Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

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alunonhisown
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Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?
I am right on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. A tiny little town called Merthyr Tydfil. Would I be better of using a discone or a Eurostick?
I am using or will be using the Uniden BCT15X
Alun
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by Admiral »

Have a read through the sticky at the top of this forum.

http://www.transmission1.eu/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=30356

Personally I used a discone for about 30 years, when it finally fell to pieces I got a 'whitestick' and am struggling to notice any difference between the two.
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alunonhisown
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Cheers Admiral!
Is this to what you refer?
Alun

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scanner-Radio ... xyEoFSZ6Ax

P.S. If this is what you refer to I may pop over to Sandpiper in the morning and see what he has to offer.
AJ
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by paulears »

The only problem with the whitestick types is if one frequency you really like is a long way from the centre point of each separate element. UHF airband is always the compromise because it's so big - A discone has less shallow dips as you go up in frequency - but is more awkwardly designed - size wise.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by Auldgeek »

IMHO, I've used both discone and dual band 2m/70cms colinears and have never noticed the discone out peforming the colinear with the exception of possibly the lower VHF band below 80Mhz and UHF above 600Mhz. When you think that the sweet spot for coverage is likely to be between 110Mhz-500Mhz, any decently made colinear should more than do the job and is a bit easier on the eye.
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alunonhisown
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Decision made. I am going to order me one of the 'whitesticks' listed below 1st thing in the morning.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191373840336? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I trust we are all in agreement
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by LeakyFeeder »

Yus wise choice.. Good antenna n decent price...
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by Admiral »

alunonhisown wrote:Cheers Admiral!
Is this to what you refer?
Alun

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scanner-Radio ... xyEoFSZ6Ax

P.S. If this is what you refer to I may pop over to Sandpiper in the morning and see what he has to offer.
AJ
Ah, no, sorry, my 'whitestick' is a 4/2/70 generic antenna. Similar to this except my one claims 4m as well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SIGMA-X-3 ... 1855042063
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alunonhisown
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Cheers Admiral, really thrown a spanner in the works..

Do I get one of these?................

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191373840336? ... EBIDX%3AIT

at £43.99

or one of these?......................

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SIGMA-X-3 ... 1855042063

at £39.95.
Bearing in mind my topography.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Fekking Hell. I just called to order and they are using the N Type plug on the Antenna,, never seen one of them, I was hoping Antenna end would be PL259 and scanner end is BNC. I have never ever seen a N type connector. NIGHTMARE. Also, am told to get the thicker cable as there is a lot less 'loss'. £1.25 a metre, this is getting out of hand.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by paulears »

I'm going to throw a spanner in the works. I have here a white stick scanner aerial, a dual band colinear, similar to the X-50, a Jaybeam PMR aerial designed for 450-466MHZ, and a J pole for 455MHz. The dual band ham band aerial is excellent in the two ham bands. However, just 20MHz up, it's way down gain wise on the Jaybeam - which is pretty much the same length. The Jaybeam is way down gain wise if I use it on 433MHz. It's hopeless at 156MHz, a handheld works better! Both still receive something. The pathetically small whitestick scanner aerial contains bits of thin wire that are resonant at about 120MHz, 160MHz, 250MHz (or close to),435MHZ and 470MHz. It's by far the best on UHF and VHF air band. The J pole works nicely at it's design frequency - but like the others, drops off quickly. So at the moment, 4 feeders come down, and all have different 'good' parts of the entire frequency range. If you need a small range only - like maybe your interest is marine band, then you buy a marine aerial, but all these aerials I have available are good for something. The whitestick is the best when averaged out, but it has no gain at all on any of it's bands. The jaybeam has the best gain on UHF business band, the dual bander on ham bands, and the little j pole is a dummy load in the sky for marine band.

You seem to have no need for a transmitting aerial - so I would choose something for the bands you like the most. The dual bander have pretty good gain in the ham bands, but are worse than a dipole out of their design band. Mine is just about OK on VHF marine, but the aerial on my van hears more marked outside. I note the ad for the X-50 mentions PMR446 - this seems likely, it's in the band next door, so probably still a bit of gain.

The whitestick aerials are just a load of bits of wire soldered together at the bottom - really crude and basic, but bits of resonant wire do work!
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by paulears »

N plugs are waterproof by design, and wonderful connectors. PL259 connectors need decent waterproofing. If you have interest in UHF, then better cable is a good move - if the aerial has little gain, losing much of what it does receive going down the feeder is more of a waste? The actual pin and inner ring of an N type will, in an emergency make a push in contact with a BNC socket.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

I am at a total loss here, I just called Sandpiper and he has agreed to sell me a new Black Diamond with 20 metres of military spec cable, a no solder BNC for the scanner end and a weatherproofed PL259 for the antenna end. All for £50. Has to be a bargain and also he is 15 minutes drive from me, but is the Black Knight any good?
Alun
So if I go to a discone which one do I get? Been set on getting me a 'whitestick' as they are less unsightly, but I want something I can put up and leave for a number of years.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by Admiral »

I agree with Paul, although I use my 4/2/70 for general reception, I do also use it for 2/70 TX, so probably not as good as a dedicated RX antenna.
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Re: Scanning! Discone or Eurostick?

Post by alunonhisown »

Well, I may have jumped the gun but have gone for the Black Diamond.
We will have to see how it pans out.
Just gotta get up and put it up now, anyone got a ladder and a drill?
Thanks for all the advice. Will let you know the results when it is up and running compared to my AOR8000 on a Watson 881 Super Gainer.
Alun
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