Best magnet mount for vhf and uhf receiving

[dudekindjack]

I'm looking for others ideas what type of antenna I should try for vhf/uhf use on my scanner.

I currently am using a magnetic mount antenna, sticking on edge of my front porch ( house has a tin roof)
I cut an old cheap cb band antenna to the length to 18 inches from feed point of the coax. And took the coil out of the anenna, but soldered a peice of wire where the coil was on the antenna, to give me a connection to h4 18 inch length I needed. The coax end was bad, so I just spliced an old peice of rg-58u onto the peice of cable on the antenna, but I'mpicking up something every now aND then I have to turn my squelch up really high. I'm sure if coming In from the splice I put together.

I got three ideas for a replacement antenna.

Make another antenna , but put a new peice rg8u from antenna tpm where it goes in the radio. 21 feet of cable would be great, cause I would have enough coax length to put the back on the roof, and run it to my receiver on the table .

2. Buy a dual band 144/440 band antenna and use it. (Only problem im finding there is, coax length is not near long enough to put it back on the roof to my receiver. I need more than 9 feet )

3. Buy a magnetic mount scanner antenna. (Coax legth seems to be the problem again )

Not really wanting to put another disc cone up, I had one I used to use on 2 meter, but the elements always feel out , they are not very well made,

Which route is the best way to go for a replacement antenna? I live In a very mountainous terrain, a quarter wave always seem to work with ok results when I was using one on 2 meter ham in this mountainous terrain, shot on the signal at a 45 degree pattern. I'm thinking that's what would work best for scanner use too, due to the mountains.


I'm open for ideas on what to try.

Thanks
Chris

 

[Delta33]

What do you listen to? Which bands? Are you wanting another mag mount or a mast mounted antenna?? Help us to help You.

 

[trp2525]

I'm looking for others ideas what type of antenna I should try for vhf/uhf use on my scanner...

If you are mainly interested in VHF-High and UHF/UHF-T there is a VERY NICE brand-new Antenna Specialists MON-3 ground-plane scanner antenna available on eBay right now for only $27. Antenna Specialists always made a quality product and their MON/MONR series of antennas always worked very well in both mobile and base applications. The label on the antenna's box displayed on eBay shows the antenna "officially" covers 108-174 MHz and 406-512 MHz: Antenna Specialists MON-3 VHF-UHF Monitor Base Station 108-174 & 450-512 MHZ | eBay

For coax I would recommend using RG6 TV cable (standard or the better Quad-Shield) in whatever length that you need for your installation. You could put F connectors on each end of the coax (or buy it with the F connectors already attached) and then use an F-to-PL-259 adapter at the antenna end and an F-to-BNC adapter at the scanner end. The loss through the 2 adapters will be negligible and RG6 will be fine at VHF and UHF especially at the short lengths that you mentioned in your post.

 

[BillH1]

I use the SpectrumForce mag mount antenna and it does very well with pulling in distant signals on VHF and UHF, but the only problem is cable length, it only comes with 12 ft of cable.The antenna is pretty inexpensive and is on sale currently on scanner master. You could always buy an extension or another mount with longer coax.

SpectrumForce Wideband Antenna with Mag Mount and BNC | Scanner Master

 

[lu81fitter]

If you can get your hands on an NMO mag mount, that is the way to go. You can change out antennas easily until you find the right one. The Antenna Farm (just type it in a search engine) has a wide variety of antennas that you could use. I have used TV coax connectors in the past that don't do too bad. I'll see if I can get some pics on here for you soon of the set-up. (Haven't posted pics before.)

 

[lu81fitter]

Pics

Here are The pics of my set-up. Not the best in the world, but it works all right. The antenna on the top is a 5/8 over 5/8 NMO for UHF in the 460 MHz range. This antenna is picking up VHF HI from about 40 miles away and UHF, non-line of site, about 25 miles. It's scratchy, but readable. RG58 coax on the mount connected to RG6 going in the house. Used to be for a satellite dish.