Long story short - I *should* have tried this long ago on my Whistler / GRE / RS handhelds here in strong-signal jungle of Los Angeles. I don't know why I waited so long. The antenna has been mentioned forever here, but I just wanted to reiterate how happy I am with it.
I just picked up a Whistler 1040, which as we know is basically the same as the GRE PSR500 and RS Pro106, have super hot front-ends. Can be a struggle in my location at times. I sold my other two, a PSR500 and Pro106 a few years ago and I guess had some seller's remorse.
Cut to the chase - I primarily wanted to monitor 927mhz amateur repeaters with it, but NO amount of custom antennas, long to short, resonant or not, with or without attenuation, made it possible. 800mhz reception was ok with some finagling of antennas and attenuator, but 900mhz? Nothing but trashy noise.
Pulled the Comet CH-32 out of a drawer and bingo! 800 / 900 mhz is nice and clean. Low/high VHF/UHF is good, but obviously strong signals are preferred.
Something is going on here that goes just beyond being small. Using a 3 inch paper clip didn't cut it either. Neither did the RS 800mhz duck with or without attenuation.
When you put the Comet on an analyzer, you'll see it has a **VERY** narrow bandwidth, much narrower than your average duck, and it is resonant at 900 mhz! I don't have the gear to analyze the 900mhz factors - if someone does, I'd love to know what it looks like!
I don't think resonance is all there is to the matter. I believe that the very very narrow bandwidth for amateur 2m / 440mhz (yet still usable in coverage overall in strong signal areas) is presenting a huge reactive impedance to whatever is driving the front-end amp nuts out of band. I suspect something in the VHF band actually.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that whatever the Comet CH-32 presents to the front-end of a Whistler / GRE / RS handheld is an effective tuned circuit - not just an attenuation factor with a small antenna.
While 800mhz wasn't my intended target, it sounds good. But primarily the 927mhz 33cm amateur band is really working now on it!
I can walk through hot-spots at 927mhz just like my Uniden 396 with a full-fledged Laird 900mhz half-wave duck and they sound similar.
Realistically, I'll be using the Comet CH-32 for 800/900 monitoring, and something a bit larger for my low/hi vhf and 440-485mhz UHF comms.
Just wanted to share my enthusiasm finding something that worked after all these years to tame the front end of a Whistler 1040 / GRE PSR500 / RS Pro106 here in L.A, beyond mere attenuation.
I just picked up a Whistler 1040, which as we know is basically the same as the GRE PSR500 and RS Pro106, have super hot front-ends. Can be a struggle in my location at times. I sold my other two, a PSR500 and Pro106 a few years ago and I guess had some seller's remorse.
Cut to the chase - I primarily wanted to monitor 927mhz amateur repeaters with it, but NO amount of custom antennas, long to short, resonant or not, with or without attenuation, made it possible. 800mhz reception was ok with some finagling of antennas and attenuator, but 900mhz? Nothing but trashy noise.
Pulled the Comet CH-32 out of a drawer and bingo! 800 / 900 mhz is nice and clean. Low/high VHF/UHF is good, but obviously strong signals are preferred.
Something is going on here that goes just beyond being small. Using a 3 inch paper clip didn't cut it either. Neither did the RS 800mhz duck with or without attenuation.
When you put the Comet on an analyzer, you'll see it has a **VERY** narrow bandwidth, much narrower than your average duck, and it is resonant at 900 mhz! I don't have the gear to analyze the 900mhz factors - if someone does, I'd love to know what it looks like!
I don't think resonance is all there is to the matter. I believe that the very very narrow bandwidth for amateur 2m / 440mhz (yet still usable in coverage overall in strong signal areas) is presenting a huge reactive impedance to whatever is driving the front-end amp nuts out of band. I suspect something in the VHF band actually.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that whatever the Comet CH-32 presents to the front-end of a Whistler / GRE / RS handheld is an effective tuned circuit - not just an attenuation factor with a small antenna.
While 800mhz wasn't my intended target, it sounds good. But primarily the 927mhz 33cm amateur band is really working now on it!
I can walk through hot-spots at 927mhz just like my Uniden 396 with a full-fledged Laird 900mhz half-wave duck and they sound similar.
Realistically, I'll be using the Comet CH-32 for 800/900 monitoring, and something a bit larger for my low/hi vhf and 440-485mhz UHF comms.
Just wanted to share my enthusiasm finding something that worked after all these years to tame the front end of a Whistler 1040 / GRE PSR500 / RS Pro106 here in L.A, beyond mere attenuation.