Antenna for monitoring 33cm ham?

[davidbroxson]

I'm considering purchasing a RS 800mhz scanner antenna to monitor 33 cm ham traffic. Would this be a good choice? or would I be better off trying to build one. I believe the radials for 33 cm would have to be about 3.25" long, I may be mistaken. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

 

[fineshot1]

From time to time I see many a commercial 900mhz omni base antenna on ebay and they usually sell pretty cheap due to the lack of demand for this band. I have purchased some of the smaller ones(about 4 or 5 feet) and they work well. I only paid about $24 for one of them.

 

[kb2vxa]

I wouldn't waste my time with little to no ham activity or anything understandable. Mostly you'll hear hash mash and trash from sundry devices, it's a garbage band. Why else those dirt cheap antennas "they can't give away"?

 

[SCPD]

That will work

I'm considering purchasing a RS 800mhz scanner antenna to monitor 33 cm ham traffic. Would this be a good choice? or would I be better off trying to build one. I believe the radials for 33 cm would have to be about 3.25" long, I may be mistaken. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

The Shack antenna should work just fine. There's three active 900 mhz machines here in SE Michigan, and the antenna I use to hear them is a Maxrad 3dB for 800 mhz. It does a good job.

 

[KC1UA]

Activity depends on what part of the country you're in. Here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts we have quite a bit of 900 MHz amateur activity on several repeaters, the majority of which are linked. I just got on board with a Motorola MTX9250 portable and will be using a yagi antenna to get into the nearest linked repeater, which is about 30 miles or so from me. I bought one yesterday from these guys. Can't vouch for the quality yet but the price was right and the shipping was fast. I'll be feeding it with LMR400 cable. If you have a specific site in mind to monitor, a yagi will probably work quite well for you under normal circumstances.