looking for a good mobile antenna

weisej · #1 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 04:27 PM

I bought a digital scanner a few months ago it came with the original antenna and a 800 antenna but the 800 antenna doesn't seem to work any better then the original one. I now have been thinking why is this and I'm also looking for a good antenna I can use in my home, car, basiclly anywhre and get decent reception. Any help would be great.

KJ6CFU · #2 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 04:51 PM

Which 800 mhz antenna did you buy? The Radio Shack 800 mhz antenna actually works quite well for a lot of people, including me.

You could always go with a mag-mount antenna. They're inexpensive and you get pretty good range. You can use it in your car (mounted on the roof), in your house (on top of a file cabinet, cookie sheet, or any other piece of flat metal that can act like a ground plane), or even in your back yard/patio (on top of a cookie sheet). You can't, of course, walk around with it very well.

weisej · #3 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 05:53 PM

It actually was the radio shack 800mhz antenna. Do those mag mount antenna work for most freq above 30mhz in to the 800mhz's? I live in Michigan where they still use both the public safety bands around 150-160mhz along with 460mhz and the p25 800 MHz digital. Any recommendations on a cheap but pretty reliability antenna?

ERICMYERS · #4 (**permalink**) 10-07-2009, 08:19 PM

no antenna inside your car is going to work well at all. Mobile, you need some sort of external antenna and absolutely anything will be better than a rubberduck inside..

cost, form factor, mount, brand, etc are all personal choice and tradeoffs.

You'll find through research that the cheapest mounted antenna will be one you need to drill. It will also perform the best in most any case. I run a dual band maxrad 150/450 on a trunk lip NMO mount on my current car and scan 150-900mhz with very good reception and range. That mount is getting kicked to the curb shortly, as the coax is getting bad at the lip after about a year's worth of use....expensive is buying stuff twice. the whip is probably going to last a decade.