Mobile Antenna Woes... Need Advice for Low Profile.

[JerseyDrape]

Hi all. I've been searching and searching and searching through all the archives, which is filled with great info, but I'm still stuck.

I have a BCT15 that I am going to be mounting into a DIN slot in my 96 Nissan Maxima. I chose this over a handheld because of this reason.

I'm looking to monitor 800mhz trunked primarily, 400mhz secondary, and 140mhz finally. Receive only.

I'm in an Urban area and don't want a serious antenna for the car, I will get one for a base at a later date.

The stock AM/FM antenna on my car was broken when I got it, I really wish I could mount something in that location. It seems that Sti-Co is the only company that makes an antenna for this application, but the price is absurd. Is there any other companies that I can check out that are a little more reasonable? I haven't ruled out purchasing one, but I'm really only looking to monitor local activity to where I'm driving which is often State Police 800mhz.

If that option is not possible, I am still considering a through glass, I know they suck, but would you guys say it would give me performance on par with a handheld or maybe even a little better? I'ver considered possibly mounting a really small antenna INSIDE the car, through the metal deck behind the back seat as a possible alternative.

If there's any suggestions you can throw out. I know this has been covered a thousand times but it's also been answered a thousand different ways and nothing really fit my need.

 

[hilofer]

If you can go with a mag NMO mount, check out my thread mobile antenna choices for some pics in this forum.

 

[Antenna-Designer]

Wideband Low Profile antenna

If you have an NMO slot (popular in the Mobile community), you may wish to explore using the antennas.us UL-4600-319 antenna ( UHF Mobile Radio Antenna ), which was designed for 460 MHz operation, but it is quite wideband, and will cover 800 MHz and, to a lesser degree, your 150 MHz needs, in spite of its internal shunt "ground" connection. The shunt is there to offer some ElectroStatic Discharge protection for your gear. Gain of the UL-4600-319 Low Profile is the same as that of a full sized 460 MHz antenna.

Alternatively, for 800 MHz focus, there is a UL-8000-319 model ( antennas.us - UL-8000-319, Mobile Radio Antenna #UL-8000-319 ) which is wideband enough to cover new re-banding and traditional frequencies at its full rated gain.

I hope the above data is useful.

 

[newsphotog]

For all of those bands, best you can do is a Larsen Tri-Band NMO antenna. It's not very tall and you'll be very pleased with its performance. It is the best antenna I have ever owned.

This Thursday I will be installing an Antenex VHF Phantom Elite antenna (Phantom Elite Antenna on Laird Technologies) on the roof of my Impala for a scanner antenna. I have heard on this forum in the Police Car Antenna thread that it does ok for scanning, considering its size. I chose the Phantom Elite because of its low profile.

Whatever you do, DON'T go with a through-the-glass antenna. I had one of those and it performed like crap. I tested my BCT-15 with the glass antenna and then I disconnected my scanner from the glass antenna and just put a regular old rubber duck antenna on the back of the scanner inside the car and under the dash and it performed just as well as the glass antenna.