Glass mount antenna

[OTTER]

How good are the typical glass mount antennas for use as a mobile scanner antenna? Especially 800 mhz trunked. Thanks.

 

[SAR923]

They range from adequate to terrible. Any glass mount antenna should be your last choice.

 

[OTTER]

Thanks Jim,
What do recommend? Ive seen alot of different post. I've got a dodge ram looking for something not too ugly. Thanks.

 

[thumbtrap]

A fullsize pickup truck is tall enough that a plugged hole is not too visible. Unless you just don't want to carve up your brand new truck, I'd go with a roof mount. On my sedan, I went with a trunk lip mount nmo. It was a significant improvement over the glass mount I had. I noticed the improvement mostly in being able to pick up weak handhelds and mobiles, more than any increased range in picking up the fixed transmitters.

 

[jpm]

currently i'm using both the radio shack and cellular window mount antennas and they both work great. The cellular antenna is strictly for my trunking scanners. I have had not one problem with these fine antennas.

 

[mdulrich]

I just replaced a glass mount antenna that I THOUGHT was doing a good job with an NMO mount into the roof. It GREATLY improved my reception! Also by putting in the permanent mount it now gives me lots of options for antennas.

Mike

 

[OTTER]

Sorry what is nmo? Can you guys recommend a good roof mount for 800mhz trunk but I also use 150mhz range local pd and fd. Thanks for the posts guys!

 

[doctordave]

Plenty of great options out there....I went to RFWIZ.com and bought a black NMO-Mount w/ low-loss coax for about $18 and an uncut black whip that's around 18 inches for $9....works beautifully on VHF-Hi and nicely on 800. Dirt cheap and is very discreet looking....

 

[SCPD]

I've tried two different glass mount antennas in the past. The first was a Larsen dual band for my Ham radio and the second one was the Radio Shack scanner antenna. Both were terrible for reception. The Larsen actually caused damge to my transceiver by smoking the final transistor when the S.W.R. shot up to 5:1.

Several automobile maunufacturers use factory tint on their window glass. Some of the glass mount antennas won't work well because of this. If you do decide to go with a glass mount antenna follow the directions to the letter when installing it and maybe seal the outside edges of the coupling unit with silicone. My high S.W.R. problem was due to water getting into the outside coupling unit even though I did seal it with silicone. I took shortcuts with my mobile antenna system and regretted it. I now have two holes in the roof of the truck and I'm extremely pleased.

B.T.W. NMO=New Motorola. It's probably the most popular and widely used mount.

 

[SAR923]

I think NMO = Normal Motorola Opening, as in the size of the mounting hole.

I've had both glass and drilled mount antennas. I can tell you for sure that there wasn't one glass mount antenna that would come anywhere near a drilled mount antenna for weak signals. If you only listen to local signals, particularly 800, I imagine a glass mount would be OK. For distant or weak signals, there's still nothing that beats a drilled mount in the center your roof.

 

[thumbtrap]

I found the opposite. Fire and EMS dispatch locally are repeated in the uhf and vhf bands. Those are just there for the pagers. When I went to following the real 800 mhz trunking system, I found I didn't hear a lot of transmissions - I'd hear dispatch, and on my pager I could hear Squad 20, but not on my scanner. Looking up on the map -oh they're way the heck out past fort mudge.

Since you're listening to a lot of handhelds and mobiles without benefit of a repeater - you might find a drilled extenal antenna very beneficial.