CB antenna for Scanner

[orbital]

I do not no much about antenna's at all and I was wondering if a CB antenna could be used for a scanner. I have a K40 and a K30 laying around and thought if possible I could just use them. I have a adapter that will turn a normal CB end to a BNC connector, will this
work on my BC246T? I wish to Scan 800MHZ trunking along with Ham Radio freq. 145 and 147.

I've been told SWR's do not really make a difference unless your transmitting so It won't
burn my radio up, is this true?

Thanks.

 

[SCPD]

in short no a cb antenna will only help on lower freq.'s it will work and pickup 145 and 147 but not improve the reception and for 800 definatly not to help reception you need a antenna the right length like 800 meg. is about 5-9 inches hope this helps

 

[N4JNW]

You are correct, SWR only matters in Transmit.

However, the K40, and K30 antennae you have will not recieve 800 Mhz well at all. If you DO hook your scanner to the K40 or K30, it won't hurt it at all, but don't expect to recieve 800's very well at all. Your scanner will SCREAM on Low band VHF (30-50 Mhz), and as said will recieve decent on the VHF Hi (150-160).

 

[bwhite]

My cb antenna on the car worked much better on all bands than just the flex antenna in the car.

 

[N4JNW]

Of course an outside antenna will work better than an inside duckie..

There are magnet mounts somewhere that have a BNC jack on top that will let you put your handheld scanner antenna outside on a roof or trunk lid..

 

[bwhite]

I just kept staring at this 20+ year-old mag mount antenna in the corner of the garage after being frustrated by the lack of signal on my duckie and thought, "ain't gonna cost me anything except for the adapter, why not?"
As others mentioned, the lower the frequency the better reception (keeping in mind that the thing is hopefully tuned for 27 Mhz), but everything comes in better in the car via this antenna than the duck.

 

[orbital]

Thanks everyone............ I was looking for something easy that I could mount without to much trouble and since I had those CB antenna's laying around I was just wondering how they would work...... I think I understand now. If I'm correct, your saying that the coil in them are tuned for lower freqs and will work on those freqs but will make anything higher up the band almost null.

 

[N4JNW]

Well, the coil, in the K40 and K30 are what makes the antenna 102". I know you've seen the big whips on old patrol cars and on some pickup trucks before right?

Well, 102" is exactly 1/4 wave for CB. A full wave CB antenna would be around 36 ft long! Naturally your K40 and K30 are NOT 102". But, what's inside that coil at the bottom of them is a winding of wire, that makes the antenna 102" long. That makes the antenna shorter in essence, and more practical. Not everyone wants 102" of whip, but 40" or so, is quite desireable.

Now, if you could REMOVE that coil in the antenna, and run the whip only, then that would work better as a scanner antenna.

If you want a GOOD 800 Mhz scanner antenna, I'll tell you what to do. Go comb the pawn shops, and hunt for a old mag mt. cell phone antenna. The kind that's about a ft. long from base to tip, and has a SMALL coil in the middle, that's coiled about 6 times. I have one, and it is spectacular!

 

[jonny290]

Large antennas can be quite good for UHF, large large capture area and the match doesn't really matter all that much

 

[1979lee]

i currently use a radio shaQ 102'' cb antenna and it works great on vhf low, but its no good on the 800mhz area, vhf high is quite good as well as uhf band ,just dont use your pro 2055/ or 97 attunation dosent even help.