ARe those really necessary?

[Q-ball]

SO im going to be ordering 2 portables in the very near future, the bc246t and most likely thr psr 300, how do i know if i should order the aftermarket antennas when i make my order?, my area is 800mhz.non digital so thats not an issue,but i see so many people with the radioshack and grecom(i believe this is the name) aftermarket antennas for the portables and i wonder why? is it b/c they live in a rural area with not much reception? it has been said that the two radios i mentioned have excellent stock antennas, am i wrong?...if they are so great, why bother buying a diff. one?, what to do here?

 

[W4KRR]

SO im going to be ordering 2 portables in the very near future, the bc246t and most likely thr psr 300, how do i know if i should order the aftermarket antennas when i make my order?, my area is 800mhz.non digital so thats not an issue,but i see so many people with the radioshack and grecom(i believe this is the name) aftermarket antennas for the portables and i wonder why? is it b/c they live in a rural area with not much reception? it has been said that the two radios i mentioned have excellent stock antennas, am i wrong?...if they are so great, why bother buying a diff. one?, what to do here?

The antennas that are supplied with most hand held scanners do a fair job on most frequencies; reception on a particular band is almost always improved by using an antenna that is made specifically for that band. Because of the large number of 800MHz systems in use, many people purchase aftermarket 800MHz antennas for improved reception in the 800MHz band.

If your primary monitoring band of interest is the VHF high band, an antenna made specifically for the VHF high band would likely improve reception in that band. Reception quality in other bands will vary from acceptable to poor to non existant when using an antenna that's made for a band other than the one you're monitoring. That's why most so-called "all band" antennas work best on only one band or frequency; all other bands are a compromise.

If the main band you plan to monitor is the 800MHz band, then you MAY get better 800MHz reception using the aftermarket Radio Shack 800MHz antenna. Then again, you may not. There are many factors to consider. If the 800MHz signals are already strong at your location, then you may not notice much difference by using a different antenna.

I have several 800MHz antennas, and in my case, reception in the 800MHz band is better than when using the stock antenna. Some people report that they see no difference. The only way to know for sure is to try it and see.

 

[rescue128]

I agree with Ken, he pretty much summed it up. As far as where im at, if i want to listen to 800 anywhere in my township, i can just leave the antenna off my scanner alltogether, and hear everything on 800, but cant hear any VHF/UHF, but notice no difference on 800 whether I have an antenna or not while Im in town or at my house.

 

[Q-ball]

well what spurred this is the fact that i am gonna order a gre psr 300 and most likely a bc246t..and use them interchangebly in the car, sometimes ill use one for the state police, and sometimes the other for the state,....while one is monitoring state police, one may be on 800mhz..so i plan to have both vhf/uhf..800mhz programmed in the banks, so i cant say i will only use one of them for monitoring a certain frequency range or type..i wanna use them interchangeably....i would think the factory antenna on one of those units will allow it(with clarity)...of course vhf is usually "line of site"...so if a trooper is too far away, then it may not be capable of being heard, but other than that, i guess ill hafta wait till ordered, and taken out on the road too see if another antenna is necessary, an aftermarket one.