antenna help
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LarrySC
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MAXscan1000. 17" Tri-Band. Google MAXRAD. Same antenna in other names. Antennx, Comtelco. Lot of different types of mounts. L-Bracket most popular. Can be ordered w/ no connector and use a twist-on BNC. Antenna is commerical made with NMO industry standard hardware like Police/Fire antennas.
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MAXScan 1000 probably perfect, assuming you have no interest in 30-50 mHz.
MAXScan 1000 probably perfect, assuming you have no interest in 30-50 mHz.
What freqs do you want to listen to? The Larsen tri-band NMO antenna covers 150/450/800 MHz and is small and sturdy.
benbenrf
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The best that isn't to big? How big or how small, what freq's and what is your budget? R & S make a small antenna about 9" high contained in a tube about 3/4" diameter that attaches with a magnet - that is the part you can see, the rest of the antenna circuitry (filters, switches, active circuits and equalizers etc etc ...) is hidden (in the car) and takes up the space of a A4 box folder. There are either 4 or 6 coax patch cords running between this box and the actual elements in the tube. They are phased matched to less than 0.5degree per/1Ghz and they alone cost in excess of $500 for each patch cord with precision 3.5mm connectors on each end - and that's cheap for a set of 6 phase matched coaxes of that accuracy. You can by a pair (i.e. just 2) of Agilent matched coax to around 0.5 - 0.25degrees and they cost $1500 plus on the used market - God know what they cost new!
It'll offer you near equal Gain and the same Noise figure right across the whole bandwidth of 20Mhz - 1.2Ghz. It is both linear (horizontal & vertical) as well circular polarized - and the cost to you Sir will leave you no more than around $5 change from about $10K. Nowhere across that whole bandwidth will it offer any better performance than you could get from a perfectly resonant or tuned 1/4wave or 5/8 wave antenna with an excellent factor figure (don't what it is but it is good) for any frequency between 20 - 1.2 - it's just that it will offer you this performance right across that whole bandwidth.
That's the best scanner antenna I know about. It gets real silly doesn't it - but there is a market for antenna's like this, albeit it it's a very small market.
The point is how long is a piece of string, "not to big, something small but is the best" can mean 1001 different things. Can you be a little more specific - start off with the frequencies you want covered and the sort of budget you have in mind, and perhaps a max size/height. What type of fitting - magnet or fixed and should it be passive or active? Multi-band antennas that are active as a rule tend to have better average performance than passive ones, but the same is not true for single band or single frequency antenna's.
A little more detail and I suspect you will get quite a few more replies.
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