Uniden scanner vs Uniden cb

[jhays]

I have both a uniden 536 scanner and a uniden 980 ssb cb radio: My question is this: When listening to the scanner should I not key the mike on my uniden 980 due to possible interference with the scanner. I do not want to do damage to either radio when talking on my uniden cb! Respectfully, Jim

 

[jonwienke]

As long as the antennas are at least a foot or two apart, no worries. 4 watts isn't enough to hurt the scanner unless the antennas are basically touching. If you had a 100 watt radio, that's a whole nother thing.

 

[Voyager]

With the length of the typical CB antenna, a foot or two could still touch. Maybe 3 or 4 feet. And this assumed stock power.

 

[jonwienke]

Unlikely with typical CB and dual-band scanner antennas, unless you have unusually floppy antennas, or keep them bent over sideways. My CB antenna is about 2 feet from my scanner antenna and they have never made contact.

 

[slicerwizard]

When listening to the scanner should I not key the mike

Having the scanner powered on or off makes little difference to whether or not it will be damaged by RF overloads.

 

[Voyager]

Unlikely with typical CB and dual-band scanner antennas, unless you have unusually floppy antennas, or keep them bent over sideways. My CB antenna is about 2 feet from my scanner antenna and they have never made contact.

Many CB antennas tend be be floppy, and if one catches a tree limb, they can go every which way.

I'm just erring on the side of caution a little more.

 

[jonwienke]

Evidently I'm fortunate that my CB antenna doesn't need little blue pills.

 

[Voyager]

Hence more chance of it striking foreign objects. :wink:
Oh - wait. No blue pills means it's laying on the trunk or dragging behind. :wink:

 

[captainmax1]

I have both the 536 and 980 and I always put my scanner antenna's on the back of the roof and anything I take that transmits, I put toward the front of my part of my roof behind the sunroof. This keeps them about 7 feet apart as it is a SUV. I use mag mount antenna's and have a nice assortment for whatever I want to use.

 

[wtp]

years ago...

in a land far, far away. new jersey.
i had my radio shack trc451 mounted on top of my pro2001 scanner.
with a back of the set antenna. that would be about 6 inches away.
not all the time, just once and a while.i did transmit many times and the scanner can still hear the space station.
just tried the NOAA station 25 miles away, and all is fine.

 

[Voyager]

in a land far, far away. new jersey.
i had my radio shack trc451 mounted on top of my pro2001 scanner.
with a back of the set antenna. that would be about 6 inches away.
not all the time, just once and a while.i did transmit many times and the scanner can still hear the space station.
just tried the NOAA station 25 miles away, and all is fine.

The flaw in your story is that the CB is not radiating from that point unless the CB had the antenna on the back, too.

So the antennas were much more than 6" away, right?

 

[wtp]

back of set

the CB AND the scanners were using back of the set antennas. so yes 6 inches away.
I used the mounting brackets bolted to each other.
2001 on top of the scanner and the 451 on the bottom.

 

[Voyager]

Wow. The CB antenna could not have been very efficient.

But, your case fortunately worked. I would not feel safe recommending that to others.

 

[wtp]

me too

the CB antenna was about 18 inches long. no I never checked the SWR on it.
it did spend a majority of the time just receiving.
I was a security guard at the time and they were just used to pass the time.
car battery in a commercial plastic milk container set up.

 

[RRR]

Soooo....... How about if you have several feet of antenna separation, but, your scanner (996P2) is on top of your CB that is pushing, just for the hell of it, say 200 watts. How much damage would probably realistically occur unit to unit?

 

[jonwienke]

The only reason you got away with that is because you had an antenna that was not resonant at 27MHz feeding into another non-resonant antenna. Which decreases the degree of coupling by several orders of magnitude. Having resonant antennas that close would have fried the scanner.

 

[Voyager]

Soooo....... How about if you have several feet of antenna separation, but, your scanner (996P2) is on top of your CB that is pushing, just for the hell of it, say 200 watts. How much damage would probably realistically occur unit to unit?

The shielding unit-to-unit is likely sufficient. It's the antenna-to-antenna you need to be concerned with. I would want them at least 6' apart.

 

[jonwienke]

Soooo....... How about if you have several feet of antenna separation, but, your scanner (996P2) is on top of your CB that is pushing, just for the hell of it, say 200 watts. How much damage would probably realistically occur unit to unit?

If the scanner antenna isn't resonant at 27MHz then the degree of coupling will be minimal. I would test the amount of power feeding into the scanner coax to verify though.

 

[Ensnared]

Both my Tram NMO and Tram 3500, both with rubber boots, sit within 12 inches of each other. I hear and transmit quite well, without problems.