Tinkertek
Member
Hi Everyone,
So, I finally saved enough money to buy myself a brand new 2015 Ford F-150 truck. Of course, I immediately had to install a scanner in it. I bought a Home Patrol 2 (because it's so much smaller than my old BC780XLT) and mounted it on top of the dashboard in the little tray. So I've been thinking about the antenna for quite some time. After experimenting with loads of different antennas over the years, in many different vehicles, I decided to try and utilize the existing stock 31" AM/FM rod antenna on the front fender.
After following the coax (behind the glovebox), I located the Orange coax coming from the antenna. I noticed Ford used a very strange fitting I've never seen before. It is inline and sort of allows the coax to/from to rotate infinitely. At first I thought maybe it was a quick disconnect, though I couldn't get it apart. Anyway I digress, I cut into the Orange coax and installed F connectors on both ends. I then used a special coupler from Antenna Specialists that accepts an input from the antenna and has an output for the scanner and an output for the stereo. This coupler has the old style Motorola jacks and plugs that new vehicles don't use anymore. Anyway, after cutting off those Motorola connectors and installing F connectors, it is working.
I'm sure that I've got huge impedance mismatches, as the little jumpers hanging from that coupler use a very odd coax, with a stranded center conductor. Also, I think the Orange coax may have had an air dielectric, rather than foam (or maybe it was another lead on the coupler). Anyways this mess all fell apart, because I didn't have the correct size F connectors to fit on RG58 50 ohm. My fittings were designed for RG59 75 ohm (I know another impedance mismatch).
Anyway, I threw the coupler away and it's ridiculous odd coax hanging from it. I then installed a standard 2-way splitter rated for 5 MHz to 1 Ghz. I'm back in business now. So the scanner works ok, stereo works ok, no big noticeable loss in FM stereo reception. The 800 MHz signals are fairly weak and I'm looking to improve on them. So, I had an old Radio Shack scanner broadband antenna laying around. The kind with the 2 black coils in it. So I fabricated a stud onto the bottom of it and was able to screw it into the existing AM/FM mount. The 800 MHz reception improved somewhat, but this killed my FM stereo reception pretty badly. So who's got ideas on how to modify that whip with the 2 black coils, to I orove 800 MHz, but at the same time not destroy 100 MHz for the FM? I wonder if the center piece of whip between the 2 coils is the 100 MHz (vhf-hi portion of the antenna) ?
So, I finally saved enough money to buy myself a brand new 2015 Ford F-150 truck. Of course, I immediately had to install a scanner in it. I bought a Home Patrol 2 (because it's so much smaller than my old BC780XLT) and mounted it on top of the dashboard in the little tray. So I've been thinking about the antenna for quite some time. After experimenting with loads of different antennas over the years, in many different vehicles, I decided to try and utilize the existing stock 31" AM/FM rod antenna on the front fender.
After following the coax (behind the glovebox), I located the Orange coax coming from the antenna. I noticed Ford used a very strange fitting I've never seen before. It is inline and sort of allows the coax to/from to rotate infinitely. At first I thought maybe it was a quick disconnect, though I couldn't get it apart. Anyway I digress, I cut into the Orange coax and installed F connectors on both ends. I then used a special coupler from Antenna Specialists that accepts an input from the antenna and has an output for the scanner and an output for the stereo. This coupler has the old style Motorola jacks and plugs that new vehicles don't use anymore. Anyway, after cutting off those Motorola connectors and installing F connectors, it is working.
I'm sure that I've got huge impedance mismatches, as the little jumpers hanging from that coupler use a very odd coax, with a stranded center conductor. Also, I think the Orange coax may have had an air dielectric, rather than foam (or maybe it was another lead on the coupler). Anyways this mess all fell apart, because I didn't have the correct size F connectors to fit on RG58 50 ohm. My fittings were designed for RG59 75 ohm (I know another impedance mismatch).
Anyway, I threw the coupler away and it's ridiculous odd coax hanging from it. I then installed a standard 2-way splitter rated for 5 MHz to 1 Ghz. I'm back in business now. So the scanner works ok, stereo works ok, no big noticeable loss in FM stereo reception. The 800 MHz signals are fairly weak and I'm looking to improve on them. So, I had an old Radio Shack scanner broadband antenna laying around. The kind with the 2 black coils in it. So I fabricated a stud onto the bottom of it and was able to screw it into the existing AM/FM mount. The 800 MHz reception improved somewhat, but this killed my FM stereo reception pretty badly. So who's got ideas on how to modify that whip with the 2 black coils, to I orove 800 MHz, but at the same time not destroy 100 MHz for the FM? I wonder if the center piece of whip between the 2 coils is the 100 MHz (vhf-hi portion of the antenna) ?
The thing is, you never know until you try. And sometimes something that shouldn't work, does. When it does, you just hit the jackpot, you don't have to drill a hole or try to keep something adhesive stuck to your window or hassle with a mag-mount. You also don't have quite as much in the way of worries about thieves snatching your scanner, since there's no antenna to give away its presence.
