Antenna Question

[som]

Most people would agree that the Radio Shack 800MHz antenna is one of the best antennas for scanning 800MHz trunked systems. So what would you guys say is the best antenna for scanning conventional and DMR business frequencies (and is about the same size and cost of the RS 800MHz)?

Thanks!

 

[jonwienke]

The Diamond RH77CA is pretty much the best general-purpose handheld scanner antenna. It works great for VHF and UHF, and reasonably well for 800MHz (though not quite as well as the Radio Shack on 800MHz). There are other antennas that will outperform it on one band, but it's pretty much the best option when you want VHF, UHF, and 800MHz coverage.

 

[mmckenna]

Most people would agree that the Radio Shack 800MHz antenna is one of the best antennas for scanning 800MHz trunked systems. So what would you guys say is the best antenna for scanning conventional and DMR business frequencies (and is about the same size and cost of the RS 800MHz)?

Thanks!

Emission mode has nothing to do with antenna design.
Frequency and polarization is what matters to an antenna.

So, doesn't matter if it's DMR, P25 or analog, if it's on 800MHz, use the antenna you have.

Since you didn't specify which frequencies you were wanting to listen to "conventional and DMR" on, it's kind of hard to recommend an antenna.

You are not going to find an antenna that works well on VHF/UHF that is the same size as the 800MHz RS antenna. Antenna size is frequency dependent. Longer antennas work better on lower frequencies. You'll not get good performance on VHF on a really short antenna.

As Jon said, the longer Diamond antennas work pretty well for VHF and UHF.

 

[som]

The Diamond RH77CA it is. Thanks, guys!