s range? I wonder if its antenna performs well in this band.

I just put one up myself and the 800Mhz does not seem very good to me which I trying it on a P25 system. Not very impressed with this antenna right now at all.
 

tilleyhat

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kb9hgi said:
I just put one up myself and the 800Mhz does not seem very good to me which I trying it on a P25 system. Not very impressed with this antenna right now at all.
- same problem here. my P25 trunking systems are hard to be heard.
 

Dubbin

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kb9hgi said:
I just put one up myself and the 800Mhz does not seem very good to me which I trying it on a P25 system. Not very impressed with this antenna right now at all.

What type of coax are you using? I was having all kinds of problems on the 800 until I switched over to RG11. That little change made a MAJOR difference.
 

tilleyhat

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Dubbin said:
What type of coax are you using? I was having all kinds of problems on the 800 until I switched over to RG11. That little change made a MAJOR difference.
- i use RG-6 and even with GRE amplifier, the sound of P25 cuts off.
- But, in other hand, with scantenna, the conventional freqs are excellent, point of view sound and coverage.
 

Dubbin

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tilleyhat said:
- i use RG-6 and even with GRE amplifier, the sound of P25 cuts off.

That was the same setup I was using before I made the switch to RG11. Now I pick up 800 systems that I never could before and I don't have to use the amp. Make the switch, you wont regret it.
 

tilleyhat

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Dubbin said:
That was the same setup I was using before I made the switch to RG11. Now I pick up 800 systems that I never could before and I don't have to use the amp. Make the switch, you wont regret it.
- thanks Dublin. I plan to change my coax OR try a discone
- But, what do you think about RG-11 vs LMR-400? same quality? Or one is better than other?
 

Dubbin

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tilleyhat said:
- But, what do you think about RG-11 vs LMR-400? same quality? Or one is better than other?

Pretty much the same thing. The only reason I went with RG11 is that I got around 300' of it for free from a cable buddy of mine.
 

af5rn

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What kind of distances are you guys trying to hear the systems from? The Scantenna is a decent antenna for the price, but you can't expect miracles from 15 or more miles away on 800 digital. But you're absolutely right about coax making a difference in the 800mhz range. Generally it's going to take a run of over 50 feet to make a significantly noticeable difference though.
 

hoser147

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Dubbin is right we are about 40 or so miles apart and often talk about incidents we hear. That is how we figured out the slight direction gain with the way the antenna is pointed also.......Hoser
 

N1BHH

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Hard to hear? By that do you mean the audio or the signal? Audio that is not good to begin with, will be degraded further when listened to at a greater distance. As shown in this link: http://www.tscm.com/radiapat.pdf you should notice the radiation pattern of a Scantenna which is similar to a dipole has in essence, a donut shaped radiation pattern.
 
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