Dual Antenna's

[xenonmatrix]

I recently just purchased a BCT8 Scanner for my car. Well as of now i am using a steel 4 foot lip mount antenna. The reception is great as far as i know but was wondering if i added a second 4 foot antenna of the same kind would he make my reception even better. or is 4 foot to much if so it can be trimmed if needed, Thank you and very nice forum

Chris May
Computer Tech - ITT TECH
Company - Binaryfire Networks

 

[Al42]

"Adding" it where? How? Do you mean like dual mirror antennas?

Two antennas for the same frequency connected to the same receiver change the antenna pattern - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse - but this always makes the pattern less omnidirectional.

If you want gain in all directions, you need something like a colinear antenna - not doable in the real world if you want coverage over more than a few percent of center frequency; certainly not for, say, an entire band.

If your antenna is just a 4 foot whip - no coils - you'd do better with a real scanner antenna. Four feet is 1/4 wave at 61.5 MHz - not a frequency most people scan, since 61.25 MHz is the video carrier for TV channel 3, so 61.5 MHz is right in the video signal upper sideband.

 

[xenonmatrix]

Well it is mounted on the trunk lip one on each side. and yes it has no coils it is a standard 4 foot whip if you can give me any ideas for a good scanner antenna at a good price like around 20 to 40 $ that would be nice and im looking to get 100mhz to 900 mhz if possible and if i can get dual that would great also but if all i need is a single that is fine. Thank you