Need External Antenna for a Pro-97 Handheld

[DLeeHarley]

Hey All I've been using my Pro-97 with a Diamond RH77CA antenna for a long while now and it's a great setup for using outdoors. But I'm looking at either purchasing an external antenna or possibly making one myself. I'm planning on mounting it on the roof of my 2 story house. Right now I'm mostly listening to PD, Fire Etc. But I would like to hear it all from 25mhz all the way up. I have read a lot of posts saying I could build one myself but it would only be good for a specific freq. range and if I want to listen to it all I would be better off buying one. OK Ladies & Gents Which way should I go? I like the Idea of mfg. one myself but not if it won't do everything I want it to. And if I have to buy one any suggestions as to which one I should look at would be and will be greatly appreciated. Thanks All for this wonderful forum!

 

[SAR923]

If you want broadband coverage for 25 MHz on up, a discone is about the only antenna to get. You can either buy a discone or you can make one. Check in the Wiki section under Antennas and you'll find lins for both pre-made antennas and plans to build your own.

 

[ka3jjz]

Be careful with your decision - PROxx radios are prone to overload issues, particularly on the VHF hi band. Filters may well be required to tame the beast. Fortunately there are several manufacturers out there (we have a few in the wiki), but PAR electronics have quite an assortment. Somewhat expensive, but they work, and Dale (who is the head honcho over there) is very responsive to customer's questions.

73 Mike

 

[DLeeHarley]

Thanks

Thanks Jim & Mike for your help. I forgot to mention that what I'm really looking to pick up is the Mil-Air freqs. I'm not as interested in the 800-1300 MHz area. I checked out the Wiki and it's not the easiest place to figure out what you need when your not well informed (educated) on the subject. As there are hundreds of books out there on this subject, can anyone suggest one or more so I can educate myself on this subject. I think that's the most entertaining part of all is the learning of something new! Again Thanks All

 

[SAR923]

I'm not sure there are any books out there that really cover modern scanners. You can learn all you need to know here by learning to navigate the Wiki and searching posts for specific topics. Since you say that Mil-Air is your main interest, I'd recommend the MilTenna Omni UHF/VHF Air Model Antenna at http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_miltenna.html#mtuvomni. It's not inexpensive but does a good job on both the VHF and UHF air band frequencies. You'd need a mast to get the antenna up in the air as far as you can and decent quality coax. RG-8x coax would do the job for runs under about 40 feet but LMR-400 would give you the least loss for longer runs. Like I said, almost all the information you need to know is here or at the numerous Yahoo groups dedicated to aircraft monitoring.

 

[ka3jjz]

If you view all the forums on this site, then compare the layout of the first page of the wiki, you will find the center of that page parallels somewhat. The 'Forum Specific Topics' (in the wiki) and 'Topic Specific Forums' here are that way by design. If you are familiar with all the forums found here, you will have a good start in understanding how the wiki is built. The right side of the wiki first page is reserved for specific categories and topics.

Anyway, many more milair folks are using discones and ScanTennas. It would be interesting to see a good tech discussion comparing the DPD products (which are universally mentioned as being very well constructed) against them. You can find various scanner antenna links - along with filters, tech, homebrew and much more - listed here...

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Scanner_Antennas

73 Mike

 

[stevolene]

Ive always heard discone antenna's are terrible on 800? Ive personally never tried one......however on many a forum on RR they were not spoken of well on the 800 bands