Antenna for apartment

[cohenner5377]

Any suggestions for a window mounted or some other easy to install antenna for the scanner (non 800 MHZ)? I live in an apartment, so I cannot really put up a discone or ground plane... I do have a small porch, so I guess I can mount one on there. Any other ideas?


David
MAR018

 

[twolf816]

if u live in baltimore then the window mount or the base antenna will be fine. i lived in an apartment 3miles from the city limits of a city of 50,000+, base antenna was more then enough, but just to be sure; get some feedback from somone in your area.

 

[cohenner5377]

Yes, I live in the city. What is the exact name of the window mount antenna?

David

 

[twolf816]

im refering to the standard window suction cup antenna that comes with almost every base/mobile scanner to my knowledge, or the base antenna. if u have a handheld then the standard rubber duckie or the telescoping antenna from radio shack would be sufficent. had a bc350a on just a standard base antenna and a bc80xlt with the rubber duckie did excellent.

 

[TinEar]

David, I'd go with something like a discone on the porch. It takes up very little space and if you don't want to worry about good reception on low band, you can remove (or buy one without) the top loaded whip which is only for low band anyway and it will cut down the size even more. That'd be my choice by far.

 

[twolf816]

im just tryin to save you unneeded expenses, but if u wanna hear more than local then yes buy an antenna and mount it on the porch

 

[doctordave]

I suppose, it you want to be dirt cheap, you could also run some RG-6 to a homebrew vertical dipole antenna.....I've made a few and they work great. Would cost you around $10-15 for everything. You can google search for some simple plans.