Please give me a good recommendation antenna for a BCD396XT !

[scannernutt]

Thanks !

 

[ka3jjz]

Good Lord, this is far and away too broad! A new duckie, mobile, home antenna, can you put something outdoors - the list of questions is large, to say the least. Specifics! 73 Mike

 

[scannernutt]

Good Lord, this is far and away too broad! A new duckie, mobile, home antenna, can you put something outdoors - the list of questions is large, to say the least. Specifics! 73 Mike

There is always a clown in the crowd! ha ha !

 

[W6KRU]

There is always a clown in the crowd! ha ha !

Hardly. You have to give us some idea of what you listen to and what your possibilities are. My favorite antenna is 800mHz yagi. I could recommend it highly but then if you listen to vhf-lo band it would be worthless to you. Someone else might think that their scantenna st-2 is the best thing going but if you live in an apartment, that is most likely not going to work for you. Maybe you want something to put on your car or maybe you want something to put on the 396 that you can wear on your belt. How are we to read your mind? Please put as much thought into your question as you would like us to put into our answer. ??????????

 

[LiberaFan08]

Antenna recommendation for BCD396T

I am using a special 800 MHz only antenna made by GRE. You can buy it at Radio Shack or off of the GRE website. It is an incredible performer on 800 and not too bad on UHF either. Performance on VHF Hi is so-so and you can forget low band. Of course you will have to use the supplied BNC adapter with this antenna. If you are more concerned with VHF Hi and UHF, try using a gain type VHF/UHF dual band duckie for the ham bands. Hope this helps.

 

[scannernutt]

I am using a special 800 MHz only antenna made by GRE. You can buy it at Radio Shack or off of the GRE website. It is an incredible performer on 800 and not too bad on UHF either. Performance on VHF Hi is so-so and you can forget low band. Of course you will have to use the supplied BNC adapter with this antenna. If you are more concerned with VHF Hi and UHF, try using a gain type VHF/UHF dual band duckie for the ham bands. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help. Maybe I was not asking the question in the right way .

 

[N1BHH]

Thanks for the help. Maybe I was not asking the question in the right way .

You should actually ask about an antenna for the car, the house or wherever you want to use it. A more detailed question will surely get you some good responses. The same antenna that one scanner works good on will work just as good on another, whether it's on the car or house. So maybe you need to state where you plan on using it, and what kind of installation it is.

 

[VA3QRM]

Thanks !

Comet SMA-3 is what I use on my 396T. Works well. Also fold nicely for carying or storage.

 

[DesertRatt]

Diamond Antenna

The Diamond SRH77CA (SMA connector) or the Diamond RH77CA (BNC connector) from Universal Radio works great. One of best I've used.

Diamond RH77CA Amateur HT Antenna

 

[mtitteri]

I know this thread is a few days old, and it's a pretty broad topic. I take it you simply want a 'carry' antenna for your portable.

Almost all scanners and amateur radio HT's come with compromise antennas these days. The first thing I do with a new HT is fit it with an aftermarket antenna.

Without counting - I've probably tried 30-50 different portable antennas on the 396t and the 396XT. At every hamfest, I'll stock up on any odd HT antenna.

As for listening, keep in mind that I live in a heavy 800 trunked environment, but I also like to monitor aircraft VHF and UHF.

After trying many, many antennas (and keep in mind that I didn't want a 3' long antenna), the answer was actually pretty clear.

The little GRE/RadioShack 800mHz antenna works great for its intended band and surprisingly well on 440 amateur. I was even surprised that it worked 'ok' on VHF-hi. For anything below 2 meters, performance drops quickly.

I stock up on these little 800 gems all the time. Keep in mind that they use a BNC connector, but small BNC-to-SMA adapters are available.

All just my opinion, but this antenna is widely available at The Shack, it's very small, doesn't dwarf your radio and performance is outstanding.

 

[scannernutt]

Thanks for the help guys. This forum is really great with good information !