As my radio scanning hobby has changed and the types of users I am hunting down changes, I am finding myself spending more time undertaking "up close" radio scanning. This includes both using my scanner close to my monitoring target and also unattended monitoring, using Close Call temporary store mode.
Due to this I have been looking for a very low profile aerial to use with my Uniden UBC126AT scanner. I have found the standard aerial to work fairly well but it sticks out and makes carrying the scanner much harder.
I was in my parts box the other day and found some connectors, my idea was to build the smallest / lowest profile aerial I could which would still work well enough. As my targets are very local signals, any reduction in signal levels would not be an issue, provided it still picked up these signals.
The parts used are:
- Right angle BNC adaptor
- BNC connection with a screw connector.
- A paper clip
- Some duct tape.
As can be seen in the photos below, this is about the smallest package I could build. It fits nicely on top of my Uniden UBC126AT scanner.
Performance is better than I was expecting. On the 800MHz trunking band it works as well as the standard aerial. At UHF frequencies (what I am most interested in listening to) it is slightly down on the standard aerial. On the VHF high band and air band, it is much the same as the standard aerial. On the VHF mid band, it is much worse, given the size of the aerial, this was to be expected.
Photos: Launceston Analytical Radio Scanning: DIY Micro BNC Scanning Aerial
Due to this I have been looking for a very low profile aerial to use with my Uniden UBC126AT scanner. I have found the standard aerial to work fairly well but it sticks out and makes carrying the scanner much harder.
I was in my parts box the other day and found some connectors, my idea was to build the smallest / lowest profile aerial I could which would still work well enough. As my targets are very local signals, any reduction in signal levels would not be an issue, provided it still picked up these signals.
The parts used are:
- Right angle BNC adaptor
- BNC connection with a screw connector.
- A paper clip
- Some duct tape.
As can be seen in the photos below, this is about the smallest package I could build. It fits nicely on top of my Uniden UBC126AT scanner.
Performance is better than I was expecting. On the 800MHz trunking band it works as well as the standard aerial. At UHF frequencies (what I am most interested in listening to) it is slightly down on the standard aerial. On the VHF high band and air band, it is much the same as the standard aerial. On the VHF mid band, it is much worse, given the size of the aerial, this was to be expected.
Photos: Launceston Analytical Radio Scanning: DIY Micro BNC Scanning Aerial
