| Author |
Message |
    
Samuel Slotkin (Unregistered Guest)
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 8:50 pm: | 
|
Hey guys, I have been looking over the forums and there seems to be plenty of people who know what they are talking about. I was just given a old BearCat 210 Scanner and i know absolutely nothing about it or frequencies etc... I got a manual in PDF form and it tells me how to work it. It didn't come with a antenna however. I was wondering if anybody could clue me in a homemade way to make a antenna. I really only want to listen the the Police CV radios and see what's going on. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks for you Time! Samuel |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1579
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 5:11 am: |
|
DISCONE's are a good wide band antenna for a scanner you can buy them on the internet. |
The_rev
Junior Member
Username: The_rev
Post Number: 16
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 9:25 am: |
|
One trick you can try is to get an adapter that go's from pl-259 connecter into a b-c connecter, then using only the center lead of your coax connecter from your standard c.b. base antenna hook the scanner directly!
I know this sounds a little odd but I have done this many times and believe me it really works!
let me know if it helped?
THE REV...... |
Dindin
Intermediate Member
Username: Dindin
Post Number: 378
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 8:39 pm: |
|
I'll agree with Bruce,the discone is about the best antenna I have used for wideband scanner use. |
Slugo4449
New member
Username: Slugo4449
Post Number: 9
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 6:55 pm: |
|
I kinda like the copper cactus/J-pole. Figure out what frequency you want to listen to the most and make one out of simple copper pipe. Just type "copper cactus" antenna into any search engine and you will find the plans. I have a tri band j-pole and it works great listening to the police and fire freqs here. |
Slugo4449
Junior Member
Username: Slugo4449
Post Number: 10
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 7:01 pm: |
|
One more thing. Don't even think about using RG-58u for the coaxial cable. Most police frequencies are above the 2 meter ham freqs. Remember the higher in frequency you go the more lossy the coaxial cable.
Wanna do it right? Buy some LMR-400, but you could probably get away using RG-8u, not the mini 8. |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 1611
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 9:24 pm: |
|
J-poles are good monoband antennas and USE GOOD COAX! 4449 is right! |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 855
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 11:55 pm: |
|
A discone has only slightly less gain that a J-pole, but it will cover a lot more frequencies. Above the FM broadcast band, the coax is about 10 times more important than the antenna. LMR 400 or LMR 900 are the minimum. I highly suggest Heliax for runs over 50 feet. The coax will add a bunch of gain. |
Applejack
Intermediate Member
Username: Applejack
Post Number: 220
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 8:43 pm: |
|
mine is hooked to the tv antenna and works fine for me. i get local cops and fire/emergency just fine also the wx channels |
Tech833
Moderator
Username: Tech833
Post Number: 876
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 20, 2004 - 11:17 am: |
|
That's great A.J.!
If you ever decide you wish to hear signals further away or pull weak signals (like hand held radios) out of th enoise, try installing a dedicated antenna with high quality coax. You will be amazed what you hear.
I read a great article someone wrote about the HUGE difference changing from RG9 to quality coax made in an installation. The article is here- http://www.popularwireless.com/gmrshomeantenna.html
Quote from the article: "My signal strength into the three local repeaters I use increased significantly. Right away I found that usable direct communication between radios on the repeater outputs (talk around) increased by several miles. My wife and I can use direct communication around town without burdening the rest of the world with our shopping trips. Why use a repeater at 3800 feet that serves most of Northern California if you don't have to. Now our base to mobile communication is incredibly reliable virtually anywhere we need it. This includes base to hand-held radio communication. Prior to installing our antenna the right way we had some difficulty with hand-held direct communication. Now if we can hear it we can pretty much talk to it." |
