whistlerws1040 poor reception upgraded to a better antenna

the scanner will only pick up a few channels as were my radio shack analog scanner picks up better than the whistler does any suggestions that may help

You're not giving us much to go on here. Your title says that you upgraded to a better antenna - which one? There is a possibility here that the antenna is actually too much for the Whistler to handle - a condition called overloading might make the radio less sensitive in certain bands - which leads to another question - what bands are you evaluating this against your RS scanner?

Be a bit more specific about what you're listening to - go to our database and supply the URL of the entry so we can all see what you are trying to hear. And which RS scanner are you comparing against?

Too many questions, not enough answers...Mike

I am trying to va stars system park service.what antenna would you suggest for the whistler ws1040 the antenna is not a dual band antenna

I can get most of my analog channels to work but digital channels are the main issue i used software to program it.useing the radio reference database for channels in va.

There are numerous possibilities here. Again, which one did you get? And which RS scanner are you comparing against?

Based on the limited answers, here are some thoughts..

The STARS system is, I think, simulcast, and most all of the consumer scanners can't handle these systems very well. (The Uniden SDS100 is too new to say whether for sure whether it solves this issue). Basically, scanners can't handle digital signals that carry exactly the same information from several directions well (yes, that's highly oversimplified, for the techies among us). This is the curse of simulcasted systems - commercial radios are built to handle it, consumer scanners not so much. This is referred to as simulcast distortion.

There are some ways to improve it somewhat - using a small beam antenna pointed at your nearest tower is one way. A 2 meter ham beam would work acceptably in this. However, these can be a bit big to put in an apartment with no attic or space to put them in. Even a smaller antenna like a small 2 meter ht antenna (not a 5/8 wave) might actually be a better choice. Here is an example...

https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamantht/3938.html

Put the attenuator on the system. If it improves reception - even by a bit - then there is a chance that simulcast distortion is the problem. Without knowing which software you were using, I can only point you to our wiki, where we have user level guides for ARC500 and Win500 linked at the bottom of...

Programming Your GRE Scanner - The RadioReference Wiki

Are you sure of the site(s) you are programming? Perhaps there's a better site for you to use. As I'm not in Virginia, I will point you to our Virginia forum...

https://forums.radioreference.com/virginia-radio-discussion-forum/

Post a question there with STARS in the title, and there will be folks to help.

Finally it's been long known that the GRE scanners (which Whistler bought out and rebranded with their model numbers) suffer from overloading from local FM broadcast stations. This can cause the scanners to become less sensitive in this band than they would otherwise be (this is loosely referred to as desensing). If you use an external antenna and find your reception has actually decreased, a FM broadcast filter may be the answer. Places like PAR Electronics (the owner of the company is / was a RR member) carry them. They can be a bit expensive but you get what you pay for.

Mike