What is the "next step up" from a Super Gainer on a handset?

balacau · #1 (**permalink**) 10-24-2009, 03:30 PM

I did have a look through to see if I could find someone who'd already asked this.

I recently bought myself a Yupiteru MVT7100 with 3 antenna's. The "longwire" is an interesting tool to say the least and had some fun with that, managing to strap it to a garden cane to poke out of the window to gain some extra height!

A short while ago I bought a Watson W881 Super Gainer on eBay which has brought me some interesting results.

Is there another aerial/antenna type built for a standard BNC fit (and for a headset) which would give greater range or is that as far as you can go with a handheld scanner?

Thanks for any information.

trap5858 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 07:04 AM

You do not say what your monitoring targets are. UHF, VHF, High Frequency? There are a lot of different atennas and antenna systems out there. Each one may give different results on a given frequency. The long wire is excellent and simple for HF stuff. When I had my Yupi 7100 I used a Diamond RH77CA. It is a multi band flexible antenna that seems to work especially well on the aircraft band including military air.

Have fun

balacau · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 07:13 AM

Apologies for that. Most of the time I use my 7100 for listening to port operations and ship movements (VHF). I do sometimes listen into aviation and such but the shipping is why I bought the scanner in the first place.

Most of the time when out and about, I use the Diamond RH700 which seems to give very good results even when a couple of miles away from the source and your LOS is blocked by many high-rise buildings.

The Super Gainer is pretty much the size limit on what would be useful, portability-wise. Is there anything more sensitive to VHF than that which is designed for mobility and fits a BNC connection?

Thanks

N1BHH · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2009, 08:44 AM

You really can't go wrong with what you already have. A mag mount which can be removed, if you please, can do very nicely. I use currently a VHF quarter wave mag mount for my scanner while mobile and it works good on all bands. Of course the distance from a particular transmitter as well as trees, buildings and hills all play a part in attenuating signals. Higher gain antennas are available, but it's all a preference as to which to use. I am always using different antennas for various reasons. Look in the antenna wiki and check out all that is available.
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index...egory:Antennas