Portable antenna collection building 396XT

[kc2rgw]

So I'm fiddling with antennas and figured I'd flog the dead horse some more for people's entertainment.

I've got a BCD396XT and so far

RS whip with the loading coil
Diamond RH77B
The short Watson W-889
Austin Condor

Stock antennas from
Old Uniden/Bearcats
Icom R-1
Maldol 611

I do 99% VHF/UHF public service monitoring, mostly PD and FD/EMS.

So far the RH77B and the Condor are neck and neck with the edge slightly to the RH77B. Just seat of the pants and eyeballing the S-meter on the scanner.

The RS whip might even be bad as it is not even close to performing like the others...several bars lower.

The Watson W-889 I _just_ got yesterday evening in the mail. It is a big surprise for being a short metal whip. I haven't yet done a careful comparison but it really seems to be close to the RH77B and I really like the elbow on it.

I just got the soft leather Uniden case from scannerworld and now I can lay the handheld on the table with the whip angled up. With the dogs and the other china shop bulls in the house, the scanner is a lot safer lying down like this vs standing up with a big antenna on top.

This Watson is only 14-16" or so fully extended, maybe 6" collapsed. Much nicer than the RS loaded whip for carrying around. Quality construction too.

I've got a short Maldol duck and the double elbow, long Maldol 1000 series whip in the mail too. Will update with the exact numbers when I get those.

The Maldol 611 is a tribander with 6m, shortie that is rigid. It works _o.k._ it's my normal grab and go for my VX7R HT. For the scanner I wanted a flex duck in that shorter size as rigid antennas are seldom great on the connectors for portable banging around.

A tip for those using BNC antennas that get well used. When the 'swivel' of the BNC gets too loose and your angled whips flop around. Just go to the plumbing supply with your antenna and find a rubber o-ring that fits somewhat snugly in the groove at the swivel point. This will put just enough friction tension on the barrel where it swivels to tension it again and stick it in place for you. This occurred to me again when I got this Watson as I haven't had one of these types in a long time.

This also works if you use the larger BNC elbow antennas on a base scanner as they can flop around pretty easily.

[kc2rgw]

Got the Maldol MH-209 in today the 1000 was out of stock.

For locals 10-15miles it's working just fine so that covers most of my walking around use. It's also picking up my county and the NYC central dispatch for PD FDNY EMS just fine too.

I got this one because not only is it small but still having decent performance, but it's very soft. It's a great jacket pocket or belt carry antenna because it fits and won't strain the radio if it gets torqued in a pocket.

The little Watson whip continues to impress...probably going to be a stable tabletop/stationary antenna for me.