Antenna Questions

[senduhelp]

I live in a 2 story townhouse and am hoping to put a simple magnetic mount scanner antenna outside of the 2nd story window to increase my reception. I was just curious of any suggestions as to the best way to go about this. I am hoping to have one that is not outside permanent, but one that I can only put out when I am using it. I am also open to suggestions if there is an antenna out there that would be better for doing this instead of a magnetic mount. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[LarrySC]

I have a spare BC-9000/PL next to the wifes easy chair. She didnt want connected to my antenna farm so I cut 56" piece of hookup wire with an alligator clip and put it in behind the window curtain. No coax loss and no connector/adpator loss. Receives better than you think. A friend of mine used burglar alarm tape on a window. Cut VHF/UHF/800 strips and tied together. He said hookup was not that hard. Drop the 56" wire out window with a fishing weight on the end. I could tell you about using a coat hanger, but you would never beleive it. Good Luck.

 

[FreqMgr]

Coat Hanger

Larry: You gotta tell us the coat hanger story. It's no fair leaving us hanging like this!

 

[ReceiverBeaver]

Hi SUHelp,

I take it you realise that your magnetic mount ant. is a Ground Plane type ant. and will need to have a metal-based something or other under it to be the ground plane. When put put on a vehicle, the metal body of the vehicle is the ground plane. Sitting on a table by itself you're looking at only half of an antenna. Any sufficiently large metal structure will work. Many folks stick mag mount ant.'s on top of a refrigerator/washer/dryer ect.... I 've used a unturned 55 gallon drum with good success. Or there are iron deck railings. You simply must provide a ground plane for a ground plane type antenna that doesn't come with its own radials....like base station ground plane antennas do.

Otherwise, do what the other fellow has suggested and just put a 50 something inch piece of wire in the antenna port and string it up vertically. No coax. It will work nicely for receiving only.

Good luck!

 

[senduhelp]

Thanks everyone for your help, so let me just make sure I understand all of this. If I wish to use the magnetic mount I have to have it sitting on something metal, I knew that part however does that something metal have to be something that is sitting on the ground or can I just put say a piece of metal on a board and sit the antenna on the metal out the window.

In case # 2 if I wish to use the piece of wire, do I just run antenna wire into the antenna hole on the scanner. Sorry if I am sounding stupid on the topic, I have never tried to use any antenna other than the one that came with the scanner. Thanks.

 

[xusmarine1979]

When I was younger my mom gave me one of her cookie sheets to place a magnetic mount on it and it worked really good. It depends on what kind of antenna mount you have for the wire antenna.

 

[USAPatriot]

Another option would be a premade length of longwire. Radio Shack probably has it. It's just a BNC connector with about 12' of insulated wire attached. The first 4 feet are RF opaque, the remaining 8 feet are the actual antenna. You could literally toss it out the window and not worry about it. Probably not as good a ground plane mag-mount but neither solution is going to be top notch given the constraints. -Rod-

 

[BaLa]

I've got a RS Magmount on top of the AC Unit outside..

it works pretty good....

 

[N_Jay]

Another option would be a premade length of longwire. Radio Shack probably has it. It's just a BNC connector with about 12' of insulated wire attached. The first 4 feet are RF opaque, the remaining 8 feet are the actual antenna. You could literally toss it out the window and not worry about it. Probably not as good a ground plane mag-mount but neither solution is going to be top notch given the constraints. -Rod-

Wow, RF opaque wire!!! Must be a cool color! :evil:

 

[USAPatriot]

Wow, RF opaque wire!!! Must be a cool color! :evil:

Mmmm. Black insulation and shielding :roll:

 

[N_Jay]

Mmmm. Black insulation and shielding :roll:

And the shielding is only "shielding" when the impedance of the system is matched, which is highly unlikely.

 

[USAPatriot]

And the shielding is only "shielding" when the impedance of the system is matched, which is highly unlikely.

Only bought it and used it, Jay...