$100 Base Station Antenna Suggestion

[WA5RWT]

Hi folks. Pure newbie to this forum, though I got my Advanced Class ham license in 1968, so I've been around the block a few times.

HOWEVER, I've been out of RF pursuits for a few decades (wasn't room for computers AND radios in my shack) but for Christmas my wife got me one of the new whiz-bank "scan everything" scanners. (I'll omit the manufacturer, so no one will tell me I should be in a particular manufacturer's forum.) It purportedly covers these ranges, roughly:
25-50 MHz
50-54
108-174
216-512
764-797
806-824
849-960
1240-1300

May use it as a mobile scanner in the future, but right now I'm planning for it to stay in my house. I'll be mounting a 21' section of pipe at the side of my house (no comments needed on that item) so the TOP of the pipe will be around 19' or so.

QUESTION: Is there any multi-band antenna you would suggest that is around $100, or at least not much over that, which you've had good results with in these kinds of configurations?

If you need to tell me that no such thing exists, they're all around $300 instead of $100, ok. I'll be disappointed but I will appreciate your honesty.

Your suggestions?

Thanks so much!

 

[hundeesport412]

Hi and Welcome. This should help determine what you might want based on what your interested in your county and surrounding counties . You are going to have to do some research. You were pretty vague with your scanner so your probably going to get generic answers. Best of luck to you.

Williamson County, Texas (TX) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Williamson County, Texas (TX)

www.radioreference.com

The Antenna Farm, Your two way radio source
https://theantennafarm.com

 

[Firebuff66]

I Have the below antenna, I have used it for 5 years now and it's hooked to 12 scanners
I Use LMR400 cable, I think the antenna and 50' Of LMR cost me $150 back then

Diamond® Antenna ~ D130NJ Super Discone Antenna

I did also at one time run the Diamond® Antenna ~ X6000A Triband Base Antenna and it worked fantastic but it was taken out by a storm

 

[R8000]

Discone style scanner antennas are a good "scan everything" antenna. If you get one with the low band whip attachment, then you should be set for a simple scanner antenna. How much you pay will depend on brand and build quality.

 

[vagrant]

A Diamond Discone is built well enough and will cover a wide range for a bit over $100. While a discone may be advertised to cover 25-1300 MHz, and it will, the best coverage is around 120 - 500 MHz. You may also need to add an FM broadcast filter inline as well, as that outdoor elevated antenna will pull in signals you don't want as well.

LMR-400 coaxial cable is a safe bet, but one could use RG6 if the budget only allows for that now.

 

[Ubbe]

Your suggestions?

Choice of antenna depends of what frequencies you'll need to have increased reception from to be able to receive them.

If you want to receive the local police then those systems are usually designed to have coverage inside buildings and you can receive them using any kind of antenna. If you want to monitor the tower frequency at the airport and you can't hear that at all using the antenna that comes with the scanner, then you'll need to concentrate on that frequency band.

If you want to monitor systems from another town then you'll need to focus on those frequencies and probably also a directional antenna.

It will all depend of what you want to receive and how weak those signals are. A discone type of antenna are generally covering all frequencies but not so good at 700Mhz and higher but those are anyhow usually the high powered local systems that people are interested in. If you are in a place where all radiosignals are weak then you will need a gain antenna and those are more narrow banded and have to be selected depending of what frequency band that are the most important to you. Then if possible install several antennas that work best in their own band. You can always start out with a cheap $50 Tram discone and see what you can and cannot receive.

/Ubbe