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Home Scanner Setup

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:39 am
by dazla
Hi guys,

Im thinking about setting up a outside antenna so that I can plug it into my Handheld scanner at home to get better reception/coverage of the metropolitan area.

I am considering using some sort of gutter mount for the antenna but would like to know if anyone else has a home setup and how they have done it.

Thanks in advance.

Daz

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:28 am
by Steve
I've always used a discone mounted on a TV antenna pole, with the pole attached to a side wall with dynabolts. It's the same set-up a TV antenna installer might do, but with a discone instead of a TV antenna.

Regardless of what sort of antenna you use, the cable is critical, especially at UHF. Over a long run (more than ten metres) use low-loss coax: RG-213 or even 9913 if you're dinkum. The best antenna can be rendered worthless if there isn't a good cable to allow the signal it catches to reach your receiver.

Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:04 pm
by Pty
This is my base setup:

Image

I have a few cb's and and a commercial unit and a mobile/desk scanner. Of all these radios, even if plugged into the same antenna the Icom blows the rest away.


And this is my aerial array:

Image

I have a 6bd 2.1m vertical with 15m of RG213 and a 4.5db stainless to the side with 15m of RG58 and a 16 element beam wqith 10m of RG213. I also have 2 aerials mounted with gutter mounts on the gutter because the antennas on the array are useless when transmitting because there's not enough seperation and they get overloaded so i use the gutter mount aerials for when i want to listen to my scanner/other cb WHILE talking... ;)

The beam is a very good listening scanner when pointed the right way. I can point it west of my location and hear the darling downs SES repeater link system which is about 400-500klm from my location. Once again, the icom only allows me to her it.

A scanner is a good radio but when you know the freq and want top or weak signals a 'dedicated' radio which only receives that band is best.

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:46 pm
by matt-g12
how have you powered your cbs up. like using an adapter for normal gpo or what i am very interested

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:58 pm
by Bonez
The big white box under the Icom is a 240v to 13.8v power supply.

Like a big transformer that steps the power down to a suitable voltage for the CB's and gives a constant supply.

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:48 pm
by JG-103
:shock:
niice

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:46 pm
by matt-g12
how much did the tanformer thing cost

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:10 am
by Lino
The Discone is an Excellent Antenna to use and it has a wide frequency coverage and there is a few good Discones and these are the Discones that I use 1/COMET-DS3000,1/DIAMOND-D150,2/ICOM-AH7000,they all work well but the ICOM does cost more and you do get 50 feet of good quality low loss cable from Japan with 2 N/TYPE connectors.

Regards Lino.