Eastie
Member
What is the range of Signal Stalker in yards or miles?
What is the range of Signal Stalker?
- Thread starter Eastie
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SkipSanders
Silent Key
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10-1000 feet. Most often, 10-100 feet.
Depends on local RF noise conditions, your antenna, and power of transmitting station.
Depends on local RF noise conditions, your antenna, and power of transmitting station.
scannersnstuff
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i can unequivocally state that the estimates given for the range of signalstalker don't do it justice. while uniden scanners have their fine attributes, close call does not come close to the range of signal stalker. last night i was picking up a patrol car in a nearby town inputing the repeater. maybe about a mile or so away. depending upon the type of <for lack of a better term>, investigative listening that you are doing, this can either help or hurt you.
clarification needed : although i was using a gre psr-500 for the above example, signalstalker <radioshack> and spectrumsweeper <gre> are for all intents and purposes, the same animal.
clarification needed : although i was using a gre psr-500 for the above example, signalstalker <radioshack> and spectrumsweeper <gre> are for all intents and purposes, the same animal.
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Signal Stalker
I've picked up signals 10 miles away by using an external outdoor antenna. There are a lot of variables in determining this distance. What is your altitude? What frequency are you receiving (the band)? What is the effective radiated power of the transmission? How high is the transmitting antenna? The list goes on and on.
I've picked up signals 10 miles away by using an external outdoor antenna. There are a lot of variables in determining this distance. What is your altitude? What frequency are you receiving (the band)? What is the effective radiated power of the transmission? How high is the transmitting antenna? The list goes on and on.
Northe
Member
My best distance was about a quarter mile receiving the transmission from a local fire station with a high antenna. I also have an external indoor antenna connected to my PRO97.
Northe
N6KO
Northe
N6KO
mke65
Member
Isn't the Pro106 kind of a modified "fast search" vs the Uniden which is more of a signal detector thus the difference in the distance for "reading" the signal.
scannersnstuff
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without rehashing all the technical stuff that's readily available to read about both technologies, they both accomplish roughly the same thing,but in different way's.
StatuSChecKa
Member
how much squelch do you usually use when signal stalking? Like how far is the knob turned.
scannersnstuff
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i usually try to set all my squelch's at the lowest possible setting for sensitivity. i don't want to have to deal with "falsing" either. rule 1 when dealing with spectrumsweeper,signalstalker or close call, when a paging fq.interups your monitoring session, as soon as you lock it out and set your scanner down again, another paging frequency will pop up. never seen it fail.
This is the first time that people have hit the nail on the head with answers,well maybe not the first, but close. I always was taught that in receiving type radios ,the antenna setup was the key to good results.Walking around the back yard with an old AM radio until an weak station came in and planting the antenna on that spot.
Hooligan
Member
Which is exactly why it's utterly silly to make the claim of 10-1000', let alone 10-100'.
dragon_slayer79
Member
real life results
I personally use the Uniden BCT15X scanner and I use the close call on mine ALL the time. I live in the country with no overly close radio towers of any kind. Nearest towers are cell towers about 3 miles away other than the local co-op etc. I have a scantenna on a 60' tower with ~250' of RG6 tri-shielded coax using a preamp on the tower to help with the overwhelming signal loss I get for such a long run... ( I know horrible setup, but you deal with what you can afford to do)
That being said, it varies by the weather and frequency etc. but for my personal experience I have had the close call trip for a radio keyed ~15miles away on the 159.285 frequency and they do it on a regular basis. Everything else seems to be within 3-4 miles usually. I'm not on a hill, I'm actually in a deep hole and the tower puts the antenna roughly at average ground level for the area. I can only imagine if I could be on the hill with the tower with appropriate coax etc that a 10 mile hit would be fairly common for me and my setup/location. That said the noisier (signal wise) of a location that you live in the worse your luck will be. At least for the Uniden the close call will only trip if the signal is a certain % above the standing base level of noise. For example if you would be running the close call on a uniden scanner and see that the ambient radio noise level in the band you're wanting at 50% or so you will have to have a signal that pretty much pegs the meter in order to be able to trip the close call feature. If the new signal never exceeds the base average enough it will never register.
I had the same questions and could never get anyone to really explain it very well on here or anywhere. So I hope this helps you understand how at least for the uniden close call feature which is similar to the GRE/Radioshack features how they work. There is no magic number like 2 miles or whatever. There are a ton of variables that will affect how well it will work for you in your personal area. Best bet is do like me buy it and give it a whirl! If it doesn't do well for you then return it and go for another feature that you'd rather have or use instead. Hope that helps!
I personally use the Uniden BCT15X scanner and I use the close call on mine ALL the time. I live in the country with no overly close radio towers of any kind. Nearest towers are cell towers about 3 miles away other than the local co-op etc. I have a scantenna on a 60' tower with ~250' of RG6 tri-shielded coax using a preamp on the tower to help with the overwhelming signal loss I get for such a long run... ( I know horrible setup, but you deal with what you can afford to do)
That being said, it varies by the weather and frequency etc. but for my personal experience I have had the close call trip for a radio keyed ~15miles away on the 159.285 frequency and they do it on a regular basis. Everything else seems to be within 3-4 miles usually. I'm not on a hill, I'm actually in a deep hole and the tower puts the antenna roughly at average ground level for the area. I can only imagine if I could be on the hill with the tower with appropriate coax etc that a 10 mile hit would be fairly common for me and my setup/location. That said the noisier (signal wise) of a location that you live in the worse your luck will be. At least for the Uniden the close call will only trip if the signal is a certain % above the standing base level of noise. For example if you would be running the close call on a uniden scanner and see that the ambient radio noise level in the band you're wanting at 50% or so you will have to have a signal that pretty much pegs the meter in order to be able to trip the close call feature. If the new signal never exceeds the base average enough it will never register.
I had the same questions and could never get anyone to really explain it very well on here or anywhere. So I hope this helps you understand how at least for the uniden close call feature which is similar to the GRE/Radioshack features how they work. There is no magic number like 2 miles or whatever. There are a ton of variables that will affect how well it will work for you in your personal area. Best bet is do like me buy it and give it a whirl! If it doesn't do well for you then return it and go for another feature that you'd rather have or use instead. Hope that helps!
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