Help picking an outdoor antenna

[paul29031]

hello,

I have a uniden bct15 ( older non X version), I am looking for advice on picking an outdoor antenna for it.

It is located in a second story room / office and I would like to put an antenna either in the window or outside of the window attached to the side of the house, I live about 90 miles north of Seattle and about 40 south of Vancouver Canada, and I would like an antenna that would be capable of pulling in signals from both areas, police, fire,and airports etc.
I'm not needing to transmit obviously just receive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, not looking for a super expensive one, but something that will work better then the basic rubber duckie antenna that came with the unit.

Thanks for the advice,appreciate it.
-- Paul

 

[737mech]

What frequency bands are you trying to monitor? There are many types of antennas for scanners. Not wanting to spend too much try building one is an option. Off center fed dipole is a popular diy here. It helps us answer if you provide a little more info.

 

[MDScanFan]

That range is beyond line of sight and you would likely not get reliable reception if you get anything at all. More local stuff should be fine. Do you get any of the traffic you are trying to bar with the rubber duck antenna?

Are the public services in your area on vhf (~150 MHz) or uhf (~400-500) or upper uhf (800-900). That will help narrow down the options.

 

[paul29031]

Basically, looking to monitor police,fire,airport towers (departures / arrivals).
Depending on costs, I would not mind to monitor as much as thus scanner is capable of receiving.
A friend has an omni dipole type down in California mounted on a pole about 30 feet off the ground and he can pick up signals from a long ways away.
I'd prefer to be able to either put something inside on the window sil or mount something.outside against the house, i could mount something on a pole and run a cable into the room if that is a better option.

 

[paul29031]

That range is beyond line of sight and you would likely not get reliable reception if you get anything at all. More local stuff should be fine. Do you get any of the traffic you are trying to bar with the rubber duck antenna?

Are the public services in your area on vhf (~150 MHz) or uhf (~400-500) or upper uhf (800-900). That will help narrow down the options.

No.only get local police and fire with the rubber antenna now.

 

[MDScanFan]

Do you know what specific frequency bands you are trying to receive for police and fire?

Getting an antenna outside and as high as possible will help the most. For omni reception can either go for a band specific antenna, like a dipole for airband, or a more general purpose antenna like a discone that spans of airband through 900 MHz. Discone examples include the tram 1410 and diamond d130. Decent coax helps too.

Whatever you buy, I suggest rigging a temporary setup, like sit on the roof with it and a handheld scanner, to see if it is worth a permanent installation.