Best antenna for high range in residential? (BNC)

[ZacharyF]

I'm trying to find a new antenna to use for my scanners. The current ones I'm using, just simply aren't cutting it. I'm looking for something better, and I've looked everywhere at this point, there are a lot of options and I'm just not sure which one would be the best for my use.

My scanners scan frequencies ranging from VHF to the 800mhz frequencies (153-852mhz) and use a BNC connection, I'm in a somewhat condensed residential area of my town. Along with advice or suggestions on antennas, where is the ideal placement for an antenna? This seems like a good place for suggestions. Let me know!

 

[JimD56]

Keep your antenna and try an Electroline Amplifier See below: I use an 8-way and I get great results.

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[JimD56]

Oh and stick the antenna out on a window sill facing where most of your activity is.

 

[wtp]

i have older scanners and go the opposite way.
i match the antenna with what i put in the radio.
so my 150 business and 159 forestry radio gets the 18 inch whip
the 400 business and 400 DEA one gets the 6 inch antenna
the 700 county system would get a 3 inch antenna, but it works fine with a 6 inch one.
can you plan out your radios this way ? and match the frequencies to the antennas ?

 

[ka3aaa]

you need an antenna that is designed to cover the freqs that you want to receive and preferably mounted outside and as high as you can get it.

 

[vagrant]

Option #1 - Discone antenna mounted above your roofline using LMR-400 with an adapter on the end to go to BNC.

Option #2 - A Larsen NMO150/450/758 antenna along with an NMO magnet mount base. Place that onto a reasonable metal ground plane around 40 inches diameter, whether square or circular. Use a run of LMR-400 coaxial cable to get it above your roofline if you can. Still, if you put it in place of your current magnet mount it will perform better, but a reasonable ground plane is very helpful.

Note: If you use the Electroline splitter above, you will need adapters as it uses F connectors.

Finally - I recommend putting an FM broadcast filter inline on your coaxial cable to suppress strong FM radio signals.