discone intall

[nikoll]

hi all i have a ubcd396 and am wanting to put up an aerial at home this weekend/week!! I am going to use a discone as i dont search for anything inparticular and am using a 40ft telescopic mast!!i am in mt cotton so am in a ditch so i am wondering best type of discone and where to buy it as well as type of coax!!Price is nt an issue but dont want to go overboard!!so far am looking at a diamond antenna and some rg6(was originally looking at 213) i know its the wrong ohms but was told its good for recive only as i need a fair length and is easy to buy in large amounts!!!please leave all feedback as i dont want to do this install twice!also will i notice a huge difference or just a minor from my aerial on the scanner at the moment(stock one))At the moment i am pretty restrictd to close signalls such as logan cops and ambos and fireies!!i enjoy them but would like to hear the airport and brooadin my listening pleasure i have a top scanner but limited home use as of my position!!!all feedback and recommendations for brands and places to buy from are welcom in advance !!(also is it worth hookin up a preamp to the areial!!) cheers nikoll!!!!!!!!!!!nikoll

[Finch]

My advice is that discones aren't that great. If you only want to listen to UHF, get a UHF antenna it will be much better and cheaper than a discone. How long is your coaxial run? You can probably get away with RG-58, but RG-6 will do.
If you want to listen to airband too, I find my UHF whip quite good on most bands.

[alinco21]

but then again I have a discone and it works great, I suppose apples for apples.

Paul.

[Finch]

Yeah they work fine but they're a wideband antenna and they haven't got very much gain, 2.15dBi max. But they'll work better than a internal antenna but a antenna for each band is better.

[hotmetal1000]

A discone is a multi band antenna and makes an excellant multi band receiving antenna.
If all you really want to listen to is uhf stuff then a uhf anttenna is the go.
My icom discone out preforms my friends vetical scanner antenna.
Your rg6 should be alright for receiving.
You will notice a big difference with the discone up on the roof compared to hand held antenna.

[dags]

i have got 2 mobile scanner aerials on roof one on the south side and lower part of roof and one on the higher part of the roof joined together boy did i notice the difference when i connected the other one

[nikoll]

thanks guys i have made up my mind to buy the icom ah7000 that comes with 50ft of low loss cable!!which will allow me to get it up 40 odd ft in the air!!MY only other worry now is it worth running a preamp with it to improve general scanning as i can order one tomorrow with the antenna from sydney!cheers nikk

[hotmetal1000]

I forgot the Icom come with the coax, you won't be dissappointed with it. As for the preamp I don't run one probably only really necassary if there is something there low down that you really want to listen to.

[Scannersplitterguy]

nikoll, why so many !!! exclamation marks? lol...

Anyway, with the discone and good quality coax, mounted 40' high, you will have more than enough signal.
In fact, a preamp may cause overloading of the receiver front-end if you start with a healthy signal.

[AIRMAN]

My present home is in an excellent RX position for most UHF and VHF traffic with the scanner plugged into a TV wall socket.

I have a Diamond Discone which has been in my shed in its packet since I moved up here. I previously had it working on the roof of my place when I lived in Wagga Wagga. It really worked very well on the roof with15m of RG213 down inside the wall cavity to my office. I was able to receive police, fire brigades and Ambo's as far away as Canberra. Also VHF aviation from air movements over NSW and Melbourne ATC. I had the set up professionally installed and it was well worth it. The guy told me RG213 is the best over 10m as it is has much lower signal loss than RG58. Naturally it costs a lot more!LOL

[carmelof]

Hi been using the Icom-AH7000 discone for a long time excellent results on vhf/uhf cable i use is the Icom 5D-2V supplied with the antenna i did have other discones before from aor,comet,diamond but the perfromance wasnt as good i also use belden-9913 cable.

Regards Lino