What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna? I have nothing to attach
an antenna to on my roof. I'm newbie at this, and was curious as to
how hard it would be to install this

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...rs&tab=support

Years ago my neighbor was a cb freak, and he had a freaking tall
antenna on his roof. How would I get this up high enough? Could
someone really help a newbie out on what i would need to buy to get
this antenna just right for scanning. I'm not afraid to do anything,
but seriously just don't know what all I need, and what i should
expect from this type of setup.

When I lived in San Antonio, I had a Grove Scanner Beam up 25 ft. With it, I could easily pick up car to car transmissons over 150 miles away. Can you put up an antenna that high Yes, it is directional and you could mount a rotor on the pole.

On 2005-10-28 11:30:45 -0700, Scott said:

What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna? I have nothing to attach
an antenna to on my roof. I'm newbie at this, and was curious as to
how hard it would be to install this

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...rs&tab=support

Years

ago my neighbor was a cb freak, and he had a freaking tall
antenna on his roof. How would I get this up high enough? Could
someone really help a newbie out on what i would need to buy to get
this antenna just right for scanning. I'm not afraid to do anything,
but seriously just don't know what all I need, and what i should
expect from this type of setup.

Hi Scott

The discone type antenna is probably the best antenna available for a
scanner. Of course there are some other considerations to be aware of,
specifically, what are your "bands of interest"? Would you also like
to be able to receive transmissions from satellites, and/or other
overhead aircraft? Are you interested in receiving signals from a great
distance, or just local traffic? You're in luck, the Discone does all
that!

If you have a "vent pipe" on your roof, it would then only require a
short section of mast to mount the Discone to, and then mount the mast
to the vent pipe. This is exactly how I have mounted my discone, and
it works very well.

I have even used a Discone antenna inside with quite acceptable
results. The advantage here is that only a very short cable is
required.

There are many types of Discone antennas available, and for different
parts of the RF spectrum. AOR has one which is good form 75Mhz - 3Ghz,
and it is less than three feet tall. Do a search for "DS3000".

Hope this helps.

Best regards

george

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:26:20 -0700, George
wrote:

Sounds like what I need then. Will the work with a handheld scanner? I
have the Pro 95. I see that I need the discone Antenna, the vent pipe
mount that i also saw at RS...What about wiring? I need cable and
adapter plugs to get everything hooked up from the Antenna to my
scanner. What type of Cable if I go with the outside setup?

I'm also wondering what type of connectors I need to hook the antenna
up to the pro 95 handheld. I basically just need to know exactly what
type of cable and connectors I need to finish this job. I see so many
connectors but dont know which ones I need Help!!! What else do i
need? Remember I'm a newbie

On 2005-10-28 11:30:45 -0700, Scott said:

What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna? I have nothing to attach
an antenna to on my roof. I'm newbie at this, and was curious as to
how hard it would be to install this

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...rs&tab=support

Years

ago my neighbor was a cb freak, and he had a freaking tall
antenna on his roof. How would I get this up high enough? Could
someone really help a newbie out on what i would need to buy to get
this antenna just right for scanning. I'm not afraid to do anything,
but seriously just don't know what all I need, and what i should
expect from this type of setup.

Hi Scott

The discone type antenna is probably the best antenna available for a
scanner. Of course there are some other considerations to be aware of,
specifically, what are your "bands of interest"? Would you also like
to be able to receive transmissions from satellites, and/or other
overhead aircraft? Are you interested in receiving signals from a great
distance, or just local traffic? You're in luck, the Discone does all
that!

If you have a "vent pipe" on your roof, it would then only require a
short section of mast to mount the Discone to, and then mount the mast
to the vent pipe. This is exactly how I have mounted my discone, and
it works very well.

I have even used a Discone antenna inside with quite acceptable
results. The advantage here is that only a very short cable is
required.

There are many types of Discone antennas available, and for different
parts of the RF spectrum. AOR has one which is good form 75Mhz - 3Ghz,
and it is less than three feet tall. Do a search for "DS3000".

Hope this helps.

Best regards

george

Scott wrote in
:

What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna? I have nothing to attach
an antenna to on my roof. I'm newbie at this, and was curious as to
how hard it would be to install this

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...arch&cp=&produ
ctId=2103160&kw=base+scanners&tab=support

Years ago my neighbor was a cb freak, and he had a freaking tall
antenna on his roof. How would I get this up high enough? Could
someone really help a newbie out on what i would need to buy to get
this antenna just right for scanning. I'm not afraid to do anything,
but seriously just don't know what all I need, and what i should
expect from this type of setup.

Well yes you do have things on your roof to attach an antenna to :-)
You have 2" or 3" or 4" pipes sticking out the top of your roof, i.e.
every home or apartment in the USA has them. If your buying that
Radio**** antenna then you also need to pick up:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...tId=2062040&cp

and

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062033
&cp=&kw=antenna+mast&parentPage=search

and you will need

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...tId=2103483&cp

and last

http://www.radioshack.com/search/ind...Id=&kw=278-120

And that will put you 5 feet in the air.. You can stop into Lowe's and
pickup a 10 foot mast for $14.00 rather then use the 5 footer from
Radio****..

--
kla1899

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:30:45 -0400, Scott wrote:

What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna?

strong signals will overload most scanners, and you will get stuff on
frequencies you won't expect or want. might need a notch filter to
go along with the antenna.


---
Bob Anderson*Bitwisebob
Eugene Oregon

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:30:45 -0400, Scott said in
rec.radio.scanner:

Could someone really help a newbie out on what i would need to buy to get
this antenna just right for scanning. I'm not afraid to do anything,
but seriously just don't know what all I need, and what i should
expect from this type of setup.

Four things you should be aware of:

1) A discone is a negative gain antenna - that is, it has less gain
than a dipole, which is the standard by which 0 gain is measured.
Since the signal it receives is so weak, the cable is VERY important -
the lower the loss the better, even if it's a fairly short run. DON'T
buy your cable from Radio Shack - they don't sell any low loss cable -
only cable that's lowER loss than the regular cable. Go to this site
http://www.timesmicrowave.com/cgi-bin/calculate.pl, plug in the
highest frequency you're interested in (will you be listening to
850?), the cable type (try a few of the common ones - RG6, RG8, RG58)
and the approximate length of cable, and you'll see how much signal
the cable will lose. Look at the "efficiency". Subtract that from
100 and that's how much signal is being lost.

Don't let anyone tell you that it only matters if you're transmitting.
Do you see any "direction" choice there? The same amount of signal is
lost in both directions. (Actually a little more is lost with a
scanner because the scanner isn't a 50 ohm load to the cable.)

Be prepared to spend at least 50 cents/foot for decent cable and up to
$2/foot for good cable. Putting up a gainless antenna and lossy cable
(like 100 feet of RG58 for 850 MHz - 96% of the signal is lost in the
cable) is just a waste of time and money. You'll probably receive
better with a rubber duck on the scanner.

2) Don't buy hype, buy an antenna.

If a discone is designed properly, and very well made, it will cover a
frequency range of 4:1. (Most real - not on paper - discones are more
like 3:1.) The lowest frequency is that at which the radials are 1/4
wave long. So to receive VHF-lo well they have to be about 6 feet
long. The highest frequency this antenna will be any good at will be
about 120 MHz.

The typical discone with 3 foot radials will cover from about 75-225
MHz.

25-1300 MHz is advertising copy, not measured performance. If anyone
can get a discone (without a whip sticking up on top - just a pure
discone - if you want whips, buy a Scantenna, or something like it) to
cover a 50:1 frequency range (25-1300), you're going to hear him named
a Nobel prize winner in physics. And science will have to be
rethought.

ANYTHING that's not an insulator will receive signals. The question
is whether that thing, at the end of some reasonable length of
affordable cable will receive any more signal than an antenna plugged
right into the scanner. Why put up an antenna that gives you 6db gain
over the antenna on the scanner and connect it with cable that gives
you 9db loss? You just REDUCED the signal you're going to hear by 50%
(3db). Sure the antenna has 6db gain over the one on the scanner -
but it's not going to do you any good unless the cable loss is less
than 6db.

3) Wherever you put the antenna, and no matter how high you put it,
figure out where it will fall if the mount breaks away at the base. It
should fall within the confines of your property - for a few of
reasons.

1) You don't want a neighbor getting hurt if it falls.
2) You WILL be considered legally negligent if you mount it so that it
can fall outside your property line.
3) Your insurance won't cover the judgment against you - you'll pay it
all out of your pocket.

But don't mount an antenna on your chimney. Aside from the fact that
a chimney isn't made to withstand the torque produced when the wind
hits the antenna, part of what goes up the flue is sulphur and, when
it comes into contact with water (like from air with any humidity at
all), it forms sulphuric acid. Do you really want your antenna bathed
in that for months at a time every year?

Add last, but by no means least, if you're going to put up an outside
antenna, PLEASE put in a good grounding system, ground the mast to it
and use a static discharge device on the cable. The ground system
should tie ALL the grounds in the house to one point - telephone,
electric, antenna. And a decent ground (not a good one, a decent one)
is AT LEAST 4 10 foot ground rods spaced in a rectangle at least 10
feet on a side, with wire going from 1 to the next, but NOT forming a
loop, with all your grounds connected at one point along that run -
any one point, preferably near the middle.

I'm not making this up - read the National Electric Code on grounding,
or ask an electrician. This is important - people are killed every
year by bad antenna installations. Not many - but if you're one of
them, it doesn't matter how many there are.

With all that in mind, this is a hobby, so enjoy it.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 10:45:03 -0700, Bob Anderson
said in rec.radio.scanner:

On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 14:30:45 -0400, Scott wrote:

What could I expect from an outdoor Antenna?

strong signals will overload most scanners, and you will get stuff on
frequencies you won't expect or want. might need a notch filter to
go along with the antenna.

A lot of notch filters. FM Broadcast. A few to cover the TV
broadcast spectrum.

GRE receivers don't like big antennas - they overload easily.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2005 07:43:52 -0400, Scott said in
rec.radio.scanner:

Sounds like what I need then. Will the work with a handheld scanner?

The antenna will work with anything. A GRE (Radio Shack) scanner will
overload easily so, if there are any transmitters within a few miles
of you, you probably don't want too much antenna.

What about wiring? I need cable and
adapter plugs to get everything hooked up from the Antenna to my
scanner. What type of Cable if I go with the outside setup?

Again - how long and what frequency?

I'm also wondering what type of connectors I need to hook the antenna
up to the pro 95 handheld.

BNC for the scanner end. I'm not sure about that particular antenna,
but I think it takes a PL-259 (278-205). Soldered. Even at 150 MHz,
you don't want a non-solder connector. At 850 MHz, it's as good as 5
feet of cable missing between the antenna and scanner. Radio Shack
doesn't list a solder-type BNC connector, so you might want to use
another PL-259 (they come 2 to a pack at RS) and use an adapter
(278-120) to go to the scanner.

"Al Klein" wrote in message
Four things you should be aware of:

1) A discone is a negative gain antenna - that is, it has less gain
than a dipole, which is the standard by which 0 gain is measured.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name 1 "scanner" antenna that does have gain? Not an
amatuer antenna a "scanner" antenna. NONE, have any gain.
If you want to use a amateur antenna as in a dual band, fine.
But its going to operate in negative gain territory outside of its
design limits also. Not many people want to listen to just 2 areas
of the spectrum, i.e. 146Mhz and or 440Mhz. With trunking a
fact of life nowdays most people want to listen anywhere from
100 to 900Mhz. There are only 2 antennas that work well all
the way thru that area, one is the discone and the other is the
Austin Ferret. With the Ferret running at 225$ most people dont
want to spend that much.

Since the signal it receives is so weak, the cable is VERY important -
the lower the loss the better, even if it's a fairly short run. DON'T
buy your cable from Radio Shack - they don't sell any low loss cable -
only cable that's lowER loss than the regular cable. Go to this site
http://www.timesmicrowave.com/cgi-bin/calculate.pl, plug in the
highest frequency you're interested in (will you be listening to
850?), the cable type (try a few of the common ones - RG6, RG8, RG58)
and the approximate length of cable, and you'll see how much signal
the cable will lose. Look at the "efficiency". Subtract that from
100 and that's how much signal is being lost.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually a nice link, very informative and agree with it
totally. I use Quad Shielded RG 6 with only about a 25' run. Im good
up to about 1 Gig. Not much above that to listen to anyway.


Be prepared to spend at least 50 cents/foot for decent cable and up to
$2/foot for good cable. Putting up a gainless antenna and lossy cable
(like 100 feet of RG58 for 850 MHz - 96% of the signal is lost in the
cable) is just a waste of time and money. You'll probably receive
better with a rubber duck on the scanner.

2) Don't buy hype, buy an antenna.

If a discone is designed properly, and very well made, it will cover a
frequency range of 4:1. (Most real - not on paper - discones are more
like 3:1.) The lowest frequency is that at which the radials are 1/4
wave long. So to receive VHF-lo well they have to be about 6 feet
long. The highest frequency this antenna will be any good at will be
about 120 MHz.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually a good discone is closer to a 10: 1 ratio. Most, without
the vertical stinger are good from 100-1000Mhz. I have transmitted
on mine on 52, 144, 440, and 904Mhz with anywhere from excellent
to good results. ( mine does have the stinger) Actually mine works
very well in the 900Mhz area in general, better than any other scanner
antennas I have used, and I have had them all up at one time or another.
Scantenna, Scan King 1500, various Antenna Specialist scanner antennas
and most of them were almost deaf in that range.

The typical discone with 3 foot radials will cover from about 75-225
MHz.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The math for a discone is totally different than the math for
a dipole. They just dont work the same way.


3) Wherever you put the antenna, and no matter how high you put it,
figure out where it will fall if the mount breaks away at the base. It
should fall within the confines of your property - for a few of
reasons.

Agreed

Add last, but by no means least, if you're going to put up an outside
antenna, PLEASE put in a good grounding system, ground the mast to it
and use a static discharge device on the cable. The ground system
should tie ALL the grounds in the house to one point - telephone,
electric, antenna. And a decent ground (not a good one, a decent one)
is AT LEAST 4 10 foot ground rods spaced in a rectangle at least 10
feet on a side, with wire going from 1 to the next, but NOT forming a
loop, with all your grounds connected at one point along that run -
any one point, preferably near the middle.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You're getting carried away here again with the grounding thing.
Nobody, and I mean nobody puts a grd system in as you describe here.
It simply isnt needed.

I'm not making this up - read the National Electric Code on grounding,
or ask an electrician. This is important - people are killed every
year by bad antenna installations. Not many - but if you're one of
them, it doesn't matter how many there are.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The people that do get killed are the idiots that put up a mast
and an antenna 10' from a power line, and when it goes down and lands
on a power line bad things happen. Rule No. 1, do not put ANY
antenna even remotely close to ANY power line and you wont have
any problems.