Suggestions for SDS-200 antenna setup

[OrangeRider]

Hi folks, I'm hoping to finally get back to scanning real soon. A couple years ago I got a Uniden SDS-200, but since the initial use, I haven't used it much. I'm close to finishing a small room in my garage for electrical/electronics work, and would like to install the SDS correctly in this room.

What I'm looking for is first, a suggestion for a great antenna. I enjoy listening to air traffic and luckily I'm within 10 miles of a good size airport. I also enjoy listening to state police as well as local police, fire, EMS, and even local industry. Once I decide on an antenna (or at same time) I'll need to decide on where to mount the antenna, outside or in attic. Unfortunately, since my garage is in the rear of my house, my room is close to the utility lines that run across the back of my property. I'm guessing this will influence the best location for my antenna. I do have an upstairs section of my house that runs perpendicular to the utility lines, so I'm assuming heading that direction is best. Could install the antenna in the attic of that section, farthest I can get it, if the antenna would fit, guessing that would be a 70' run of cable.

Also thinking if the antenna is small enough and light enough to mount on the fascia of my upstairs section, I could possibly go that route, possibly a 35-40' run of cable. That would also put the antenna about 28' from the utility lines.

So I'm looking for suggestions, on antenna, type of coax to run, and type of jack needed to get the coax into the room without looking terrible. Also suggestions on antenna location would be great.

Any suggestions or recommendations for the above will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[OrangeRider]

Also, should have mentioned above that at some point I intend to get a HAM radio. If there's something I need/should do now to help facilitate that down the road, I'm all ears.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Also, should have mentioned above that at some point I intend to get a HAM radio. If there's something I need/should do now to help facilitate that down the road, I'm all ears.

First thing's first, get your ham ticket if you aren't a licensed amateur & you intend to transmit on the ham bands

 

[OrangeRider]

I do have the first level (technician) license, but plan to go further as time permits.

 

[drdeputy]

Hi folks, I'm hoping to finally get back to scanning real soon. A couple years ago I got a Uniden SDS-200, but since the initial use, I haven't used it much. I'm close to finishing a small room in my garage for electrical/electronics work, and would like to install the SDS correctly in this room.

What I'm looking for is first, a suggestion for a great antenna. I enjoy listening to air traffic and luckily I'm within 10 miles of a good size airport. I also enjoy listening to state police as well as local police, fire, EMS, and even local industry. Once I decide on an antenna (or at same time) I'll need to decide on where to mount the antenna, outside or in attic. Unfortunately, since my garage is in the rear of my house, my room is close to the utility lines that run across the back of my property. I'm guessing this will influence the best location for my antenna. I do have an upstairs section of my house that runs perpendicular to the utility lines, so I'm assuming heading that direction is best. Could install the antenna in the attic of that section, farthest I can get it, if the antenna would fit, guessing that would be a 70' run of cable.

Also thinking if the antenna is small enough and light enough to mount on the fascia of my upstairs section, I could possibly go that route, possibly a 35-40' run of cable. That would also put the antenna about 28' from the utility lines.

So I'm looking for suggestions, on antenna, type of coax to run, and type of jack needed to get the coax into the room without looking terrible. Also suggestions on antenna location would be great.

Any suggestions or recommendations for the above will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Congratulations on your new setup/room. It's nice to have a dedicated space. As to your questions, I like to keep things as simple as possible. If you have not tried reception without an outside antenna, I'd do that first. Of course a lot depends on distance, terrain and frequencies as I'm sure you know. I've used an attic antenna with LMR-400 with good success. But I'm between locations in a couple states, most of my equipment is over 300 miles away, including my antenna. Soooo....I'm using my back-of-set antenna with very satisfactory results where I currently am. But, I'm also overwhelmingly interested in 700/800 MHz P25 trunking and you have at least mentioned monitoring air, so YMMV.

 

[OrangeRider]

drdeputy, thanks for your reply. Yes, I have used the stock antenna that comes with the SDS-200, and the reception was pretty good, at least I thought so. But I would expect an external antenna (even in the attic) to bring in more distant signals, unless my line length to the antenna nullifies those gains, or my proximity to utility lines does the same.

Thanks

 

[popnokick]

What I'm looking for is first, a suggestion for a great antenna. I enjoy listening to air traffic and luckily I'm within 10 miles of a good size airport. I also enjoy listening to state police as well as local police, fire, EMS, and even local industry. Once I decide on an antenna (or at same time) I'll need to decide on where to mount the antenna, outside or in attic.

Also, should have mentioned above that at some point I intend to get a HAM radio. If there's something I need/should do now to help facilitate that down the road, I'm all ears.

It appears you may be looking for the "holy grail": One antenna that will do it all for receiving / transmitting with your scanner and potential future ham radio transmitter. Unfortunately, you can come close with a single antenna but not quite reach the goal of "one antenna does all".

So what does "coming close" look like? A discone is capable of receiving AND transmitting over a wide range of frequencies covered by your scanner and your future Amateur Radio licensed activity. So what's not to like?
- You will be able to connect only one radio at a time to the discone if one of those radios is used for transmitting
- You will not be able to use filters (some will insist you need an FM broadcast filter... transmitting into it will blow it out)
- You will not be able to use receive preamps with it if you plan to transmit. Transmitting into a receive preamp will blow it out.
- You will not be able to use a splitter or multicoupler to connect multiple receivers to the antenna if one of the radios is a transmitter. Transmitting into a multicoupler is likely to damage the multicoupler and other connected receivers.
- A discone can be used with much less expensive and easier-to-work with coax such as 75 ohm RG6
So what would be a longer term alternative to consider? TWO antennas -
- A discone to handle all of your receiving needs. Connect splitters, couplers, filters, preamps, multiple receivers, etc. to your heart's content and budget.
- A 2nd antenna optimized for the ham bands you are most likely to use (2M and 70cM) to which you'll connect your ham transceiver. This antenna should be as far as possible from the discone (both vertically and horizontally if possible) and fed via a completely separate coaxial cable.
- A dedicated ham band(s) antenna is also going to offer both receive and transmit RF gain... something the discone will not do.
Would a "ham bands only" antenna work for your scanner? Yes, but not as well nor with the wide frequency coverage you get from a discone. And once again you'd be limited to connecting only the scanner to it, but disconnecting the scanner and switching to your ham rig when you want to transmit.
My suggestion: start with a roof or gable-mounted discone, see how your scanner does with it. But have in your plan to at some point put up a dedicated ham band(s) antenna on a more distant roof / portion of your roof. Then you can listen all you want to two or more radios at the same time, and PERHAPS transmit without messing up your scanner too badly (depends on the distance between the antennas).

 

[WRQS621]

Use a the Best Buy Essentials HDTV flat antenna. It is $15. You will need a BNC adapter. Dont waste your time with expensive feed line like LMR-400, you only need that for low loss VHF/UHF transmission. I have no better antenna for the money. Trust me, I have done the trail and error for over 30 years.

 

[jtwalker]

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[OrangeRider]

So what would be a longer term alternative to consider? TWO antennas

Popnokick, thank you for your detailed informative reply. I definitely have no problem with going with two separate antennas. As a matter of fact, I like the idea, especially since the ham part of the equation will likely be down the road a bit. Any suggestion on a good discone for the SDS-200?

Use a the Best Buy Essentials HDTV flat antenna. It is $15.

WA4MAC, thanks for your reply. At $15, that's definitely cheap enough to at least give it a try, and can always use it for HDTV if not.

Thanks for taking the time to help...much appreciated .

 

[popnokick]

WA4MAC's suggestion to use a Best Buy (or similar) HDTV antenna should not be taken lightly. It has these Advantages -
- Very low cost
- Receiving gain on many bands
- You can use it with multiple receivers at the same time (mullticoupler needed)
- Better protection from the elements and lightning (because it's in the attic or an upstairs room)
- Simple and inexpensive TV coax hookup
- using an HDTV attic antenna would allow you to put a ham radio antenna outdoors on a gable end / eave mount or other mast mounting with less concern about interaction between the antennas
- aesthetically, you'd have only one antenna mast on the roof.... as well as one less outdoor installation to perform

... and these considerations -
- still can't be used to transmit
- because most of these types of antennas are somewhat directional, you'll need to move it around and change the location / orientation in the attic or upper floor room to determine the best position to place it

And yes, it's a TV antenna. So how does that work? Take a look at this thread for an explanation -
Best $15 Scanner Antenna - By Accident

For more info on the dozens of various discones out there, use that word as a Search term in this Forum, or a full search on all of RR. Plenty written by dozens of discone users.

 

[OrangeRider]

Popnokick and WA4MAC, I took your suggestion on the HDTV antenna . WA4MAC, your discovery must be catching on , as the antenna was not available at any of the local Best Buy stores, so I put one on order....and the price is now $25 . Easy enough to give it a whirl. Thanks again for y'all help .

 

[dfaulker]

Popnokick and WA4MAC, I took your suggestion on the HDTV antenna . WA4MAC, your discovery must be catching on , as the antenna was not available at any of the local Best Buy stores, so I put one on order....and the price is now $25 . Easy enough to give it a whirl. Thanks again for y'all help .

I just came across this topic. I was wondering if you had any thing to report on trying this type of antenna as of yet?

 

[WRQS621]

I just came across this topic. I was wondering if you had any thing to report on trying this type of antenna as of yet?

Best Buy had the smaller one on clearance for $6, I bought two. Works great mobile and in the house. I have Whistler at the office. My office is inside a building downtown (10 floor). I had a telescoping antenna, got horrible reception no matter what I did. Took one of these to work, I get broadcast FM, UHF, and VHF plus multiple WX stations. It works very well.

 

[dfaulker]

Can you receive 800mhz on it?

 

[popnokick]

Since there are broadcast TV channels allocated near 800 mHz it should be fine for receiving near those frequencies. However, I have not tried it since there is no usage of 800 mHz near me. So we should hear from someone who has used one of these antennas for 800 mHz. Better yet: Since the antenna is inexpensive, why not try it yourself and report your results back here in the forum?

 

[dfaulker]

Since there are broadcast TV channels allocated near 800 mHz it should be fine for receiving near those frequencies. However, I have not tried it since there is no usage of 800 mHz near me. So we should hear from someone who has used one of these antennas for 800 mHz. Better yet: Since the antenna is inexpensive, why not try it yourself and report your results back here in the forum?

Good point….. 👍🏻 Thanks again!