antenna 25 - 1300mhz

[bee]

Can anyone recommend, an antenna that will receive 25 - 1300 mhz.

For 436-536- and or, HP 2

Thanks

 

[MStep]

For base operation, I have found that the Radio Shack discone antenna works very well--- there are many versions of the discone available, varying in price from $50 or so, up to the hundreds of dollars. Perhaps we'll have some discussion here on the various brands of discone antennas and their cost vs. efficiency.

Now (especially regarding the 436), if you are talking about the best antenna to attach directly to the unit for portable operation, I too will be very interested in hearing comments.

 

[marksmith]

I have not found a good antenna that does the entire spectrum well. If it's good on vhf low it will be lousy on 800 and vice versa.

Any all band antenna is a giant compromise somewhere in the spectrum.

Having said that, if you actually listen to stuff in that entire range, I guess a multiple band antenna is what you are stuck with. However, I noted you mentioned several radios. My solution would be to get a good antenna for each of the different bands and apply them to the radios, scanning different bands with antennas meant for that band. You will hear more.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

 

[n5ims]

Can anyone recommend, an antenna that will receive 25 - 1300 mhz.

For 436-536- and or, HP 2

Thanks

The bad news is that basically there are no good antennas that will cover that full range of frequencies. For a base station, a discone will be about as close as you can get, but they provide no gain (additional signal pulling ability).

The good news is that unless you're one of the very few folks that live in an area where important agencies are in the VHF-Low band (think 25 - 60 MHz range here) while others are in the 700/800 MHz bands, you can find antennas that will work very well on the frequencies you actually will be listening to.

An antenna is frequency dependent so the first thing you'll need to do is find what frequency or frequencies the stuff you want to monitor actually use. The RR database (second menu option on the left, right under the RadioReference.com logo above) is a great place to start. Find your state and then county and get a page with your local frequencies. Most likely, they'll be in the list of trunking systems (multiple "channels" sharing a few frequencies) at the bottom (where most are in the 700/800 MHz band). Other agencies may be listed above that so check out the whole page. Those agencies will have conventional (one channel per frequency) channels and are probably in the VHF-Hi (130 - 160 MHz range) or UHF (420 - 500 MHz range).

Check the last column though since many agencies that have moved to the trunking systems keep their old frequencies around as backups or just don't bother giving them back. If they're listed as "depreciated", they are reported as being no longer in use. That said, if they're backup frequencies, technically they're still "in use" although most often they're never actually used.

Once you've found your county (as well as adjacent counties), listen around to them to see what comes in good, what comes in noisy, and what doesn't come in at all. Post those here and folks can help you pick an antenna that will cover what you actually need and a much better antenna will be in your future. They (especially those local to you) can also provide suggestions on those that come in poorly or not at all (perhaps they're no longer in use so you can ignore those easily!).

 

[bee]

The frequencies that I mostly listen too, are from 155.000 too 156.000.

But there are also 45.22 - 45.18 - 45.14 - 45.52, that are for, car too car, in this area.

And I am mostly interested in a mobile antenna, for my vehical. And an antenna for the portable 436

Mississippi Highway Patrol, uses "Mississippi Wireless Intergrated Network" (MSWIN ) and uses frequencies in the 700.000 Mhz range. But thier single is so strong, almost any antenna works well.

Thanks.