Antenna for apartment indoor or on a porch.

[Erniestl54]

Hello
I am unavailable to get trunked in my apartment but if I walk less then a city block I can hear them. Is there an antenna that would help boost my scanner?
Thanks

 

[ka3jjz]

The porch is likely to be a much better bet than indoors. But before anyone can make recommendations, we need some basic questions answered;

- Where are you (county/state is fine)
- What scanner(s) are you using?
- Go to our database - there's a link in the blue toolbar at the top - and supply the URL of the system you are trying to hear
- What is the porch's construction? wood or metal?

Mike

 

[Erniestl54]

I am in Missouri and using a ws1040 the ceiling on the porch is metal. I just tried to walk past the ceiling of the porch and it got trunked.

 

[Ubbe]

The squelch are always active even on trunked systems. Turn it down to 0 and check if it's any better, hold the scanner out the window. If you get some glimps of a signal, some TG on the display or even some audio, then it is possible to use a much bigger antenna outside at some conveniant place where you are allowed to install it. If you got nothing then you have to place an antenna much higher and/or non obstructed from the line of sight to the transmitters.

It always helps to have some photos to look at. 640x480

/Ubbe

 

[dave3825]

I am in an apartment and use a cheap lna in my window that faces east, and am able to receive signals to my west both trunked and some uhf/vhf. I can usually hear some nypd from East Islip,. Thats 42 miles line of site with a ton of stuff in between my location and Manhattan, and using a Radio Shack 800mhz antenna.

No, I don't usually try to listen to 400 mhz freqs with an 800mhz antenna. Just saying tho that I am able to receive from a great distance even with the wrong antenna..

But like ka3jjz asked, please provide at least the trunked system you wish to listen to.

 

[626hawkeye]

I'm also in Missouri and live in an apartment. I also have a metal porch. Ive use a magmount antenna with a 20ich whip. Unfortunately I'm only scanning analog at the moment but my setup works for me. Might give it a try. I attached magemount to a top metal beam and the whip pointed towards the ground the beam acts as a groundplane. I get sedelia, Knob Noster, Henry county and a few others just fine. Hope this gives you a bit of hope.