Handheld antenna

[Patch42]

I recently bought a GRE PSR-500 that I like a lot. Now I'm looking for a better antenna.

I picked up the longer rubber ducky that Radio Shack sells. I guess it's okay for the money. I wanted to get their collapsible whip, but from what I've been reading they changed manufacturers or something and the newer ones aren't nearly as good as the ones they used to sell. (I used to have one of their older models and it seemed quite well built to me.)

Looking for alternatives I came upon the Scan-Force-Tele Section Antenna sold by Scanner Master. I was close to ordering, but when I saw almost $40 delivered price I thought maybe I'd ask some opinions first.

As far as local police and fire, the rubber ducky antennas I already have do an adequate job. The whip would be for longer distance reception. I'm particularly interested in DXing the NOAA weather stations. I'm sure this will wear off quickly, but I'm getting a kick out of hearing weather stations on the scanner that I can't hear on my weather radio. I don't want to go so far as to put up some big outdoor antenna, but i'd be willing to go for the Scan-Force antenna if I had some assurance it was well constructed and would get me some things I can't hear with the smaller antennas.

If anyone has experience with this antenna or can point me to some existing reviews or can even suggest some alternatives, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[Patch42]

Well, since no one else had a reply, I guess I'll respond to my own question.

I ordered the Scan-Force-Tele whip antenna from Scanner Master. It turns out to be manufactured by Watson. The web site described the antenna as having a black finish, which I took to mean anodized. The antenna I received was not anodized and was not black -- it appears to be a chrome finish. No biggie, though the black would have looked cooler.

I was a bit concerned before ordering about the strain the antenna might put on the BNC coupling on the radio. Having used it for a couple weeks, this is still a bit of a concern. It's not an issue when collapsed, but with the antenna extended to any significant length it's probably best to keep the radio as upright as possible.

Construction of the antenna seems good. It bends a bit when fully extended, but given its length I'd be more surprised if it didn't.

As to performance, I notice no improvement on 800MHz. No surprise there since the rubber duckie antennas tend to be designed specifically for this region.

I did, however, notice a huge difference on the air bands and on the WX band. The antenna extends to over four feet in length, which makes it capable of being a half-wave antenna on both the air and WX bands.

From inside the house I've been able to hear low power NOAA WX transmitters over 100 miles away. I'm sure this is no record, but I don't think it's too bad for inside the house using a scanner-mounted antenna.

I can't claim any distance records on the air bands as I've not spent much time on them, but I do know I can cleanly hear traffic that was very fuzzy or uncopyable before.

I'm not yet convinced this antenna is worth the $36 delivered price. It pretty much performs as I expected, yet I keep looking at it and thinking, "It's a long whip antenna. How is this worth more than $20?"