Gosh, And we go to all that trouble with Moblie Mounts...

[AlmostHandy]

....when all along, we can just use our factory car radio antenna!


ROFL!! I guess if you want to listen to local FM broadcasts on your Digital Trunking Scanner, you're all set to go!! :lol::lol::lol:

Scanner antenna adapter - use vehicle antenna

 

[W6KRU]

Those things worked great on VHF.

 

[bballjh]

I'm for sure gonna bid. Thanks for the link!

 

[AlmostHandy]

Wow, I would have never guessed!

Do you have to manipulate your antenna at all, or does it work at the stock length?



Are you guys putting me on? lol For all the trouble and expense that people go to for mobile antenna mounts, it just seems like such a silly thing!

 

[mancow]

It's not stupid at all and variants have been used on undercover cars for years.

http://www.sti-co.com/antenna-products/covert-antennas/fender-and-roof-mount-antennas/

 

[AlmostHandy]

HA!! Oh that is Far Out!

I would have never guessed!!

 

[W6KRU]

Years ago, I used to install gear in highway patrol vehicles. These splitters for the broadcast antenna were a standard item for hooking up the scanners.

 

[davidmc36]

What scanner could you put that motorola plug into? (without adapters)

 

[W6KRU]

What scanner could you put that motorola plug into? (without adapters)

All of them, back in the day.

 

[bballjh]

What scanner could you put that motorola plug into? (without adapters)

And what type of adapter will someone need for that?

 

[mancow]

I think they called them Motorola style plugs. RadioShack sold adapters for them and may still have them.

 

[AlmostHandy]

Oh yeah!! About ten years ago, my little brother found an old base station scanner at a yard sale. It had that same kind of Car Radio Antenna socket. I thought that was odd.

 

[blinddog50]

These things actually work quite well.
There are cables made with a Motorola female on one end and a bnc on the other.
I use one on my Rubicon and works as well as a 'scanner' antenna.
Ever have a tv with a broken antenna and you used a bent coat hanger an antenna?
Think of the bandwidth it had to cover.
People get hung up with too many theories over just receive antennas.
You need a piece of wire.

 

[W6KRU]

These things actually work quite well.
There are cables made with a Motorola female on one end and a bnc on the other.
I use one on my Rubicon and works as well as a 'scanner' antenna.
Ever have a tv with a broken antenna and you used a bent coat hanger an antenna?
Think of the bandwidth it had to cover.
People get hung up with too many theories over just receive antennas.
You need a piece of wire.

I used to think the same way but some time with an antenna tuner and a set of HF antennas to test told me otherwise.

 

[fineshot1]

I tried using one of these many years ago. Was so so for the scanner(uniden 760) but was absolutely terrible for the car radio fm reception. After several months out of frustration I ripped it out and installed another lousy idea - a cellular glass mount. This worked ok for local vhf and uhf but on 800/900 it worked too good and got nothing but front end overload from all the cell and nextel sites. Now I just use my ham gear with dedicated memories for the pd, fd & ems stuff I like to listen to with no 800/900 listening(no need for this range anymore) and enjoy my fm.

 

[LordJ]

I have to agree with fineshot1, they worked better than the rubber duck, but you have to sacrifice fm reception. I'm sure someone can make a better one. You could try to use a mobile mounted drop amp to split it, would eliminate the rf loss...hm... project for my next vehicle I think..

 

[benjaminarthurt]

I built something similar and ran it in my vehicle for a few years, I used a pre-amp on the Scanner though. All the parts needed are (were?) available at RadioShack. I actually built mine in the stock room when I worked there.

Worked well on 46.12 my counties fire dispatch, and up through VHF was pretty decent. UHF and the county wide 800 were awful.