Very good information and I thank you. Never considered the loss
factor and where to put preamp in the line. I think my answer is
better antenna and I am thinking of putting a discone on roof and
running coax to my desk. sounds like that is the way to go. Do
discones have gain? I am trying to hear 800mhz system that is approx
30 miles away

"Bill Crocker" wrote in message ...
I've had mixed results with preamps. Ideally, if you could mount a roof-top
antenna, with the preamp close to the antenna, it would then amplify the
signal, and "push" it down the coax, into your scanner. There are some that
work like this. However, most preamps are at the other end of the coax,
next to your radio. The problem here is two fold. Much of the original
signal has already been deluted, due to loss in the coax. Noise has been
picked up, on the coax, then amplified, along with the signal.

Another problem you can encounter when using a preamp is desensitizing the
radio, due to front end overload. Most state-of-the-art scanners, alreay
have sensitive circuits, and preamps can overload these circuits, causing
them to attenuate the signal, overall, therefore negating the benifit of
using the preamp to begin with.

Considering your distance, you would benifit most, from a good outdoor
antenna, mounted resonably high. Keep in mind, the loss in long antenna
cables, can have a negative impact on your end result. I would try to keep
the lenght of your coax to a minimum, 30~50 feet at most. Use high quality,
low loss coax, with high quality connectors, properly attached. Antennas,
and coax, have been discussed countless times, in the groups, so rather than
reterate all that, just do a search on Google.

If you decide to go for another preamp, check he
http://scanner.greamerica.com/amp.html

For antennas, check these links:
http://www.grove-ent.com/scannerantennas.html
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants.html

Bill Crocker



"Jim" wrote in message
om...
Is there a good scanner preamp out there? I bought one of those coax
inline jobs from RS and it did nothing at all for my BC 245 or my BC
9000. I didn't notice any change at all. I am out in the country and
miles away from where I want to scan and I am thinking maybe I should
try different antennas now. Preamps just don't seem to help any. There
was an antenna called the condor is that still available?