Antenna upgrade for Home Patrol 2

[gjohnson3344]

I am looking for the best upgrade. Still want an inside portable. I don't think the stock antenna is picking up what is actually available. Any recommendations appreciated. Maybe Santa will bring me one for my stocking

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[marksmith]

It's actually not bad depending on where you are and the band's of the stuff you follow.

The best antenna for 700 - 800mz is probably the Remtronix 800, same as the old radio shack 800.

If you primarily follow vhf then you probably want to get one of those extendable antennas.

Generally if you improve on the stock antenna in one band, it will be a little bit compromised on others.

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

 

[gjohnson3344]

P25 systems are in the 800mz area correct?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[W8RMH]

P25 systems are in the 800mz area correct?

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Not necessarily. What frequencies are used by the systems you listen to?

Entering your general location into your profile will tell others where you are.

 

[gjohnson3344]

Currently they are 800s not sure on the new system coming in the next few weeks. Madison County Indiana

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[kb7gjy]

While I have a BCD536HP, I use my outdoor VHF/UHF TV antenna with a preamp. I live in a very rural are of Idaho, and it works great, and it didn't cost me anything. While the antenna isn't polarized correctly it works very well. Just throwing this out there. If you are in a major metro area, it most likely wouldn't work as well.

 

[W8RMH]

Currently they are 800s not sure on the new system coming in the next few weeks. Madison County Indiana

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

The antenna mentioned in post #2 is the best for 800 MHz. unless you want to go with an external antenna.

 

[popnokick]

As kb7gjy wrote, TV antennas work quite well for scanners in the 800 & 400 MHz bands. The RR frequency DB for Madison Co Indiana shows not only 800 MHz but also fire and others in the 450 MHz range. You can go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy an indoor flat panel TV antenna and put it in a window upstairs or as high as you can get inside your place. You'll need an F female to SMA male adapter or pigtail to connect the antenna to your HomePatrol 2. You can get that from Amazon or elsewhere... not likely to find it in the home store where you buy the antenna (Amazon has the indoor antennas too).

 

[gjohnson3344]

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Astrogoth13]

I live in the big city. My HP2 is connected to a quality discone up 40 feet with 50 feet of LMR400 cable with N connectors and an adapter. No overload heard on any band. So when in doubt go big and don't worry about HP intermod.

 

[safetypro79]

I use a Diamond SRH-”789

DIAMOND SRH 789 Pricey, but works well on my local P25 and of course UHF/VHF

Your reception would of course be dependent on your location and your P25 or 800 MHz system parameters


Apparently the build issues mentioned on eham reviews have been resolved or else I got a god one since It works perfect ( no falling over due to swivel issues)

 

[wbswetnam]

When I had the HP-1, I used a homemade J-pole antenna made out of 300 ohm twinlead, and I hid it behind the draperies. I had good results with it, much better than the stock antenna: http://www.harfordemcomm.org/files/twinlead.pdf

 

[marksmith]

Agree. The HP2 does well rejecting interference while still being fairly hot as a front end, with good selectability. It is typically not blown away by attaching to external antennas.

On the other hand, unless you are in a pretty rural area, external antennas generally won't have a huge difference.

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

 

[trp2525]

...On the other hand, unless you are in a pretty rural area, external antennas generally won't have a huge difference...

I guess it all depends on the systems that you monitor in your area. I live in a city/metropolitan area and like to listen to the UHF Med channels to monitor the detailed medical radio reports from the paramedics in the ambulances to the hospitals. In my area the ambulance/mobile side of those UHF Med channels 1 through 82 (468.0000 through 468.1875 MHz) are not repeated and are totally simplex. In addition some of the ambulances are transmitting with lower-power UHF radios of only 25 watts without a gain-type antenna (so an ERP of only 25 watts) which makes reliable reception even more challenging. An external antenna on my roof makes a huge difference in my being able to receive those weak simplex signals from the ambulances.

Also I monitor a statewide VHF Intercity Fire network on 154.2800 that also operates totally simplex statewide with both mobiles and base stations. Again my external antenna makes a huge difference in being able to monitor those non-repeated transmissions. I've been able to pick up simplex mobile transmissions from 20+ miles away from my monitoring post with my rooftop antenna.