I am looking for an the best possible antenna for my scanner. I live in Bucks County PA on the border of Burlington NJ. I was reading that the antenna that comes with the radio is not very good. What should I consider replacing it with . Bucks is a full Digital radio system and I believe Burlington is as well. I would also like to know your opinion on an antenna for my home. Something that would increase the distance I pick up so that I could pick up Philadelphia's digital system a little clearer. Thanks.
BCD396T Antenna Question
- Thread starter FF112173
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I think the supplied rubber duck antenna will do the trick. I live in Doylestown and can monitor the NJSP 3 COMM system from my home with the duck.
frankcastle
Member
Personally I think that the stock Uniden antenna is not bad at all. I've tried a radio shack rubber duckie, a Watson all band, and a stubbie 800. I went back to the Uniden duckie. That's what works best for me from inside an interior office building (all metal) with no windows. I scan the Indiana SAFE-T system.
Interesting. I was under the impression that I would do better by upgrading. I suppose that is not the issue at all after these two posts. Thanks for the replies.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Selecting the right antenna is as much a matter of where you geographically are listening as it is the frequencies and systems you want to hear. Inside an office building, with all the shielding, noise and other stuff is a much tougher environment than, say, standing outside the building. You should choose your antenna from advice folks have in your area, in your local RF environment. That will be as close as you can come without someone actually standing in your location to a recommendation.
It's not that the other recommendations are bad, they just may not apply to your RF enviornment
73 Mike
It's not that the other recommendations are bad, they just may not apply to your RF enviornment
73 Mike
The supplied duck is very good as compared to other wide-band ducks. But, it is designed to have decent performance on all bands. If you are trying to pull in a specific frequency, then you'll do better with a band-specific antenna. Or, if you are trying to work a broad range of weak frequencies, then you'll do better to get more metal in the air (like a rooftop discone).
If you are in a high RF enviromnet, trying to pick up local transmissions, then antenna selection isn't as critical. I alternate between the supplied duck, the RS 800 MHz antenna, and a dual-band (UHF/VHF) piano wire whip antenna. I really don't see much difference, but I'm in the middle of a metropolitan area, and not trying to pick up distant stuff. On the car, I use a mini-mag mount VHF antenna, and it works for what I do on all bands.
If you are in a high RF area, sometimes a better antenna can hurt reception. Too much signal can make the scanner's RF AGC kick in too hard (to protect the receiver), which can reduce reception to nil.
If you are in a high RF enviromnet, trying to pick up local transmissions, then antenna selection isn't as critical. I alternate between the supplied duck, the RS 800 MHz antenna, and a dual-band (UHF/VHF) piano wire whip antenna. I really don't see much difference, but I'm in the middle of a metropolitan area, and not trying to pick up distant stuff. On the car, I use a mini-mag mount VHF antenna, and it works for what I do on all bands.
If you are in a high RF area, sometimes a better antenna can hurt reception. Too much signal can make the scanner's RF AGC kick in too hard (to protect the receiver), which can reduce reception to nil.
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