SDS 100 antenna advice
- Thread starter minasha
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If you're monitoring within the 700-900MHz range I would say yes for a portable antenna on your hand-held that's the best choice.
TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
Most everyone here (including me) will agree that the Remtronix 800mhz is the best antenna for digital scanner reception. If I want to scan analog I go to my Austin Condor rubber ducky. The best two rubber ducks in the biz, IMO.
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Austin Condor JD? Geez LOL... Got to admit I still have mine at hand. Best for VHF for me in a portable application. It's in very good shape too being that it is decades-old lol.
Poster, the remtronix antenna is the best for 7 - 800 megahertz and it's also a go to antenna for UHF2 and T band, not so much VHF High. Checkout Scanner Master as they have a great array of portable antennas. Depends on what you mainly listen to. Google the topic and it will take you to numerous threads discussing the issue.
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TailGator911
Silent Key/KF4ANC
Hey it works, right? I test every antenna I see for handheld scanners. I think I've had them all. The Austin Condor rocks any other analog vhf/uhf antenna that I've ever had. Period.
If it's decades old and it still works, it's a lot like me - I'll take two lol
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Yep I was kidding you. I remember when the Austin Condor first came out, we all bought one oh, it was the cat's meow, it was way before 800 megahertz trunked Radio Systems, long thick and shiny. Kind of floppy, I have to say the condition of my Austin condor is in great shape compared to some of the rubber ducks I've had for 30 plus years that crunched up and disintegrated in the Ziploc bag with the other 50 antennas LOL. Probably not going to find too many people with that antenna, it's a legend, cool.
djeplett
Member
Yes that will work just as well as the Remtronix.
The 820S has an O-ring to keep the water resistance of the SDS100. The 810S doesn't have the O-ring and neither does the stock SMA to BNC adapter, so they do not keep the SDS100 water resistant. But I wouldn't worry about it unless you're going to be monitoring in the rain.
The Remtronix 800 is actually not that great on UHF/T-band. The Diamond RH77CA is much better for those frequencies.
djeplett
Member
I'm assuming the black line is the Remtronix and the tan line is the RH77CA... Interesting dip for the Remtronix in the Milair band.
That is correct. And lower on the vertical scale is better performance.
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No it is not the most optimal antenna for the upper 400 megahertz and 500 megahertz area but it works just fine and well enough that I don't have to use an RH 77CA which I find inconvenient in a portable application, especially if I listen to a 700 megahertz simulcast system with a few UHF 450 megahertz repeaters for local off the system car-to-car police use. I guess I'm never too far away that I ever noticed any compromised reception
The RS 800 always did a fine job for me on UHF... VHF high and Aviation, that's a different story LOL, of course your graph is going to show the detailed drop off. For me it works good enough without having to carry any other antennas. I rarely listen to VHF high on a portable. It's always Simplex anyway such as Marine channels or Aviation news Chopper air to air coordination where I'm right under them, then they come banging in even with the RS 800.
By any chance do you have any recommendations for specifically 500-512 MHz and/or more broader 450-512 MHz? I use both SMA and BNC (436 & TRX-1).
Thanks
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For general UHF/T, I normally use the RH77CA. If you want to focus specifically on 500-512MHz, I'd pull the cap off the tip, trim as needed, then glue the cap back on.
I use BNC antennas exclusively, and have adapters semi-permanently attached to all my scanners with SMA connectors. It reduces the number of antennas I need to keep in stock, and exponentially reduces wear on the SMA connectors, which are not designed to handle as many connection cycles as BNC.
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It's tough in portable application to find an antenna that stands out over another. There are quite a bit of selections. In addition to reception you're also thinking about portability, length, weight.
Check out Scanner Master they have a wide array of portable scanner antennas. Very difficult to recommend one that is superior on UHF only. Over many years I've tried them all and I have a huge Ziploc bag full of antennas. Some of them don't even come close to meeting their claims and others are slightly better. The Watson offerings w801 and the longer w882 are good antennas. Good reception but I can't say they stand out better than others.
I see the Austin Condor is still for sale. Can't say when I bought mine but it was when my County was still on 46 megahertz for fire service oh, I know it's been decades and I know that we didn't listen to much 800 megahertz then. It was good for VHF low-band and high band. Now I see it claims to be superior in 800 megahertz simulcast, as I say it was a great antenna but one thing I find is it's pretty deaf on 7 - 800 megahertz. It's a very long thick heavy floppy rubber duck to carry around.
If you are unable to put a rooftop on your house then if you want to use your TRX and 436 at home you can always get a tri-band ground plane or small discone, mount it on a broom handle and Gorilla tape it to a floor lamp, hat rack or tripod and use some good low loss coax 10 15 20 feet and that will allow you to move it around and twist it for the best reception possible.
I just saw Jon's post, that sounds like a good idea. Perhaps he would post a picture of his antenna tripod setup.
Here's a link:
Indoor Discone Antenna Setup
For those who for whatever reason can't set up an outdoor antenna, this setup works quite a bit better than a ducky/whip. Antenna: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QVPGKHU/ Stand: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E0PPG0/ The stand tubing is the exact right size to fit the antenna...
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Just a quick note about the RS 800... it is the remtronix antenna. It was developed by the GRE company who made all of Radio Shacks scanners. GRE rebranded it with the Radio Shack name.
When RatShack went Belly Up I got Fistfuls of them at five bucks a piece. An ex-employee of GRE started the remtronix company, it was very smart to make the SMA and proprietary SMA 100 mount.
Point of Order.
GRE (and then Whistler) made about 60% (by model) of Radio Shack's scanners. Uniden made the rest. Note though that the last Uniden-produced model was introduced in 1999, so all of the "modern" RS scanners were made by GRE or Whistler.
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I didn't know we were going back to the beginning of time stone ages LOL but you are correct. All of the more recent scanners were made by GRE including the famous 2004, 5 + 6. The pro-96 was made by GRE and in my opinion blew the doors off the Uniden BC 250d. The first digital scanners both introduced at the same time in 2003. I've owned them ALL, I'm embarrassed to sayPoint of Order.
.So here's an interesting fact... I started swl, CB and ps monitoring in the mid-60s as a young kid. The first Radio Shack Radio I purchased was a slide rule dial very well-made Pro 1 by Radio Shack... It was made by... GRE Japan. China did not open up to the world for trade until Richard Nixon made trade agreements in 1968.
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