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Anyone have an old Larsen catalog from the 90's? I found 3 new Larsen FB2 5T 800 Whip Assembly antennas in the packages at Goodwill for $1.29 each. As far as I can tell they are 865-965 mhz, fixed base ants according to the instruction sheet. The instruction sheet lists a FB0002 ant., so I think that's what I have?????

Date of manufacture lists 11/25/98 Has a female N connector and 4 tiny radials. I'll have to make a L bracket for it, but that's no big deal. I don't have N fittings/coax as I'm from HF world, so I was thinking I'd be fine with ordering a UHF female-N male adapter and going with that. At 800 plus mhz, would it be better to go with N connectors or not worry about it?

Get good coax, and pick the adapters after that. RG-6 would work for scanning - might have to look a bit for adapters, though.

If at all possible use the real N connector.
I have checked many adapters and a lot of them are quite lossy.
For example some of the cheap UHF to Mini-uhf were more than 4 dB of loss.
If you really have lots of signal ( like you are near the systems you want to listen to ) it might not be a problem.
But if you have any system that is weak, the crappy adapters some people sell may put you out of coverage.
It seems to me you could get an N-male for RG-8X ( that size ) to fit on RG-6.
Or better yet, just use 8X and correct connectors at each end.

I tend to agree with all said before. PROPERLY install the N connector to the cable as a flaky job there can insert more loss than most of the crappy N-UHF adapters out there.

Believe it-- Motorola actually built 800 Mhz radios which were equipped with UHF fittings, the logic being as 800 at the time was "new" that most of the radio installers of the era had no clue as to how to properly install a type N fitting, and felt that a properly installed "UHF" fitting would be "better" than a botched installation of a decent connector :nobs:


With the exception of 75 ohm N fittings (Yes-- these exist and I have a LIMITED supply:) not many are designed to "properly" mate with RG-6...

However, one could possibly substitute a 50 ohm center pin and "make it fit"...

Collecting "leftovers" from paging/cellular buildouts and removal work means I have an intriguing collection of VHF thru microwave goodies in my junque box :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

Make lots of noise if you are unable to find something that works...

Eric
KB7DQH

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That is how the people at DARPA think. they take things and use them in unconventional ways, to see what happens.