Low profile antenna

[dispatcher812]

I will be starting college again ( after a 12 year absence) and will be parking in a parking garage. I have two antennas off the toolbox of my truck, one a scanner antenna and one for my low band fire department radio. Are there any antennas, besides the glass mount type, that are low profile so that when I enter the garage they are not scrapping the garage roof?

I did do some looking and found a few but I did not see one that is an all range. Scanner master has one but it not VHF low. I did see the other posts but still not sure. I would need one that does the 33.80 range all the way to the 800 mhz.

[LtDoc]

The simplest option would be just to tie the things down, but that's not very convenient. A "do everything" antenna just isn't going to be very short and still perform adequately. Frequency determines length and the lowest frequency means the longest length. You can shorten any antenna but that also means that the 'performance'/capabilities are also going to be 'shortened' too.
The scanner's antenna isn't -that- critical, you could probably shorten it quite a bit before it's unusable. The same thing can't be said about your FD radio if it's also used for transmitting though.
So, try the 20 cents worth of string first, see how it works. Keep looking too...
- 'Doc

[Rt169Radio]

Well there is the short Larsen tri-band, but that only covers 150/450/800 MHz. Is it possible to add springs to your antennas and try bending them down and attach the tips to something?

[jimg]

Originally Posted by dispatcher812

I will be starting college again ( after a 12 year absence) and will be parking in a parking garage. I have two antennas off the toolbox of my truck, one a scanner antenna and one for my low band fire department radio. Are there any antennas, besides the glass mount type, that are low profile so that when I enter the garage they are not scrapping the garage roof?

I did do some looking and found a few but I did not see one that is an all range. Scanner master has one but it not VHF low. I did see the other posts but still not sure. I would need one that does the 33.80 range all the way to the 800 mhz.

My experience has been that an "all band" antenna will not give you optimum performance on all bands, perhaps "adequate" coverage, and, on low-band, I have found that to get good coverage you need a longer antenna. Again, that's been my experience.

[reedo]

Kevin....Have you considered a motorized mount like a Maldol MK-30H or similar? Just a thought.