I’ve had the SDS100 for about 8 months now and I’ve tried all my antennas including the RH77CA , a telescoping , and a couple of others to try to improve reception for 151-158 mhz. I purchased a W100RX but returned it because I didn’t see any improvement. Does anyone know what would be a better choice. I live in a first floor apartment of a 2 story house so I cannot mount anything outside anywhere. Thanks in advance for the assistance.
SDS100 antenna
- Thread starter Don57
- Start date
- Status
Don't own one but this antenna optimized for 150-162MHz has positive reviews. You should have seen noticeable improvement with the W100RX over stock antenna but then again I have no idea what your RF environment looks like nor how far the target station(s) is (are) you're trying to pick up. Moving outdoors from your first floor apartment yielded no improvement with the antennas you tested?
I will look into it thanks. I didn’t try outdoors since 95% of my listening is indoors. I’m on Long Island so it’s a very congested area of 2 story houses. The things I’m monitoring are within a 10-15 mile max radius.
OK but keep in mind that building materials & RF generated from electrical devices within the structure can attenuate signals coming in
I would love to put something outside but the landlord who also lives on the property will not allow it.
That's why I suggested something completely temporary and easily removable. Something like a camera tripod sitting outside a window, or some sort of clamp to go on an awning or branch. I get them not wanting anything attached permanent/semi-permanently, this is just something quick to setup and remove with no drilling, nailing, etc. If your landlord has some sort of problem with that, he's being a bit unreasonable.
Even temporary is not allowed. She is very unreasonable but it is her property so I can’t do much about it. I think i have an old mag mount car antenna in storage. I’ll go dig it out and try that on the inside of the window.
Surprising update on my SDS100 antenna woes. To improve the reception I have tried many antennas including some older Uniden and Radio Shack antenna I had laying around , I’ve tried my RH77A , a Comet W100RX and W100RX2 both of which I returned to Amazon. Then I tried a mag mount antenna that I had laying around and put it on my window sill. None of them improved my reception. About a month or so ago I purchased a Bingfu 20-1300 MHz telescoping antenna off Amazon for $10. I wasn’t expecting much but I figured for 10 bucks wtf. I must say out of all the antennas I have tried this is by far the best. The reception has improved a lot and I’m getting a ton of close call hits that I never got with any other antenna. I was so impressed with it that I bought another one for my HP1. It might not be made of top quality material and the reviews are mostly middle of the road but I have to say my experience so far is 5 star.
Is this the antenna(s) that you bought:
Yes that is the one
Ubbe
Member
Those other antennas are multiband antennas, design to receive well at several frequency bands. The telescope only receive one frequency band, what its length are set to. It indicates that your SDS100 gets too much signal and overloads using a "normal" antenna. In your case you get better reception the lower the antenna signal are, using a less efficient antenna. The CloseCall function doesn't solely work on signal strength, it has to see a single signal where other frequencies are below its trigger level. Having a too good antenna will have too many signals going above the trigger level and CloseCall stops working, as well as normal scanning reception could be compromised from overload.
/Ubbe
- Status
