Antenna Placement
 

I recently bought a Hustler Discone Monitor Antenna (Part # HUS-DCX).
I am thinking of placing it inside my attic (using 75' of 9913 coax)
for easy installation and protection from the elements. I'm in a
Houston, TX suburb where signals come in good with the stock antenna
on my scanner. Can anyone tell me if this antenna setup will be
sufficient or have any advice for placement and easy installation
without going on top of my roof? Thanks

Take your finger off the mouse!

"Moonraker" wrote in message
om...
I recently bought a Hustler Discone Monitor Antenna (Part # HUS-DCX).
I am thinking of placing it inside my attic (using 75' of 9913 coax)
for easy installation and protection from the elements. I'm in a
Houston, TX suburb where signals come in good with the stock antenna
on my scanner. Can anyone tell me if this antenna setup will be
sufficient or have any advice for placement and easy installation
without going on top of my roof? Thanks

OH! el contrare mona me!

I know, rotten French ha ha..

even a rubber ducky has a gain. That is a gain over an "isotropic force".
Some manufactures of antennae rate the gain as gain over a vertical dipole
and some rate theirs over an isotropic force. The higher gain antennas are
probably rated as xx gain over an isotropic force. Isotropic force is a
imaginable antenna in free space and is used for just this reason.
Realistically, there is no gain on a non directional antenna.



"Bill Crocker" wrote in message
...
A discone has no gain. Added to that, the loss factor of 75' of coax (I
don't care if it is 9913), and you will end up with a very disappointing
antenna system.

Bill Crocker


"Moonraker" wrote in message
om...
I recently bought a Hustler Discone Monitor Antenna (Part # HUS-DCX).
I am thinking of placing it inside my attic (using 75' of 9913 coax)
for easy installation and protection from the elements. I'm in a
Houston, TX suburb where signals come in good with the stock antenna
on my scanner. Can anyone tell me if this antenna setup will be
sufficient or have any advice for placement and easy installation
without going on top of my roof? Thanks

"Bill Crocker" wrote in message
...
A discone has no gain. Added to that, the loss factor of 75' of coax (I
don't care if it is 9913), and you will end up with a very disappointing
antenna system.

Bill Crocker

Well if he used that 75' to go straight up, he would have one outstanding
antenna system. Wasting the 75' run to wend through the walls and attic,
maybe not such a big deal but still an improvement over the whip!. The
Scantenna would outperform a standard discone on most bands (still little or
no gain - but less of an attenuator than the ol' discones ;-).

Jack



"Moonraker" wrote in message
om...
I recently bought a Hustler Discone Monitor Antenna (Part # HUS-DCX).
I am thinking of placing it inside my attic (using 75' of 9913 coax)
for easy installation and protection from the elements. I'm in a
Houston, TX suburb where signals come in good with the stock antenna
on my scanner. Can anyone tell me if this antenna setup will be
sufficient or have any advice for placement and easy installation
without going on top of my roof? Thanks

ARRL Antenna Book lists gain of a discone as 2 dBi.

I use a D-130J and 100' of 9913 (cuz I've been to lazy to trim it). I've
worked the digitpeater on the ISS with it.

When I get my X-50 up in a couple of weeks, I'll be looking for a
broadband, mast-mounted preamp for it, but that's just the engineer in
me.

The system has met and exceeded my expectations.

My experience leads me to believe that the reality isn't quite as bad as
Bill makes it out to be...

-Donald

Rikki wrote:

OH! el contrare mona me!

I know, rotten French ha ha..

even a rubber ducky has a gain. That is a gain over an "isotropic
force". Some manufactures of antennae rate the gain as gain over a
vertical dipole and some rate theirs over an isotropic force. The
higher gain antennas are probably rated as xx gain over an isotropic
force. Isotropic force is a imaginable antenna in free space and is
used for just this reason. Realistically, there is no gain on a non
directional antenna.



"Bill Crocker" wrote in message
...
A discone has no gain. Added to that, the loss factor of 75' of coax
(I don't care if it is 9913), and you will end up with a very
disappointing antenna system.

Bill Crocker

--
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable
words." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The ARRL handbook list the gain of a discone as 2 dbi. The i stands for
isotropic force. Therefore the dbgain is 2 db over an imaginary force. The
discone antenna is an omni directional antenna and therefore really doesn't
have any gain. In order for a antenna to have a "true db gain" it has to be
directional. It's more or less a gimmick. If you stuck a wet noodle in your
antenna connector it would have a 2 dbi gain..


"Donald K" wrote in message
...

ARRL Antenna Book lists gain of a discone as 2 dBi.

I use a D-130J and 100' of 9913 (cuz I've been to lazy to trim it). I've
worked the digitpeater on the ISS with it.

When I get my X-50 up in a couple of weeks, I'll be looking for a
broadband, mast-mounted preamp for it, but that's just the engineer in
me.

The system has met and exceeded my expectations.

My experience leads me to believe that the reality isn't quite as bad as
Bill makes it out to be...

-Donald

Rikki wrote:

OH! el contrare mona me!

I know, rotten French ha ha..

even a rubber ducky has a gain. That is a gain over an "isotropic
force". Some manufactures of antennae rate the gain as gain over a
vertical dipole and some rate theirs over an isotropic force. The
higher gain antennas are probably rated as xx gain over an isotropic
force. Isotropic force is a imaginable antenna in free space and is
used for just this reason. Realistically, there is no gain on a non
directional antenna.



"Bill Crocker" wrote in message
...
A discone has no gain. Added to that, the loss factor of 75' of coax
(I don't care if it is 9913), and you will end up with a very
disappointing antenna system.

Bill Crocker

--
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable
words." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I beg to differ.

The i stands for isotropic, which means it radiates perfectly in all
directions. Not "an isotropic force."

The discone is omnidirection in the azimuth. It is not omnidirectional
in elevation. It obtains its gain by having better lobes up to about 60
degrees (depends on the design and the frequency within the range) of
elevation.

The difference is important when you're working satellites.

Paying attention to the elevation lobes is also important when you are
trying to work DX on HF.

A 1/2 wave dipole (which exhibits directionality broadside with reduced
coverage off the ends) has a gain of 2.15 dBi. People DO pay attention
to the orientation of their dipoles. So 2 some odd dBi is a bit better
than a "wet noodle."

Would a yagi work better? It depends. Yes it has better gain &
front-to-back ratio AT A GIVEN FREQUENCY. But no yagi is going to give
the frequency coverage that a discone (of equivalent design) has.

The DEC said that we were going to be using MURS to support the local
CERT teams. No problem with the discone. People with yagis, j-poles and
1/4 wave whips are all going to need to mount another antenna.

As I said. It depends on what you think is "better."

-Donald

Rikki wrote:

The ARRL handbook list the gain of a discone as 2 dbi. The i stands
for isotropic force. Therefore the dbgain is 2 db over an imaginary
force. The discone antenna is an omni directional antenna and
therefore really doesn't have any gain. In order for a antenna to have
a "true db gain" it has to be directional. It's more or less a
gimmick. If you stuck a wet noodle in your antenna connector it would
have a 2 dbi gain..


"Donald K" wrote in message
...

ARRL Antenna Book lists gain of a discone as 2 dBi.


--
"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem,
see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable
words." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe