Antenna for VHF/UHF

ZFD22 · #1 (**permalink**) 02-27-2013, 8:12 PM

I have a regular antenna that came with my BCT15X, but our "Metro City PD" and our local "HAM Repeater" are staticy, but the main 911 Dispatch/Response channels are clear as could be, do you think a A99 Antenna would help out the reception? Or is the A99 only for shortwave/low-bands? Thanks!

mmckenna · #2 (**permalink**) 02-27-2013, 8:29 PM

A99 is a CB antenna, I think they can be tuned for 10 meters. It might improve things, but it won't work as well as an antenna that is resonate at the VHF and UHF frequencies you want to listen to. You can certainly give it a try, it won't hurt anything to plug your scanner into the antenna. You might find that it works well enough to clean things up.

fire42man · #3 (**permalink**) 02-27-2013, 9:02 PM

Antennas are designed to work best with certain frequencies. The shorter the antenna, the higher the frequency to say the least. This means if you had an antenna designed for UHF, it would perform better at receiving UHF than a CB antenna. Regular antennas only work with one band, however the use of a load coil on an antenna would make it dual band, the frequencies it's good for depends on the position of the coil. The right antenna can greatly improve signal reception.

WayneH · #4 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 6:25 AM

Moved to the Scanner/Receiver Antennas forum. Please make note of the forum you are in before creating your thread. Thanks.

Rt169Radio · #5 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 8:41 AM

Check out the AntennaCraft ST2 or the Diamond D-130J. The A99 is a CB antenna and will not work very well on VHF/UHF, but it would work good on low band VHF.

ZFD22 · #6 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 11:40 AM

I put the antenna up, 40 feet or so up in the air, picks up alot better, even in a snow blast! I may get one meant for daul band down the road, but this is good for now!

mmckenna · #7 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 12:58 PM

Good to hear. Usually anything works better than the stock antennas that come with scanners. Getting something/anything outside the house will help. Since a lot of VHF and UHF propagation are line of sight, getting the antenna up 40 feet really probably did the most good. If you can swap that out for a dual band antenna down the road, you should see even better results. Meantime, if it works, go with it. Using an antenna designed for CB on a receiver isn't going to hurt a thing.

hertzian · #8 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 1:29 PM

Just a note about the stock Uniden telescopic with the 90-degree bent connector at the end ...

Fully extended it is about 22 inches long - good for the vhf airband - but for amateur use as a 2m quarter-wave, and 3/4 wave for 70cm uhf, you may want to collapse the length to about 18 inches.

Of course I don't recommend an indoor back of set telescopic, but if that's your only choice, changing the length of the telescopic to 18 inches or so may improve non-airband vhf/uhf comms.

LtDoc · #9 (**permalink**) 02-28-2013, 1:51 PM

I think you've hit on the most common way of increasing reception with VHF/UHF stuff, more height! VHF/UHF are 'line of sight' bands, like you standing on the ground or the top of a ladder. What you can 'see' at the top of that ladder will probably be 'invisible' from the ground. Height isn't a 'cure all' but it's certainly a good solution in most cases.
- 'Doc

(Quit when it get's to about a 1/4 mile, it just doesn't get much better than that.)