how are these "ebay" scanner antannaes?

[Zaratsu]

http://i17.ebayimg.com/03/i/001/14/93/7e97_1.JPG

The hype sounds good on the site. The size and the price are right, and they are made in the USA by what appears to be enthusiests. I'd like to try out one of these antannaes or one of the many similar ones on ebay. I've got a townhouse, so my outdoor choices are fairly limited. I generally have good coverage on my scanner with just the rubber duck, but i'm trying to hear the tough to hear firegrounds and town workcrews.


any experience with not neccisarily this one, but similar antannaes?

 

[RayAir]

I bought one of those. Don't expect much, if any , improvement over the whip antenna that came with your scanner. I went with a Watson W-881 which is very good on VHF/UHF and OK on 800. I switch to a 800MHz 2.5db gain antenna for 800MHz systems. The W-881 won't even receive one distant 800MHz CC, but when I switch to the 800MHz gain antenna it comes in almost like magic.

My recommendation on those "ebay antennas":

SAVE YOUR $$

I may end up taking mine apart to see what they stuffed in it. I have a feeling it's just a coiled bare wire or a straight piece of plain wire.

 

[hoser147]

Hey Dan, what band are you trying to improve on??

 

[zz0468]

That's not painted with metalized paint, is it? *eye roll*

 

[N_Jay]

If I was dishonest enough to sell crap like that I would be rich.

Antennas are designed around physical properties.
There are no magic tricks to make them better then a well designed antenna of the same size.
If the add implies it works better then it should for an antenna its size, run, don't walk away.

 

[hoser147]

Is that the multicolored add with the fantastic Testimonials ??

 

[kb2vxa]

It wouldn't surprise me one bit to find a wave magnet inside.

Seriously, that's what Zenith called the wire loop antenna built inside the lids of their portable radios. Sorry 'bout that all you Transoceanic fans. (;->)

 

[Zaratsu]

So, no good I take it?


I was thinking that these would be at least the equivlient of the better home-brew variety, which tend to run from excellent to terrible....


These are the same guys that make the slinkey antannaes for the HF/Shortwave crowd. They seem to be pretty well regarded in that niche. You would expect similar usefullness on the scanner/VHF side.

 

[zz0468]

So, no good I take it?

Nothing special.

I was thinking that these would be at least the equivlient of the better home-brew variety, which tend to run from excellent to terrible....

It's just a piece of wire in a piece of PVC water pipe.

These are the same guys that make the slinkey antannaes for the HF/Shortwave crowd. They seem to be pretty well regarded in that niche. You would expect similar usefullness on the scanner/VHF side.

The slinky antennas aren't anything special, either. Hype about an antenna is just that - hype. There's no magic, there isn't anything special that a couple of guys on eBay know that no one else does. Their antennas are just a piece of wire in a piece of PVC pipe - that's it.

 

[Zaratsu]

K, thanks folks!

Gonna save a few extra pennies and just stick a scantenna in the unused hall closet at the end of the floor. It is about as high as I am going to get and only wood and insulation blocking my signal from there.

 

[FLA2760]

I have had great results with the Watson 881 also.