Small vs Big

What scanner to buy? What's the best antenna to use? Programming? Ask here!

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Tom
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Small vs Big

Post by Tom »

G'day Folks,

Just a quick question.

I have an external gutter mounted external aerial with a 1.75m Dick Smith black plasic covered aerial.

If I was to invest in a bigger, taller aerial would this improve the operating characteristics of my scanner, meaning would I be able to pick up further away more clearly. I live in the Northern suburbs near Landsdale??

My set-up works fine if listening to WAPOL ch21 and ch8, but ch12 is very weak.

Also any advice on exact types of recommended aerials.

Thanks heaps.

cheers

Tom
Steve
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150+ posts
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Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:03 am

Post by Steve »

Firstly, if it's any consolation, a police car with a proper police two-way radio and tuned UHF antenna would be hard pressed to pick channel 12 from Landsdale. The distance, terrain and power of the transmitter and location of the repeater conspire to ensure that!

What you're realising first-hand is that scanning antennas are almost always a compromise. Many of us listen to VKI on 468MHz, FESA on 78MHz, aircraft around 120MHz and more. Although our receivers can receive these frequencies, no one antenna can perform well in all these bands.

The discone provides a good compromise (there's that word again!) in base situation. Mobile operation is altogether more frustrating: if you just want to listen to the police on UHF, I suggest getting a dedicated UHF antenna: the sort you see on police cars. If you want to listen to a range of frequencies, I've had surprisingly good results with a steel whip 90cm high - the sort you see on fire engines. That gives you a quarter-wave on 78MHz, a half-wave on 156MHz and one and half 'waves' on 468MHz. The maths for UHF sound odd, I know, but it works.

The other thing with mobile operation is, of course, your location. As I said earlier, the best antenna won't pick up radio waves that simply aren't reaching you. The higher you are, the closer to the repeater you are, performance will improve.
JG-103

Post by JG-103 »

Tom
bigger is better, and the higher it is, generally the clearer it is but it all depends on the frequencies you want to listen to and if the antenna is designed/dedicated to picken them up. Also topograghy, the land around where you live and the hills will also play a significant role in what you can pick up and how good. JG103 :P
Tom
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Post by Tom »

Cheers for your help Gents.

rgds

Tom
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