can you recommend which antenna

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patrolman123

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MacombMonitor

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The Radio Shack discone is not constructed as well as some others. Of course you get what you pay for. Radio Shack's lower elements are made of hollow tubing, that's crimped onto threaded studs. They have been know to work loose, and sometimes break.

Icom, and Diamond sell discones that are constructed very well, and will hold up better over time. The main (only?) difference between the two is the Diamond has a SO-239 connector, same as Radio Shack's (like C.B. and probably not the best choice), and the Icom has an "N" connector.

I'm not familiar with the discone that ScannerMaster sells. It uses a "N" connector, so that's in their favor. You might want to give them a call.

AOR makes some nice discones too. You can check them out here:
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants.html

I've been considering the AOR DS3000A myself.


What is your main intended use? The discone may not be the best choice.
 

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MacombMonitor

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patrolman123 said:
99% of the time it will be used with my scanners. Unless i get it ham radio but thats not anytime soon.

I should have clarified...150MHz, 450MHz, 850MHz band? Some antennas perform better on some bands, and worse on others.
 

MacombMonitor

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Well most scanners are, but they're not always used across the full scope of their coverage. I have a BC796D, that covers 25MHz - 1.3GHz, but I dedicated it to the 850MHz band only, for digital. So my choice would definitely not be a discone. Then I have other scanners dedicated to MilAir, etc.

But if you want a one-does-all, somewhat of a wide-band coverage then the discoune is probably your best bet. Or possibly the ScanTenna, shown here:

http://www.antennawarehouse.com/Scanner/Scantenna.htm

But none of the wide band antennas will yield optimum results an any of the ranges you mentioned.
 
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I’m in same boat as you patrol, Most of the stuff I scan 15 freqs are in 150mhz 9 are repeated the rest are simplex . 4 freqs in the 450mhz that are repeated and also 2 freqs VHF-low CHP
 
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