Stridsberg MCA204 Active Receiver Multicoupler
Reprinted courtesty of G. W. Fetter www.MilAirComms.com www.MilAirComms.com
After I purchased my AntennaWareHouse Scanner Beam (See Review)
I wanted to hook it to several scanners. At first I tried just using a BNC T-connector with limited results.If the signals
you're receive are strong you can get away with the T-connector. However you will notice a reduction in signal strength
with each receiver you hook to the same antenna. This is primarly do to an impedance mismatch since each receiver
is not isolated from each other. Another draw back is that one scanner might inject enough signal into the other to
cause one or more of your scanners to "lock-up" on a specific frequency making reception on that frequency impossible.
On day I asked what would be the best solution to hooking one antenna to multiple scanners.
I asked this quetion on one of the scanner usenet's. I received the suggestion to use a Stridsberg Multicoupler.After
researching this item on the Internet I discoverd several models, both active (meaning witha pre-amp) and
passive (no pre-amp, just isolation). If the word "pre-amp" scares you into thinging"overload!" don't worry.
Their active version only has a 4dB preamp, just enough to overcome the 3dB lost by plugging other scanners
into the multicoupler.
It was time to buy! I had decided on the 4 port (meaning I could connect 4 scanners
to one antenna) activeversion. After doing some shopping
I found Computer Aided Technologies,
the maker of the famous ScanCat software, carried the Stridsberg products on either website for $159.95.
If the $160 price tag is a bit pricey for you, the passive 4-port version is about $110, active 2 portversion for $140,
and passive 2 port for only $80.00. I called them up to see if they had one in stock and they said YES!
I said send me one the fast way possible! The shipping for next day are was very reasonable from this company,
charging only $15.00 for Next Day Air! And sure enough, only 18 hours after placing my order my MCA-204 was
at my front door! (Thanks Computer Aided Technologies for Fast, Friendly, and Reliable Service!)
After opening the box and taking a quick look at the instruction sheet I plugged in the "Wall-Wart" power supply (included). Next I connected the Coax from my Scanner Beam and plugged in 4 scanners (2 PRO2035's, a PRO2006,and a PRO2052). Like magic my problems of one scanner causing another to lockup went away! Next I found a weak signal and the signal strength did not change by plugging more scanners into the multicoupler as it did when using a T-connector. Been using the MCA-204 for a couple months now and love it!
Again, if you want to use more than one scanner on the same antenna check out Computer Aided Technologies website for the Stridsberg Multicouplers. Again, if $160 is a bit morethen you want to spend, they do have other versions which I'm sure would work almost as good .
Receiver Multicoupler a 5-STAR Rating!
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