| Author |
Message |
    
Chad
Advanced Member
Username: Chad
Post Number: 726
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 11:44 am: | 
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Well folks, it's storm season. I life in the sticks in the tornado belt and a few communities near me got hit last night. I have a Midland WR-100 weather alert radio that accepts an external antenna.
I would like to place an external antenna in the loft of my home and feed 2 identical radios with it. I have one radio on the main level of the home and would like to purchase another for the basement where the bedrooms are located.
I had an old mag mount antenna that I placed on top of the kitchen cabinent, it came from an old GE Emergency CB radio and had an RCA connector on it that fit the weather radio. It works OK but would like something better. The built in antenna does not so well and is always in the way in the kitchen.
The frequency that is used in my area is 162.550 Mhz. I would assume a directional antenna would be rather small.
I also do not know the impedance of the antenna input of the radio, it is not in the manual or specs, If anyone knows of this type of situation or has done this before please chime in. the one purchased for the basement will not be able to receive down there. I plan to run coax down thru the walls while i am doing a remodel. I'm also assuming a small low loss coax would work best correct?
Just trying to keep the family safe as there is no sirens within miles of me.
Chad |
Bruce
Senior Member
Username: Bruce
Post Number: 3637
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 1:33 pm: |
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a RINGO or a J-Pole should work just fine. Mount them high enough to clear the house feed with good mini-8 and you should be good to go. |
Hollowpoint445
Senior Member
Username: Hollowpoint445
Post Number: 1136
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 9:17 pm: |
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How is your reception in the loft? The reason I ask is that you probably don't need a directional antenna. I get three different NOAA weather radio stations where I live with a discone in my attic. An improvised 1/4 wave groundplane would be my first try. Impedance really isn't much of an issue for reception. I'd guess that either 50 or 75 ohm coax will work just fine. Because of that I'd suggest RG6 because of it's excellent shielding and inexpensive 75 ohm splitters and amplifiers. |
2ir473
Member
Username: 2ir473
Post Number: 76
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 9:31 pm: |
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I run a Midland WR-300 and share an antenna with my scanner. The antenna is a simple Radio Shack 20-176 V/UHF antenna, costs about $25.
I split the antenna feed to the two radios using a cable TV splitter, rated for 1300 mhz.
Since the splitter uses video f-connectors, I use an f-bnc adapter for the scanner, and an f-RCA (phono plug) for the back of the weather radio. It works well and shows no insertion loss.
Your weather radios could be fed with RG-6 or RG-8 coax. |
Chad
Advanced Member
Username: Chad
Post Number: 727
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 9:22 am: |
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Great news, thanks guys! Reception in the loft is great, it's a log home with very little metal. The main level unit sits right on the counter next to the microwave and the antenna gets in the way when extended. Even extended reception is iffy. I was concerned about getting alerts (S.A.M.E. equipped) so I added a makeshift unit as described. I'm certainly happy that splitting will be easier than thought! I'll give it a shot this weekend.
Again, thanks!
Chad |
Wildrat
Advanced Member
Username: Wildrat
Post Number: 833
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 8:51 pm: |
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I don't think the weather radio cares what kind of antenna it has. I just had a piece of wire around ten feet long on one, it got like three stations also. The reason the wire was around ten feet long is because that was the first piece of wire I grabbed out of my wire box. Real Scientific. |
Yankee
Senior Member
Username: Yankee
Post Number: 1101
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 6:35 pm: |
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All I know is that my 2 meter antennas work great on a weather radio, I also have a two meter J-pole home built that does wonders on a weather radio, the other antenna being a factory 5/8 over 5/8 wave, 9 foot tall overall and is a ground plane. An A-99 or IMAX-2000 will even work with the weather radio, a scanner or weather radio isn't that fussy about an antenna. |
