[TrunkCom] Re: Programming BC trunktracking

[ka3jjz at netscape.com]

  Last nite, Dave AL7HG wrote:
=========================================
Is there any easy way to program these Uniden Bearcat
scanners for trunk tracking. I live in a small west
Florida community, where there aren't that many
stations--but the county-wide system is trunk-tracked.

I have two Uniden's, a BC 780 HLT and a BC 796D. I
also have the latest Scancat Gold.
========================================= 
  Personally, I never liked Scancat Gold. I just don't like the way things are set up, and the fact that it never worked right with my 895 turned me right off. There are many better packages for working with both the 780 and 796, such as Scan Control http://www.scannersoft.com 

  However, Jim Springer can be contacted via the Scancat Yahoo group at:

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scancat/

========================================
Also, any suggestions on if it is possible to run two
scanners from one antenna, and what would be required
to do so. I have a multi-band discone antenna 60 foot
in the air, but would like to run both scanners off
the one antenna.
========================================
  
  Yes, rather easily. The devices are known by many names - splitters, power dividers, multicouplers - but they all serve the same function- split the single signal coming down the antenna to 2 or more ports. TV splitters (at one time, you fed one side to the TV, the other side to a FM receiver...very long time ago) are perhaps the most obvious choices, and some do use them. Splitters aren't magic, tho, and as my old physics teacher once told me, there ain't no free lunch. There is some loss involved; if you have an antenna that's fed with a preamp, then perhaps some loss is tolerable. Such splitters are 'passive'.
  'Active' splitters have a built in amp to compensate for the loss. Here are just 2 companies that sell both passive and active splitters - I'm certain there are many more.  Stridsberg is a very well known name - somewhat expensive but, from all the folks I know who use them, well worth it.

http://www.stridsberg.com/   Stridsberg Engineering

http://www.advancedreceiver.com/page2.html  AR2 Communications Products

  And when you start down this road, using the right coax will be a big help. No need to introduce even more losses by using a crummy grade of coax. Here's a link that will get you started in understanding this
topic...

http://www.strongsignals.net/access/content/co-ax.html  Strong Signals page on Coax and losses

73s Mike
links editor,Capitol Hill Monitors
Utility Monitoring Central
editor, Strong Signals software page
Wiki Administrator, Radioreference.Com


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