Skypilot007 said:
I like the larson 150/450/800. It works very well on all the bands its spec'd for.
BTW I found the Austin to be not so great on 800MHz, and its a big antenna.
I agree with that, however the Austin is as good on 800 -- if not better -- than any other scanner antenna. It is a full bar better than the Larson or the Comtelco/Maxrad. But scanner antennae are not particularly tough competition. I have a small cellphone glassmount antenna on my car that gets two to two and a half bars more than the Spectra gets on a mag mount. However, if you man-up and drill a hole for it, the Spectra is about as good as it gets for full-spectrum coverage. A mag mount simply can't match up to a permanent ground plane. Not to mention that a mag mount screams
"Temporary install! No special tools needed to steal this radio!"
Unfortunately, our OP says he wants something small and doesn't want to drill a hole, which is what everybody seems to say, even though they say they want "the best".
Folks, if you want good low band performance, you're going to have to get over this phobia of having an ugly antenna on your car. Period. The Austin Spectra or the Antenna Specialist MONR33 (which doesn't do 800) are about the only things out there that will do it well, unless you live in a pretty small rural community and don't stray far from the transmitters.
If you don't need long distance performance, and you're dead set on a short, mag mounted antenna, then the Comtelco/Maxrad BMAXSCAN1000 is probably among your best choices.
http://www.scannermaster.com/Comtelco_All_Band_Low_Prof_Antenna_p/07-540719.htm It's good looking, only 19 inches long, and although not ideal for low-band (nothing short can be), it'll do it as good as anything else in it's size range, while giving you better than average performance on the other bands.