Most powerful handheld antenna?

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bayonne411

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Hello, I have come to find out that a channel believed to be encrypted in my town is being picked up by a friend with a digital scanner and a rooftop antenna...are there any handheld antennas (maybe powered) as strong as a rooftop antenna?
 

donc13

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Hello, I have come to find out that a channel believed to be encrypted in my town is being picked up by a friend with a digital scanner and a rooftop antenna...are there any handheld antennas (maybe powered) as strong as a rooftop antenna?

No, or I should say....no good handheld antenna (while sitting in your home) will outperform a properly designed rooftop antenna, with high quality, minimal length coax feeding the same radio.



However...you CAN move your radio to a spot nearer the transmitter for the station in question and see how your radio works there.

For example, if your handheld is not capable of de-coding digital transmissions and your friend's is, AND that signal is a digital signal...nothing you do will permit your receiver to decode the signal.
 

Hoofy

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Laurium, michigan
Sounds like you need a digital scanner like your friends and then when you're at home you could put up a rooftop antenna and connect it to your scanner while you're in the house. That won't help while you're not at home though.

If you mean the Diamond rh77c antenna it was good for vhf and uhf but I didn't think much of it for the 800 band.
 

rdale

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Hello, I have come to find out that a channel believed to be encrypted in my town is being picked up by a friend with a digital scanner and a rooftop antenna

Back up the bus... If it's encrypted, then your friend is just hearing SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH. Why are you interested in getting a handheld antenna to just hear SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH?
 

hoser147

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Grand Lake St. Marys Ohio
Hello, I have come to find out that a channel believed to be encrypted in my town is being picked up by a friend with a digital scanner and a rooftop antenna...are there any handheld antennas (maybe powered) as strong as a rooftop antenna?

From what he is saying they Believed that their town was encrypted....But it must have just been digital as his friend With a digital scanner and a roof top antenna can pick it up.
To the OP what scanner are you using?(make and Model) If its not a Digital then you will not get the traffic and your friend with the digital will. It really has nothing to do with the antenna unless you are a long way from your town's tower. There are only select models that decode digital, not all scanners that have a digital display are digital scanners.(seems to be a common misconception)
 
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