Here Is A Great Home Antenna

[mikebires]

After trying a discone, quarter wave and 800 mhz antenna, I found a great scanner antenna. This may not be news to some of the more "seasoned" scanner buffs out there, but it's good information for the new ones.

I now use a Comet GP3 2m/440 antenna, which is mounted on a small tower and fed with about 30' of LMR 400 cable. I had previously connected the discone and quarter wave the same way, but the signal improvements are incredible with the Comet.

I can't explain it, because it goes against alot of the antenna length theory information, but all bands, including VHF Lo, Air and 800 are excellent. I am really surprised about the 800 mhz., as this makes no sense at all. It's better than the dedicated 800 antenna I had up there.

I know there are some who are going to want to fight the fact a ham radio antenna is not designed for scanners, especially VHF Lo and 800 (Just like I fought it!), but just try it. You'll be surprised.

 

[Astro25]

I've got one on my tower @ 85 feet as a secondary/backup 440 antenna. It really does work well. I'm impressed.

 

[NoRide]

Link to the antenna mentioned. Interesting...

http://www.universal-radio.com/CATALOG/hamants/3901.html

 

[jonny290]

These are generally perfectly fine for scanning. Most of the time scanner frequency bands are higher than ham bands, so you can tune the antenna by trimming (though these fiberglass-enclosed ones are usually notune)

I rock a Diamond F22A vertical for 2 meters and VHF and it has stunning performance on VHF high. For a year, my main scanner antenna was a $15 dual band mobile on a pole, with the elements swapped for coathangers (so I wouldn't muck up the original elements by hacking them up) - worked perfectly.

 

[kfcrosby]

I used the Heathkit dual 5/8 wave 2 meter for my scanning years ago. Worked excellent for all bands VHF-Lo & HI, UHF and 800

Remember... we're listening, not xmitting

 

[SCPD]

astro25 newbie here i hv an attic discone antenna running down thru the wall with rg8 and extended to my scanner with a 8 ft piece of r58 does this r58 and the fact i hv metel studs in the walls will affect my receiving tnx bob

 

[ka3jjz]

Please don't hijack the thread, bob...

Anyway the studs won't do much harm, but that 58U patch is going to add some attenuation - maybe not too much, but if you are doing weak signal work, such as Milcom, every db is precious.

Go back and replace that patch and RG8 with a complete run and get rid of the annoying 58U. It's almost worthless on higher freqs anyway 73s Mike

 

[Gooser]

After trying a discone, quarter wave and 800 mhz antenna, I found a great scanner antenna. This may not be news to some of the more "seasoned" scanner buffs out there, but it's good information for the new ones.

I now use a Comet GP3 2m/440 antenna...

No kidding?
Interesting.
What brand discone were you using?
Still happy with the stick?