Questions about mobile scanner antennas and mast material...

I am currently using a francis 5.5 foot scanner antenna which is made of fiberglass mounted using a stake pocket mount on a 2001 dodge ram. Reception is pretty good. However it seems that the 36" stainless steel we have mounted on a hood channel firestick mount on a ford excursion seems to pull in signals alot better. Both antennas cover low band basically to the 512 mhz spectrum. Am I missing something here is the shorter antenna better quality?

http://www.walcottcb.com/mon3-scanner-antenna-p-382.html

That is the antenna for the excursion. The francis just appeared to have a small piece of copper wire inside.

I am considering switching my vehicle to the stainless one.

Check the antenna and give it a good ground and see if that will help...........Hoser

Are you sure the Francis is actually a scanner antenna and not a CB antenna? They make both and they look pretty much identical. Francis does make good antennas, but if yours is actually a CB antenna, that would explain why it doesnt work so good on VHF/UHF.

Raven95150 said:

Are you sure the Francis is actually a scanner antenna and not a CB antenna? They make both and they look pretty much identical. Francis does make good antennas, but if yours is actually a CB antenna, that would explain why it doesnt work so good on VHF/UHF.

Click to expand...

Definetly is a scanner antenna I bought it NIB. It's not a huge difference I get ok performance with it. I'm thinking anything shorter would not work as well because it would be below the level of the cab.