cb antenna?

[shores]

Hi,

I live in an area where radioshack got bought out, and "the source" as it is called here is useless for anything radio, not that canadian radioshack had anything but talking picture frames anyways...

the local stores sell cb antennas, i know the through the glass kind does not work the best, i was wondering, since there are hardly any 800mhz systems in my area, mostly 150mhz or so, would a cb antenna mag mount on the trunk lid about 26inches high work?

they are plentiful and cheap, with bnc connector for the scanner. would this be a decent 1/4 wave antenna for the 140-165mhz range most of the stuff i am listening to?

tnx

 

[wesct]

Hi,

I live in an area where radioshack got bought out, and "the source" as it is called here is useless for anything radio, not that canadian radioshack had anything but talking picture frames anyways...

the local stores sell cb antennas, i know the through the glass kind does not work the best, i was wondering, since there are hardly any 800mhz systems in my area, mostly 150mhz or so, would a cb antenna mag mount on the trunk lid about 26inches high work?

they are plentiful and cheap, with bnc connector for the scanner. would this be a decent 1/4 wave antenna for the 140-165mhz range most of the stuff i am listening to?

tnx

a quarterwave antenna for 27 mhz is 108 inches. shorter than that is a compromise.
if you need short, try a wilson 1000. the whip is 63 inches long.

basically, at 27 mhz, nothing beats a full size quarter wave antenna.

wesct

 

[shores]

i dont want to listen to CB tho
im just asking since most "scanner antennas" are about 18 inches to 20 inches long or a bit more.
and the cb antenna is 2 feet long, within a few inches of being the same length
will a cb antenna from the local radio shop work for scanning UHF and VHF frequencies in the 150mhz range, etc?

I don't actually want to listen to CB stuff at 27mhz.

 

[TeRayCodA]

If you can get rid of the loading coil,and find a way to fit a 18"-22" whip into the mount,weatherproofed,of course,that should work well for you.

You can be surprised just how much you can hear with only a 1/4 wave whip for VHF.

 

[shores]

http://www.cobra.com/index.php?page=shop/flypage&product_id=208&id=1
thats the link for the antenna that is widely available here
you can unscrew the antenna and either just lop off the loading coil which is convieniently at the top
or unscrew it and replace with some similar whip of around the same length
?

 

[shores]

http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortme...4442457855&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true

theres the link that shows the top of it better if it works for anyone

 

[Al42]

You could just buy a ham antenna for 2/440 - they work pretty well on everything but VHF-lo (30-50). If you can't find a source in Canada ask some Canadian hams. Or Larsen makes a VHF-hi, 440, 900 (450, 850? either is the same for scanning) MHz antenna. All about 18" long, many NMO mount, so you can get a roof, trunk lid or magnetic mount.

The fact that a short CB antenna is physically as long as a VHF scanner antenna is totally irrelevant - it's the electrical length of the antenna that matters, and CB verticals are 108" long electrically. (Except for those that are 18 feet or 27 feet long.)

 

[xusmarine1979]

I once had Radio Shack's magnetic mount antenna. I just took out the loading coils and used the 20" whip. To my surprise it worked awesome on all bands!

 

[Navycop]

Can I disconect the factory radio antenna cable in my car and hook it to a PRO-93 using a BNC? I live in VA and want to listen to 800mhz.

 

[Al42]

Can I disconect the factory radio antenna cable in my car and hook it to a PRO-93 using a BNC? I live in VA and want to listen to 800mhz.

You can, with an adapter. Will it work? Any wire will. Will it work well enough? No way to tell.

Will it damage the radio? No.

 

[shores]

here's what I did.
went to store, bought cb antenna kit with mag mount, went to "the source" (radioshack) and bought a pl259 to bnc adapter, and some more rg58 bnc cable wth a female to female bnc adapter to let me connect the 2 lengths together

so i have enough bnc cable to reach the scanner in the car, and i unscrewed the cb antenna and just replaced it with a standard am/fm rubber duck replacement that was 5 dollars

fm radio works up to 10x, so it is close to what im listening to at 125 and 142mhz, not sure if i can tune it to reach the slightly higher freq or not, i couldnt find a good place to buy any mobile scanning antennas in ontario around me

can easily swap it out for a better one
seems to work pretty good for aircraft, as for the trunked OPP smartnet system i have yet to see it really, but not sure
now if only i could find a way to mount the scanner using the bracket without drilling into my dash

 

[xenonmatrix]

It might cost about $100 but a wilson 5000 would do you good also. I have one myself and it worked wonders for me on my cobra 29, a wilson 1000 would also work ahvent really notice a defference between them

 

[shores]

got it working and its not bad
what im wondering, in canada with our snowy winters
will the magmount be prone to getting ice in between it and the trunk through the tiny gaps as the trunk is slightly curved, or does anyone have run into pushing it off with a heavy sweep of a snowbrush or anything similar?
just curious how it will hold up it does seem to be pretty sturdy though.

 

[Al42]

got it working and its not bad
what im wondering, in canada with our snowy winters
will the magmount be prone to getting ice in between it and the trunk through the tiny gaps as the trunk is slightly curved, or does anyone have run into pushing it off with a heavy sweep of a snowbrush or anything similar?
just curious how it will hold up it does seem to be pretty sturdy though.

You put the antenna on the trunk when you're ready to go. You keep it inside the trunk when the car is in the driveway.

 

[bluesman905]

If you are in Ontario, could you not use Durham Radio or Radio world to purchase a mobile antennae instead of adapting a CB one?

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Shores and readers,

KISS! Forget all the feldercarb, FRACK, just use a mag mount scanner antenna and be done with it. You'll save yourself a lot of confusion and aggrivation if you Keep It Simple Stupid. (Not an insult, just an acronym.)