CB antenna on a Radio Scanner

[Chev_am]

I got an adapter that does this, is this a good idea and will it work any better than my telescoping antenna that came with my scanner?

 

[Rayjk110]

It will beat a telescoping antenna if it is one of those mag-mount cb whips, yes. I've done this before and it's always worked fine.

 

[Chev_am]

Thanks, The radio Shack guys said that it would take away 4 DB but it seems to be working.

 

[bigcheez69]

I got an adapter that does this, is this a good idea and will it work any better than my telescoping antenna that came with my scanner?

Does the antenna have a loading coil?
If so, remove it.

 

[Napalm]

Thanks, The radio Shack guys said that it would take away 4 DB but it seems to be working.

They probably said that so you'd buy one of their antennas.

 

[organized_mayhem]

Thanks, The radio Shack guys said that it would take away 4 DB but it seems to be working.

One thing to learn about Rat Shack these days is that most of their employees don't know a capacitor from a connector. Sure it will work, might not work as well as an actual scanner antenna depending what band you are listening to but it will work. Ran an old CB antenna on my mobile scanner for years. Worked great as most of what I listened to was low band

 

[Al42]

If you use a CB antenna for VHF-lo, it'll sort of work. Since the antenna on most scanners is useless on VHF-lo, the CB antenna will work better.

But a CB antenna on UHF or 850 MHz? Somewhere between no worse than the antenna that came with the scanner and useless.

And I'm not trying to sell anyone an antenna.