Best?

[Muxlow]

What would the best antenna be these;
1. Base scanner antenna
2. Mobile scanner antenna
3. Base 403-800hmz antenna
4. Mobile 403-800mhz antenna

 

[LarrySC]

Commerical two-way is a better choice over conventional scanner ant's. MAXRAD and Antenex are on top of the list. NMO hardware, [industry standard] is a better choice. Once any antenna is installed an NMO type hardware it's easy to switch out for testing. With execption of flattop discone aircraft, vertical ant's need to be frequency specific. [ cut exactly for the freq range you need ]. GAIN is very important. Coax choice important. Types of connectors, splitters, AB or ABC switches important. Toooooooo Manyyyyyyyy factors. Each and every installation is a test. Some work -- some dont. Good Luck.

 

[Muxlow]

Woah, haha. Alot more then i was thinking about. Iv got some crazy discone antenna on my tv mast thingy, Works okie doke, And for the car iv got a... i dont know what 20 inch one that works really good for the scanner. As for my mobile radio i have a maxrad stealth stubby antenna works awsome too. Just wondering what id need to cover 406-440 for a base antenna. As well as 860-866mhz

 

[timmer]

I would suggest a Nil-Jon base antenna for those ranges you mentioned. You can buy them from Grove Enterprises. www.grove-ent.com. If you need more gain in a certain direction, a scanner beam mounted with a rotor works wonders. You can get them at grove or antenna warehouse, (www.antennawarehouse.com.)

 

[Muxlow]

Is there such thing as a antenna booster? Something I can put the coax into that will boost the range a little?

 

[timmer]

You could possibly try a pre-amp, if it's a good one, but alot of times they cause more problems than good. They can cause overload, intermod and in some cases desensitize the reciever and you will hear even less. It's maybe worth a try, though. If you're in a big city, forget it. If you're out in the country, it might work.

 

[Muxlow]

Im not in a BIG city. Its more like... a small town around 20k. Whats a good brand name to cover the 25-1300 ranger

 

[thewenk]

I use a Electroline EDA 2-GR Cable TV amp and it works very well for me with an outside antenna in a semi rural environment with few interference sources. It is a two port amp with 11dB gain per port and a freq range of 54-1000 MHz. It also works well for splitting from one antenna to two scanners. I would stay away from amps or preamps with much more than 10dB of gain because of the previous noted overload problems. Four port cable amps have about 7dB of gain per port and single port amps have about 15 dB of gain. Electroline amps are available on eBay and seem to be pretty rugged and reliable. Just make sure that the freq range of any amp you get goes to 1000 MHz. An attenuator after the amp in the line would also allow you to cut down the gain if you needed to. Sometimes the only way to see how an amp works is to try it--downside being money for something you don't necessarily use. Of course if you have cable you might be able to use it there if it didn't work out for your scanner. Good Luck.
Dave

 

[GrayWolfSA58]

I run a pre-amp on the beam, wouldn't be will out it

 

[DaveH]

Woah, haha. Alot more then i was thinking about. Iv got some crazy discone antenna on my tv mast thingy, Works okie doke, And for the car iv got a... i dont know what 20 inch one that works really good for the scanner. As for my mobile radio i have a maxrad stealth stubby antenna works awsome too. Just wondering what id need to cover 406-440 for a base antenna. As well as 860-866mhz

Seems like you're getting a whole lot of somewhat complex answers to what
is a simple question. What are you trying to monitor on these bands? How far
out do you want to receive things?

A simple 400MHz (406-430Mhz) antenna may provide adequate performance
on the 850Mhz (i.e. 851-866) band as well. May not be a need to spend a
whole lot of money.

I have heard that the NMO150/450/800 mobile tri-band antenna from Radiall-
Larsen (www.radialllarsen.com) works well on 450Mhz and 800Mhz bands as
well as VHF high-band. It stands about 17" tall. Should be available in the Toronto
area (possibly from a ham store, or elsewhere), and I dont know the cost but
probably quite reasonable.

Dave