Greetings all. I've been very casually scanning for almost 25 years now and just upgraded from my trusty RS PRO-2006 to a BCD996XT. So far I have I have more or less figured out the programming and am using Proscan which makes it easier.
My questions relate to improving reception. I *feel* like I get pretty good reception, including some far away sites (I am in western part of hampshire county of Mass), but I'd like to improve on it anyway. I have a roof mounted discone antenna (from RS about 10 years ago, but don't remember the specifics), mounted outside. I have about 50 feet of RG8 and then another 30 feet of RG58 which I added in a pinch when my office moved from one end of the house to the other.
In the short term my plan is to replace the cable with a single 50ft run of LMR400 and I should see some improvements right there, I may also add another 5 feet to my mast to get it up just a bit higher than it is now.
My real question (finally) is, how can I quantify the gains I am making? I don't want to buy any specialized test equipment that measure signal strength, but are there specific towers in specific locations, that I can try and tune in after each improvement to see what the improved range is? I seem to be picking up signals from far away in the 800mhz state police bands, but I don't know much about where those towers are and if they are really being repeated out here in Mass (as opposed to me picking them up at the source). So what towers would I try to tune it (primarily in the 800Mhz range) to try and figure out how far my reach is?
I'd love to pickup a more frequency specific antenna with some built-in gain, but unfortunately a lot of the 'important' stations I want to monitor are still in the 150Mhz range out here; also the mid400's and now of course I can finally do some productive scanning in the 800Mhz range with the trunk tracking capabilities I have so it seems like the discone is the best bet for me for now.
How much difference would an extra 5-10 feet make on the height? What kind of improvements might I make by replacing the combo rg8/rg58 run with a single LMT400 run?
I don't mind spending a little bit of money, but don't want to buy 'better' without having some specific idea about how each improvement is making out.
Thanks all in advance!
My questions relate to improving reception. I *feel* like I get pretty good reception, including some far away sites (I am in western part of hampshire county of Mass), but I'd like to improve on it anyway. I have a roof mounted discone antenna (from RS about 10 years ago, but don't remember the specifics), mounted outside. I have about 50 feet of RG8 and then another 30 feet of RG58 which I added in a pinch when my office moved from one end of the house to the other.
In the short term my plan is to replace the cable with a single 50ft run of LMR400 and I should see some improvements right there, I may also add another 5 feet to my mast to get it up just a bit higher than it is now.
My real question (finally) is, how can I quantify the gains I am making? I don't want to buy any specialized test equipment that measure signal strength, but are there specific towers in specific locations, that I can try and tune in after each improvement to see what the improved range is? I seem to be picking up signals from far away in the 800mhz state police bands, but I don't know much about where those towers are and if they are really being repeated out here in Mass (as opposed to me picking them up at the source). So what towers would I try to tune it (primarily in the 800Mhz range) to try and figure out how far my reach is?
I'd love to pickup a more frequency specific antenna with some built-in gain, but unfortunately a lot of the 'important' stations I want to monitor are still in the 150Mhz range out here; also the mid400's and now of course I can finally do some productive scanning in the 800Mhz range with the trunk tracking capabilities I have so it seems like the discone is the best bet for me for now.
How much difference would an extra 5-10 feet make on the height? What kind of improvements might I make by replacing the combo rg8/rg58 run with a single LMT400 run?
I don't mind spending a little bit of money, but don't want to buy 'better' without having some specific idea about how each improvement is making out.
Thanks all in advance!
