I have two antennas on my car. A Firestik 3' (the "scanner" version) on a
5" mag dead center on my roof, and a 14" steel whip about 12" forward of the
Firestik. The Firestik has nice thick RG58 and a solid base. The 14" I got
on Ebay for $8 shipped and has coax so thin I can wrap it around a pencil
(unshielded).

I listen to about 60 stations within a hundred mile radius, depending on
local conditions. Of these 60, my 14" bring in most of them clearly enough
to hear. My Firestik brings in 9. NINE. And all of those stations are
within 7 miles of me.

My Firestik is picking up 15% of the stations my cheap Ebay antenna picks
up. Any comments or suggestions? I am about to buy a second cheapie and
scrap the Firestik outright.

Thanks.

What type of cable is on the Firestick? If it's RG58, then there is way too
much signal loss, especially above 50MHz.

Bill Crocker


"User" wrote in message
...
I have two antennas on my car. A Firestik 3' (the "scanner" version) on a
5" mag dead center on my roof, and a 14" steel whip about 12" forward of
the Firestik. The Firestik has nice thick RG58 and a solid base. The 14"
I got on Ebay for $8 shipped and has coax so thin I can wrap it around a
pencil (unshielded).

I listen to about 60 stations within a hundred mile radius, depending on
local conditions. Of these 60, my 14" bring in most of them clearly
enough to hear. My Firestik brings in 9. NINE. And all of those
stations are within 7 miles of me.

My Firestik is picking up 15% of the stations my cheap Ebay antenna picks
up. Any comments or suggestions? I am about to buy a second cheapie and
scrap the Firestik outright.

Thanks.

What type of cable is on the Firestick? If it's RG58, then there is way
too much signal loss, especially above 50MHz.

RG58. The whole setup (antenna, base, cable) was advertised as "covering
25-1300mhz with extra power in the busy 140-170mhz band"

That's your problem!

Bill Crocker


"User" wrote in message
...
What type of cable is on the Firestick? If it's RG58, then there is way
too much signal loss, especially above 50MHz.

RG58. The whole setup (antenna, base, cable) was advertised as "covering
25-1300mhz with extra power in the busy 140-170mhz band"

That's your problem!

Jacket says "Fire Flex RG58 A/U"

Great. Dang thing was sold as a scanner antenna. What kind of cable do I
need?

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 15:50:16 -0700, "User" wrote:

That's your problem!

Jacket says "Fire Flex RG58 A/U"

Great. Dang thing was sold as a scanner antenna. What kind of cable do I
need?

THE RG 58 IS FINE BELOW 500 MHZ

THE RG 58 IS FINE BELOW 500 MHZ


So its the antenna then? Because reception in the bands I listen to
(130-175mhz) is no better than a paperclip indoors....

"User" wrote in message
...
THE RG 58 IS FINE BELOW 500 MHZ


So its the antenna then? Because reception in the bands I listen to
(130-175mhz) is no better than a paperclip indoors....

As a ham operator I can tell you that up to 450 Mhz and under 20 feet of
coax you will not notice any big differance in the coax. I have been
operating the 144 and 440 Mhz bands for over 25 years and that is all I used
tuil I installed a new antenna a while back. Almost all the antennas use the
rg-58 mobile. I did switch to the rg-8x and put a piece about a foot long
of some rg-174 (the very small stuff) to get out of the trunk to the
antenna. That still does not make any noticable differance.

As a ham operator I can tell you that up to 450 Mhz and under 20 feet of
coax you will not notice any big differance in the coax. I have been

Thanks Ralph. So the fix is, then, to sell me new $50 antenna and buy
another $8 from Ebay...

the firestik is a helic wound effort.
it should show a short circuit across the connector pins

mike

"User" wrote in message
...
THE RG 58 IS FINE BELOW 500 MHZ


So its the antenna then? Because reception in the bands I listen to
(130-175mhz) is no better than a paperclip indoors....