has anyone tried this Antenna ?

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paranoia11

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MAXX-TENNA Scanner Antenna

I do not endorse this item or sell it just a link so people can give me a opinion

mods if this is against the rules do what ever you need to fix it. thank you.
 

mm

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yes, read this.
PT BARNUM said it best,

I won't quote him but just google PT BARNUM and the following describes where these antennas and their ridiculous pitch falls on the honesty scale.


These types of snake-oil antennas have been talked about over on e-hams antenna group for years and years but still unsuspecting buyers keep falling for this nonsense.
 

ko6jw_2

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Barnum said, " You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time and those aren't bad odds."

Now there are no specs in the ad for the antenna that I could see. It uses F connectors - a sure sign of a quality antenna.

Why do people think that there is some heretofore undiscovered antenna design that is completely revolutionary? The Holy Grail of antennas. Magical thinking? Certainly ignorance of any antenna theory.

On the other hand people keep buying Baofengs. More magical thinking.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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Haha, I know this antenna or one just like it has been in my life in the past even if it was maybe for one or two days, I'm sure it was tossed in a corner or in the garage never to be seen again.

Again this was a long time ago, don't know why I even had it, given to me perhaps? The fact that you can't even find frequency coverage listed says everything.
 

paranoia11

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Haha, I know this antenna or one just like it has been in my life in the past even if it was maybe for one or two days, I'm sure it was tossed in a corner or in the garage never to be seen again.

Again this was a long time ago, don't know why I even had it, given to me perhaps? The fact that you can't even find frequency coverage listed says everything.
  • · Each MAXX-TENNA is designed to receive both Analog & Digital signals from 27MHz to 1200MHz and is perfect for trunking systems.​
 

mmckenna

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do you have any more as to why?

There is no magic to antennas. It's well established science. If there was some way to make an antenna that would cover "27MHz to 1200MHz" effectively and stuff it in 12.5 inches of PVC pipe, we'd see police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, aircraft and the military all running around with pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe on their chosen mode of transportation.

But we don't. And for a good reason. There is no magic to antennas.

The magic exists in the PVC pipe, and its something that makes people think it's a wonderful antenna that is going to outperform everything else, then spend $50.00 on it.

You cannot make 12.5 inches of antenna behave properly at frequencies down to 25MHz. It will not happen. Will it receive something? Sure, if the signal is strong enough. But then again you can do the exact same thing with a paper clip. I'm happy to sell those for $50.00 each and include 50 feet of RG-59 with "twist on connectors"

12.5" is 1/4 wave at just above the 220MHz ham band. You can shrink a 1/4 wave antenna down a bit, but at 154MHz, a popular place for public safety users, it needs to be more like 18" long and with a good ground plane if you want it to work effectively.
It'll probably work half way decently above 220MHz, but it's not going to be a tuned antenna. Might work well in the UHF band, since that's approaching 1/2 wavelength, but the antenna won't have the matching network to create a good 50Ω match.

On the other hand, hobbyists have been using random lengths of wire for antennas for years. The rubber ducky antennas on portable scanners is often only tuned to one portion of the spectrum the radio covers. It's works OK, but searching this website will show you thousands of posts from people looking to upgrade the portable scanner antennas. Some base scanners come with a telescopic antenna. Most just pull them out all the way and assume that's best. Might be on certain frequencies, but it's going to be a random length of wire on all others. Again, search for posts on here about people looking for something better than the telescopic antenna on their scanner.

You can take a rubber ducky antenna, or a telescopic antenna, and stuff it in a PVC pipe. But that isn't going to make it work any better.

You could do some tuned length pieces of wire in the PVC pipe, and that might give some performance on more than one band, but again, no ground plane. And you are not going to get a tuned length of wire in there for the VHF band, and absolutely not for anything resembling 25MHz.

We have no idea what's stuffed inside that PVC pipe. But I can assure you it's not magic antenna dust. Like a lot of cheap PVC marine band antennas, it's a stripped back piece of coaxial cable, like was said above. Still too short to do much good.

You are certainly welcome to buy it and experience this for yourself.

If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd love to start buying these "magic" antennas and put them on an analyzer to see how they perform. Then I'd like to take them apart and photograph what's inside. If I did that, I think a lot of these sellers would be mighty upset.
 

paranoia11

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There is no magic to antennas. It's well established science. If there was some way to make an antenna that would cover "27MHz to 1200MHz" effectively and stuff it in 12.5 inches of PVC pipe, we'd see police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, aircraft and the military all running around with pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe on their chosen mode of transportation.

But we don't. And for a good reason. There is no magic to antennas.

The magic exists in the PVC pipe, and its something that makes people think it's a wonderful antenna that is going to outperform everything else, then spend $50.00 on it.

You cannot make 12.5 inches of antenna behave properly at frequencies down to 25MHz. It will not happen. Will it receive something? Sure, if the signal is strong enough. But then again you can do the exact same thing with a paper clip. I'm happy to sell those for $50.00 each and include 50 feet of RG-59 with "twist on connectors"

12.5" is 1/4 wave at just above the 220MHz ham band. You can shrink a 1/4 wave antenna down a bit, but at 154MHz, a popular place for public safety users, it needs to be more like 18" long and with a good ground plane if you want it to work effectively.
It'll probably work half way decently above 220MHz, but it's not going to be a tuned antenna. Might work well in the UHF band, since that's approaching 1/2 wavelength, but the antenna won't have the matching network to create a good 50Ω match.

On the other hand, hobbyists have been using random lengths of wire for antennas for years. The rubber ducky antennas on portable scanners is often only tuned to one portion of the spectrum the radio covers. It's works OK, but searching this website will show you thousands of posts from people looking to upgrade the portable scanner antennas. Some base scanners come with a telescopic antenna. Most just pull them out all the way and assume that's best. Might be on certain frequencies, but it's going to be a random length of wire on all others. Again, search for posts on here about people looking for something better than the telescopic antenna on their scanner.

You can take a rubber ducky antenna, or a telescopic antenna, and stuff it in a PVC pipe. But that isn't going to make it work any better.

You could do some tuned length pieces of wire in the PVC pipe, and that might give some performance on more than one band, but again, no ground plane. And you are not going to get a tuned length of wire in there for the VHF band, and absolutely not for anything resembling 25MHz.

We have no idea what's stuffed inside that PVC pipe. But I can assure you it's not magic antenna dust. Like a lot of cheap PVC marine band antennas, it's a stripped back piece of coaxial cable, like was said above. Still too short to do much good.

You are certainly welcome to buy it and experience this for yourself.

If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd love to start buying these "magic" antennas and put them on an analyzer to see how they perform. Then I'd like to take them apart and photograph what's inside. If I did that, I think a lot of these sellers would be mighty upset.

is there one you would recommend for a SDS200 I just purchased , or should I go to the other section of the forum to ask ?

also thank you for the very detailed explanation.
 

mmckenna

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is there one you would recommend for a SDS200 I just purchased , or should I go to the other section of the forum to ask ?

Depends entirely on what it is you want to listen to. Discone antennas are a common choice. Discone antennas have the benefit of being extremely broad banded. However, they all have zero gain. This can be a good option if you want to use the full capability of your scanner, and the signals you want to receive are strong enough. An antenna like a discone is not going make a signal out of nothing, there has to be something there.

If you have one specific radio system or slice of frequencies you want to listen to, there are better choices than a discone antenna.

Then figure in your coaxial cable. Your antenna is only as good as your ability to get the signal down to the radio. Using the minimum amount of cable necessary, not leaving a bunch of excess bundled up, and using the proper grade coax are all important. The type of coaxial cable you need depends on frequency and length. The higher the frequency, the more loss the cable will have. All cables have loss, just some more than others. And, the longer the cable is, the more loss it'll have. So you need to consider frequency, length and cost and choose accordingly.

Since most of the frequencies that your scanner will receive are line of sight, the higher up you have your antenna, the more you'll hear. If the signal is really strong, you can get away with having your antenna low down, or even inside the house. If the signal is weak, or transmitted from very far away, you need a good antenna up high.

And then your budget…..
 

ko6jw_2

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I think the thing to do is to buy a copy of the ARRL Antenna Book and learn a little about propagation, design and construction. Antennas are one of the few parts of the radio hobby that are still wide open for DIY projects. Even if you buy a commercial antenna, you will have a better understanding of how it works and why. You will learn that gain and bandwidth are a trade off. That antennas don't have "gain" they just have different radiation patterns. A low angle of radiation provides gain for talking to mobile units, but may not be good for a mountain top repeater or aircraft. Good transmission lines are just as important as the antenna, if not more so. I could go on, but there is no miracle design that will outperform all other designs. If there was we would all be using it.
 

paranoia11

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Messages
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Depends entirely on what it is you want to listen to. Discone antennas are a common choice. Discone antennas have the benefit of being extremely broad banded. However, they all have zero gain. This can be a good option if you want to use the full capability of your scanner, and the signals you want to receive are strong enough. An antenna like a discone is not going make a signal out of nothing, there has to be something there.

If you have one specific radio system or slice of frequencies you want to listen to, there are better choices than a discone antenna.

Then figure in your coaxial cable. Your antenna is only as good as your ability to get the signal down to the radio. Using the minimum amount of cable necessary, not leaving a bunch of excess bundled up, and using the proper grade coax are all important. The type of coaxial cable you need depends on frequency and length. The higher the frequency, the more loss the cable will have. All cables have loss, just some more than others. And, the longer the cable is, the more loss it'll have. So you need to consider frequency, length and cost and choose accordingly.

Since most of the frequencies that your scanner will receive are line of sight, the higher up you have your antenna, the more you'll hear. If the signal is really strong, you can get away with having your antenna low down, or even inside the house. If the signal is weak, or transmitted from very far away, you need a good antenna up high.

And then your budget…..

thank you kindly for your reply sir.
 

bubbablitz

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There is no magic to antennas. It's well established science. If there was some way to make an antenna that would cover "27MHz to 1200MHz" effectively and stuff it in 12.5 inches of PVC pipe, we'd see police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, aircraft and the military all running around with pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe on their chosen mode of transportation.

But we don't. And for a good reason. There is no magic to antennas.

The magic exists in the PVC pipe, and its something that makes people think it's a wonderful antenna that is going to outperform everything else, then spend $50.00 on it.

You cannot make 12.5 inches of antenna behave properly at frequencies down to 25MHz. It will not happen. Will it receive something? Sure, if the signal is strong enough. But then again you can do the exact same thing with a paper clip. I'm happy to sell those for $50.00 each and include 50 feet of RG-59 with "twist on connectors"

12.5" is 1/4 wave at just above the 220MHz ham band. You can shrink a 1/4 wave antenna down a bit, but at 154MHz, a popular place for public safety users, it needs to be more like 18" long and with a good ground plane if you want it to work effectively.
It'll probably work half way decently above 220MHz, but it's not going to be a tuned antenna. Might work well in the UHF band, since that's approaching 1/2 wavelength, but the antenna won't have the matching network to create a good 50Ω match.

On the other hand, hobbyists have been using random lengths of wire for antennas for years. The rubber ducky antennas on portable scanners is often only tuned to one portion of the spectrum the radio covers. It's works OK, but searching this website will show you thousands of posts from people looking to upgrade the portable scanner antennas. Some base scanners come with a telescopic antenna. Most just pull them out all the way and assume that's best. Might be on certain frequencies, but it's going to be a random length of wire on all others. Again, search for posts on here about people looking for something better than the telescopic antenna on their scanner.

You can take a rubber ducky antenna, or a telescopic antenna, and stuff it in a PVC pipe. But that isn't going to make it work any better.

You could do some tuned length pieces of wire in the PVC pipe, and that might give some performance on more than one band, but again, no ground plane. And you are not going to get a tuned length of wire in there for the VHF band, and absolutely not for anything resembling 25MHz.

We have no idea what's stuffed inside that PVC pipe. But I can assure you it's not magic antenna dust. Like a lot of cheap PVC marine band antennas, it's a stripped back piece of coaxial cable, like was said above. Still too short to do much good.

You are certainly welcome to buy it and experience this for yourself.

If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd love to start buying these "magic" antennas and put them on an analyzer to see how they perform. Then I'd like to take them apart and photograph what's inside. If I did that, I think a lot of these sellers would be mighty upset.
I learn a lot from you. You’re not a bag of hot air like a lot on hear, you know you’re stuff. Thanks man.
There is no magic to antennas. It's well established science. If there was some way to make an antenna that would cover "27MHz to 1200MHz" effectively and stuff it in 12.5 inches of PVC pipe, we'd see police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, aircraft and the military all running around with pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe on their chosen mode of transportation.

But we don't. And for a good reason. There is no magic to antennas.

The magic exists in the PVC pipe, and its something that makes people think it's a wonderful antenna that is going to outperform everything else, then spend $50.00 on it.

You cannot make 12.5 inches of antenna behave properly at frequencies down to 25MHz. It will not happen. Will it receive something? Sure, if the signal is strong enough. But then again you can do the exact same thing with a paper clip. I'm happy to sell those for $50.00 each and include 50 feet of RG-59 with "twist on connectors"

12.5" is 1/4 wave at just above the 220MHz ham band. You can shrink a 1/4 wave antenna down a bit, but at 154MHz, a popular place for public safety users, it needs to be more like 18" long and with a good ground plane if you want it to work effectively.
It'll probably work half way decently above 220MHz, but it's not going to be a tuned antenna. Might work well in the UHF band, since that's approaching 1/2 wavelength, but the antenna won't have the matching network to create a good 50Ω match.

On the other hand, hobbyists have been using random lengths of wire for antennas for years. The rubber ducky antennas on portable scanners is often only tuned to one portion of the spectrum the radio covers. It's works OK, but searching this website will show you thousands of posts from people looking to upgrade the portable scanner antennas. Some base scanners come with a telescopic antenna. Most just pull them out all the way and assume that's best. Might be on certain frequencies, but it's going to be a random length of wire on all others. Again, search for posts on here about people looking for something better than the telescopic antenna on their scanner.

You can take a rubber ducky antenna, or a telescopic antenna, and stuff it in a PVC pipe. But that isn't going to make it work any better.

You could do some tuned length pieces of wire in the PVC pipe, and that might give some performance on more than one band, but again, no ground plane. And you are not going to get a tuned length of wire in there for the VHF band, and absolutely not for anything resembling 25MHz.

We have no idea what's stuffed inside that PVC pipe. But I can assure you it's not magic antenna dust. Like a lot of cheap PVC marine band antennas, it's a stripped back piece of coaxial cable, like was said above. Still too short to do much good.

You are certainly welcome to buy it and experience this for yourself.

If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd love to start buying these "magic" antennas and put them on an analyzer to see how they perform. Then I'd like to take them apart and photograph what's inside. If I did that, I think a lot of these sellers would be mighty upset.
I learn a lot from you. You really know your stuff and not and argumentative, condescending, bag of hot air like a lot on hear. Thank you.
 

mmckenna

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Joined
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Messages
23,615
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Hiding in a coffee shop.
I learn a lot from you. You’re not a bag of hot air like a lot on hear, you know you’re stuff. Thanks man.

I learn a lot from you. You really know your stuff and not and argumentative, condescending, bag of hot air like a lot on hear. Thank you.

Thanks Bub.
This is a site to learn new things. Arguing has it's place in discussion, but way to many resort to it as a first reaction. I got my start in radio by talking to others that were happy to help me learn. Just trying to pay that back.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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Haha, I know this antenna or one just like it has been in my life in the past even if it was maybe for one or two days, I'm sure it was tossed in a corner or in the garage never to be seen again.

Again this was a long time ago, don't know why I even had it, given to me perhaps? The fact that you can't even find frequency coverage listed says everything.
Yeah I'm sorry I wasn't that clear on my post here. It's a vague memory but as I say I did have an antenna that looked like this in the PVC pipe. I think it was given to me by an acquaintance instead of them throwing it in the trash. I can't remember if I threw it in the garage or threw it in the trash but I apparently was not clear here, I apologize, I think I threw it in the trash. It didn't work well. I mean anything will work to pick up something but this was not an impressive performer. A lot of things will work on a strong UHF or 800 megahertz system.

I think this particular antenna has been around a long time.
 
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