devicelab
Whacker Extraordinaire
I took a gamble and picked up the SCAN III version from HRO recently and I can report that it's performing quite well. I'm using it mostly in the 700/800 range but compared to my Laird Scanner antenna (18" versus 9" on the SCAN III) -- its performance is very impressive. One reason I had purchased this antenna was due to the parking garage at work. The Laird will hit low-hanging fruit at times and that gets rather annoying.
One thing that I noticed immediately was the SCAN III is able to receive our [850Mhz analog trunk] 2-levels down while inside the parking garage. The Laird goes silent almost immediately after entering. It also seems to perform well on Mil-Air. I was scanning 285-325 Mhz and managed to pick up an E6B that was 80 miles to the East @ 280.
So far it's a very impressive unit considering it's only 9" tall. I should mention that my configuration is ideal. It's mounted to an NMO in the center of my Durango's roof. That NMO connects to my BCD996P2.
My only nitpicks are the "Compactenna" logo at the base of the unit -- the text just looks cheesy. I'll probably cover it up with a piece of electrical tape. Also, as others have mentioned, the stealth factor goes out the window with this bad boy. Even with the Laird 18" whip it was quite stealthy.
So far I'll keep it on there. It sure beats the Laird 1/4 wave UHF 7" whip (460) which was my previous "low-height" option.
If anyone is interested I can post numbers from my AA-1400 RigXpert and/or my NanoVNA-F.
One thing that I noticed immediately was the SCAN III is able to receive our [850Mhz analog trunk] 2-levels down while inside the parking garage. The Laird goes silent almost immediately after entering. It also seems to perform well on Mil-Air. I was scanning 285-325 Mhz and managed to pick up an E6B that was 80 miles to the East @ 280.
So far it's a very impressive unit considering it's only 9" tall. I should mention that my configuration is ideal. It's mounted to an NMO in the center of my Durango's roof. That NMO connects to my BCD996P2.
My only nitpicks are the "Compactenna" logo at the base of the unit -- the text just looks cheesy. I'll probably cover it up with a piece of electrical tape. Also, as others have mentioned, the stealth factor goes out the window with this bad boy. Even with the Laird 18" whip it was quite stealthy.
So far I'll keep it on there. It sure beats the Laird 1/4 wave UHF 7" whip (460) which was my previous "low-height" option.
If anyone is interested I can post numbers from my AA-1400 RigXpert and/or my NanoVNA-F.