What is the approximate distance you want to receive from? I have two simple antennas I made for the scanners, and have them mounted at about 10-12' on my tower. I understand you said nothing outside, so you can still use them, just inside the house/apartment. They are a vertical dipole, with the "hot" element up, and housed inside a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe. I did not do anything special for matching purposes, as it is receive, and fed with RG-59 "cable TV" coax. I am able to get stations on VHF from about 100 miles away, and UHF from about 60 miles away. My "UHF" antenna was actually cut for a combination of the UHF P.S. freqs, and MilAir freqs. Probably more resonant at about 300 Mhz. If you are just doing something inside, and don't want all the "Hoopla", just get some small speaker wire, separate it, and connect a piece of coax to it. Use a tack to put it on the wall. It will definitely do better than the telescoping antenna or rubber duck antennas that come with these scanners. I got the idea for my scanner antennas from a couple of older posts here. I have several beam antennas here, but they are for use on my Ham gear. I don't know that you would need a beam, unless you are a long way off from the transmitter, and then these antennas are directional, and you will get best results in one direction, and poor from others unless it is turned. I'll check back and see how you're doing. I can post a photo or two if needed.
