Watson Radar Rama Antenna v Cell Antenna

[jaskel]

Well I got my radar rama, I dont understand but i am only getting  altitudes down to 1800 feet but when I ran a cellphone antenna in the same spot I was getting down to 750 feet with similar high altitude range...I dont know why id get less with a tuned mode s antenna than with a cell 900mhz antenna.

Any thoughts??

The first pic is with radar rama, 2nd pic is cellband antenna

[CoastGuardJon]

Hi Jaskel, my guess would be that your RadarRama has nulls below 1500', you need to study some antenna theory to get some understanding of the whys and wherefores of lobes and nulls.

[jaskel]

yeah I understand...I just find it weird that I get better performance from a out of band antenna..

Im getting a better spread from the radar rama...but distance is not as good....

[jaskel]

here is my latest screen with the rdar rama, as you can see i have timeouts at 1775 feet...very odd!

[jaskel]

so u think a masthead amp would improve this
??

Would a digital tv one work?

[CoastGuardJon]

Hi Jaskel, unfortunately, I don't think a masthead pre-amp would help in the least - they're best used to overcome losses on long co-ax runs, they can only boost the signals being received.

[jaskel]

Ok gotcha, thanks mate.

I'm thinking of getting a bigger antenna as I want further range

[Kenny]

Hi,

I usually get around 150-170nm with RadaRama 10m high with 14m RG-8 no preamp, further range on direction to water.  Not sure how is your set up but any chance that you got loose connection?

[jaskel]

Mine is set up high with coax thicker than RG8( the name escapes me) I've posted a pic in the users pic section.

I'm getting 160-180nm with the odd pop to 220