N6JET Scanner Station

The Challenge

I live in a townhouse/condo — so outside antennas are not allowed. You know the story. However, my attic is my space, and antennas installed there don't violate any HOA rules. I'm located at grid square CM19cg13, miles south of the southern tip of San Francisco Bay.

Using just a handheld scanner was going to work just fine for local coverage, but I wanted to go beyond that. I wanted to see if I could build a scanner home station that would receive as much as I could. I began experimenting with different types of antennas — discones, verticals, ground planes, and yagis — all mounted in the attic.

My home county — Santa Clara — was dead easy. No worries there. The setup was a breeze with an SDS100. My biggest challenges were San Francisco County, then Alameda County, San Mateo County, and finally Santa Cruz County. I tried various types of antennas and preamps and will spare you the trial-and-error details that took weeks. The table below shows what I settled on — the configuration that works.

Simplex communications are still a challenge to receive, as they are low-power transmissions (2-5 watts).

4 scanners, a few antennas and preamps make it all work. I found that separate scanners worked best for me and eliminated the need for splitters, which would introduce losses.

County-by-County Configuration

Using the Scanner Station

Four scanners running all at the same time may sound like a lot, but it's not too bad really. When things get jumping, monitoring can be a challenge — but it's one I enjoy. Using four scanners makes it scalable from 1 to 4, so flexibility is a nice feature.

Dispatch Centers Received

The home scanner station receives EMS/Fire communications from the following Communications Centers:

Coverage Area