What is the distance a scanner can go?

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php111

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Hi,

What is the distance a pro-528 can listen too from the area? So if I plug in out of county or out of state how far will it go before I get nothing as in miles? 90 miles or more? less then 90 miles? Thank you for any replies.
 

BushDoctor

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How far can a scanner receive

I have a 728 feet above sea level home. On 29.60 and 29.45 I heard the Netherlands 4500 miles away on Skip on my BC 245XLT pocket scanner. I also have heard CHP on skip some 3000 miles away from my virginia home using a BC 300 uniden on my dressor top using the supplies 19 inch whip. For near by stations i hear PA.SP from Harrisonburg and Carsile 150 miles away on 154.665 .Also Howard county MD on highband also 154.25. At my previous home 330 feet on a tower 38 feet up my range was up to 30 miles on highband but i was below the surrounding elevations by about 100 feet. using a formula add the height of the transmit site plus the height of the receive site togather and find the square root of them and multiply by 1.23 for high band take 1/3rd off answer for 450 take 2/3 rds and that will get u into the ball park
 

GTR8000

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The answer to your question is:

You will NOT be able to hear any NYC frequencies from Allentown, PA using a handheld scanner with a rubber ducky antenna!

We've answered this for you already in multiple threads. The answer is not going to change just because you don't like it or you ask it differently!

No, it doesn't matter if the channel is analog or digital either, it still has to travel along the same wavelength.
 

jakegday

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the scanner doesnt determine the distance, the transmitter (what you're listening to) determines that, of course a better antenna on your scanner will always help, but still, its what your listening to that you should be asking the question to, (like, how far does the fremont police department transmit)
 

captmfa7112

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res6cue_dot_com said:
The answer to your question is:

You will NOT be able to hear any NYC frequencies from Allentown, PA using a handheld scanner with a rubber ducky antenna!

We've answered this for you already in multiple threads. The answer is not going to change just because you don't like it or you ask it differently!

No, it doesn't matter if the channel is analog or digital either, it still has to travel along the same wavelength.

Agreed!

php111, Your not going to hear NYC or Long Island.. Get over it, as mentioned in the 2nd thread on this topic use the live scanner feeds on n2nov.net and w2lie.net and you can hear them. Please don't keep asking the same question over and over in multiple forums.
 

gmclam

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100 miles or more

jakegday said:
the scanner doesnt determine the distance, the transmitter (what you're listening to) determines that, of course a better antenna on your scanner will always help, but still, its what your listening to that you should be asking the question to, (like, how far does the fremont police department transmit)
While this statement is generally true, it certainly is NOT totally accurate. For example, if I put a lousy antenna on my scanner, I won't pick up a damn thing, no matter how much power they are transmitting with.

All receivers are not created equally. Some will pick up better (better sensitivity) while others may pick up too much and not be as good as selecting (selectivity) one frequency over another. But like with computers, garbage in, garbage out. If you want to receive from the farthest distance (not including skip and other such conditions), then you want a good outside antenna, with some height, and low loss downlead. I have such a setup and pick up 100 miles easily (on VHF) with several different scanners.

Also note that the frequency of the signal affects how far it is likely to go. The higher the frequency, the less distance it is likely to travel; with all other things being equal.
 

SkipSanders

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99% of 'possible range' is antenna height. Yours, and theirs. Most of the rest is intervening terrain. (Is there a hill/mountian between you and them?)

The rule of thumb for reliable communications is to take the square root of the antenna height in feet, and that's your range in miles. (add together the range due to the antenna at each end) You MAY get 1.5 to 2 times that far. Or you may not.

Your handheld is about 5 foot altitude. It's good for 2-3 miles, maybe 4-5 if there are no trees or buildings between the stations and flat ground. Maybe.

Most of the 'range' of a system will depend on the transmitter on the other end. If it's at 1000 feet, it's good for 32-64 miles. (34-69 counting your end) IF there's no hills in between.

If you're talking to the International Space Station, hey, you can talk 150 miles easy... because they're at 200+ miles altitude. They're in line of sight. Of course, they're also hearing every station trying to talk to them for 200 miles around them, which is kind of noisy...
 

loumaag

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Closed.

To the OP:
Please do not ask the same question again and again on this site.
 
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