Best Portable Antenna

[cutcat]

I am new to scanning. I have a Uniden BCD396. I was wondering if there is a better replacement antenna than the one provided with the unit for portable applications (similar in size to what they provide but more effective)?

 

[KT4HX]

First off, what ranges are you wanting to focus your monitoring on - 800 MHz, UHF, VHF, or some of all? Because scanners cover such a wide range of frequencies, there is no "perfect" antenna that will magically cover such a wide range with excellent results. Antennas will have certain ranges that they excel in, while giving varying levels of acceptable performance in other ranges, and poor performance in others. If you have a specific freq range you wish to focus on we can tailor our responses to your needs. If you "want to hear it all", then there is no definitive answer. But even in that case, we can certainly give you some advice. So let us know what you're looking to do and we will see what we can do for you.

 

[N1BHH]

There is a sticky thread at the top of this forum which contains a link to the antenna wiki. Here is a link for scanner antennas: http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Scanner_Antennas
It is always best to read up and then decide what your usage will be, bands, walking or mobile, low profile, home use, etc. After you read up on the various antennas then you can decide pretty much on your own. It's hit or miss in some cases, but you need to be experimenting, as not all antennas are equal and the band conditions will cause variations. Buildings, hills and many other factors will affect the installation of any antenna.

 

[cutcat]

I am mostly interested in following emergency services like police, fire, EMT

 

[chrismol1]

I am mostly interested in following emergency services like police, fire, EMT

which are?? 150-160Mhz? 460Mhz?
do you have a link from the database here that lists the frequencies?