Radio shack scanner

#337632

Like to add antenna to my radio shack hand held scanner not sure model number but paid 100 bucks.Thing works great.
Question is what's the best antenna and coax setup to use.
Also id like to put the antenna on my utility poll behind my house maybe 20 feet up.What do u guys think?
litng1 from Bardstown ky.

#337635

A lot depends on frequency.

I know around Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and Northeastern Virginia a lot of the users on scanner are not there now.

However, you will probably have Amatuer 6 meters (50 - 54 MHZ), 2 meters (144 - 148 MHZ), 70 CM (440 MHZ), around 117 MHZ for airports and planes. A vertical will work well.

Any outside antenna will work fairly well on the higher frequencies (1 KHZ to .

Lower frequencies often work well with an indoor or outdoor upright loop which you can find many searching on Google.

Calculating size of antenna by 983.555 / frequency . If a dipole divide by 2 again and then multiply by .95 .

1005 / frequency if a loop antenna.

Must be heading out the door.

73, Frank.

#337636

Find yourself a discone scanner antenna. They are typically all band. 25-1300mhz. Check with our sponsors. If they don't have one I know RadioShack has them.

#337668

You said utility pole, does it have electric running to your house, not a good idea. A scanner just needs to have a receiving antenna and just about anything will work. I am using a 102" whip on an old mirror mount screwed to the handrail of my back porch with RG58/U (because I have a spool) to the scanner. I added a ground wire but it didn't change the reception.

3's

Greg

#337678

Yes power to house on that pole.

litng1 from Bardstown ky.

#337686

Unless you live in a really rural area the signal for most of the channels your scanner will pick up are amplified through a repeater system so you don't need to get the antenna extremely high, you could mount it on the eve at the peak of the roof.

3's

Greg

#337689

I pick up local stuff great.Like to get out 50 miles or so.Louisville area.
Q

litng1 from Bardstown ky.

#346877

Roof mounted or Side mounted Satellite antenna mast.... without the dish of coarse. They are not very long but can be modified, a satellite roof mount base with the stem sticking up makes a good antenna mount "if" it is a short antenna. Discone antenna you could use on it if you add a few feet to the antenna mount. I done this and it works very well for me. I just went to a dishnetwork retailer and bought the antenna mount separate. Just food for thought.

#346894

I just put up a the very inexpensive discone scanner antenna from Radio Shack hooked to my Pro197 with RG8X coax. The antenna has the PL-259 connector and Radio Shack has the adapter for the back of the radio to allow the PL-259 to connect to the back of the radio. So far it's working great.

'Doc · #346978

An outdoor antenna will be 'better' than an indoor one, less attenuation from having a signal go 'through' stuff. Higher is also better, it extends the antenna's 'line of sight'. You see further from the top of a ladder than the bottom, and so do antennas.
Probably the cheapest and 'dirtiest' scanner antenna is a simple wire thrown over the roof of your house. Won't be the 'best' by any means, but it does work.
Lot's of possibilities!
Have fun.
- 'Doc

#346981

I just recently found an older RS Pro 29 handheld scanner at the flea market for 5 bucks. It had the old rubber duck on it. Now i knew it wasn't a trunk tracker but figured it could be a handy little gadget to have. Anyhow to get on point I bought a mobile scanner antenna that is multi-band (25-1500MHz) that came with 9' of RG-58 and a BNC connector for the radio. I clipped to coax and put pl259's on it and a barrel to make it longer. I ran the antenna outside to a big L bracket I bought at Walmart that I screwed to the apartment building and mounted it there. It barely clears the roof line but it picks up so much better than the rubber duck. And you can barely see it. I have no problems picking up 800 MHz stations up to 60 miles. The lower band reception is totally fantastic. I got that antenna also at the flea market for 10 bucks. I'm sure if I had a big old discone I'd pick up even better but for what I want to hear I don't need it. Ask yourself what you want to hear and go accordingly to that and you'll be fine.

#361513

Can affirm the Radio Shack $30 job, a clone/license copy of Antenna Craft ST3, does a superlative job ... it's not supposed to pull in 10-meter well, but it can. On 2-meter and 70-cm, it really shines.

#377942

I hear a lot about height and length, but you have to find out what is in the area .Remember everything has gone to narrow banding. Which limits the travel and the strength. Also with all the trunking going on like P25 and such, you need to find out if your scanner will do all of that stuff. All of the height won't matter if you can't pick up the tone. Just food for thought

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