Antenna Hack for BC140

[screenersam]

Friend of mine was cleaning out garage and gifted me a BC140

no antenna

The unit has the same mutant antenna plug as a car radio (think its called a Motorola plug?)
I got ahold of a 'Marine Antenna', the plug and some wire basically.
scrounged an old AM/FM antenna from my junk box
and a piece of coat hanger. (was using as emergency antenna to test unit)


ran the antenna wire up the old antenna.
bent the coat hanger wire into a stand

inserted antenna on stand and put under BC
looks decent. and it works.

life on a budget yo
limited band range. right now I have my county fire/ambulance (police on super secret band, of course), and Coast Guard emergency channel. I have NOAA on channel 10, locked out. very useful when testing antenna.

anyone else using one of these old guys?

 

[n8yid]

Aaaaah..... the good, old days.....

I have one; not in use, tho.... my absolutely, very first scanner... Christmas gift from the wife back in the early 90's.... cherished momento of the many floodgates it opened for the "hobby"...

There is a "mod" for it that opens up an additional 5 or 10 channels; just in case you weren't aware... Mine is "mod'ed" and it ran perfectly til I shelved it due to the "digital age" snuck up on us....

Thanks for bringing this up,

 

[popnokick]

Since you're a "maker" (builder) here's a wire antenna that will be more effective for your scanner. Hang it in window, behind curtains, or even on the wall. Scroll down to the 2nd version made from common wire -
Homebrewed Off-Center Fed Dipole - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[screenersam]

the wire part was easy, the plug was the issue.
in the good old days one could just go by Radio Shack and grab one (or the antenna itself of course)

the challenge now is finding old tech frequencies to program in it