how's the Radio Shack discone antenna?

[intrepid97]

I think it is junk and way over priced,My "sputnik" works much better than the discone ever did.

 

[xusmarine1979]

For my area one of the "back of set" antenna's works great. I really don't listen to much outside of my town, just the surrounding FD's which all have repeaters and are UHF. The only thing that sucks is my town is simplex and VHF, but small.

 

[SlipNutz15]

I too have a RS Discone antenna and it picks up my 46.00-480.00Mhz VERY well. Distance RX is great range. I haven't used it to TX but I think I'm gonna get another one sometime here soon.

 

[K3GI]

I have a RS discone (whichever model it was they sold in 1995) that has been on my roof for 11 years with nary a problem. It mostly sees duty on the scanner and works fine. I have also used it to transmit on 2 meters, 222 mhz, and 440 mhz. When my son got interested in 1998 I got him the Diamond. It's been up on the roof on the other end of the house since then. Both work the same as far as I can tell.

Keep in mind that a discone antenna has "unity gain." That is, it has no gain, and that fact can be a disadvantage. The advantage to it is that is very broadband. Of course, its unity gain characteristics make it great for monitoring aircraft.

Lee, K3GI