Which would be a better choice?

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gewecke

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I would say a discone, being that they have a much wider bandwidth. 73, n9zas
 

br0adband

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If you can afford it and you want wideband coverage across the spectrum a discone is probably going to be the best bet overall but it'll require a decent mount and location up about as high as you can manage. If you have the time you can get the discone, do testing on it for performance, and if you're not happy return it I suppose, same with the Centerfire - or you could order both at the same time and do something similar.

The Workman model with 32" long radials will offer good/great performance down to about 90 MHz - yes they state it's good down to 25 MHz but that's not quite accurate (and would require radials almost 9.5 feet long which ain't happening). It will more than likely actually receive something down to 25 MHz but it sure won't be great reception depending on your location and what you're attempting to pull in, and they do go so far as to mention 87 MHz as the "bottom end" for good reception so that's a plus.

But because you're going for the 150 MHz to 900 MHz (give or take a bit either way) range a discone may do better overall.
 

Voyager

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My experience with three different manufacturers of Discone and commercial feedline (Heliax) are that they were all out-performed by a stock rubber duck.

Yes, some praise Discones. Others hate them. It's about 50/50.
 

prcguy

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Yours is the first and only comparison I've heard with that outcome. I've tested and compared Discones to other antennas on a range and there is no rubber duck I've seen that would come within 6dB of a common scanner Discone,

In fact, a good Discone is on par with a 1/4 ground plane cut to frequency when compared over roughly 120 to 500MHz for the typical size scanner Discone. On the other hand the Centerfire looks like someone needed to dispose of some aluminum bits so they made up an antenna as a way to sell the bits.

If your ever in the So Cal area I would be happy to measure the exact difference between your rubber duck and one of many Discones I have hear over a 100yrd to several mile path and results measured to within .1dB.
prcguy

My experience with three different manufacturers of Discone and commercial feedline (Heliax) are that they were all out-performed by a stock rubber duck.

Yes, some praise Discones. Others hate them. It's about 50/50.
 

Voyager

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Yours is the first and only comparison I've heard with that outcome. I've tested and compared Discones to other antennas on a range and there is no rubber duck I've seen that would come within 6dB of a common scanner Discone,

That's been my experience with Discones, too. The rubber ducks always seem to receive at least 6 dB better than the Discone.

But, he got a Centerfire which is neither a rubber duck or a Discone, and will will likely outperform either.
 
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