I am trialing a few mobile antennas and I just had to write a review about my first impression of the first antenna that I'm trialing. I spend most of my time listening mobile or at work. I rarely listen at home, but I do listen all day when in my office.
Environments:
Vehicle: GMC Sierra, antenna on bed rail behind rear glass on passengers side
Office: Located in center of single story building. Snellville, GA, Shingle Roof
Terrain: Not flat, but no mountains nearby (other than Stone Mountain, LOL)
Scanner: Uniden BCD436HP
Mobile Antenna (and what I'm comparing against): Diamond SRH77CA
I looked at different reviews on mobile antennas and chose 2 that I felt would work best for my needs and vehicles. The first antenna I chose is a wide band Hustler. It is a 33" silver color whip antenna with a black 3 oz magnet that I placed on my truck. It comes with 12' of RG-58U cable with a BNC Connector. It covers 30-50, 148-174, 430-450 and 800-950 MHz. I will write another review on the other antenna after I trial it . It is a Larsen NMO150-450-800 Tri-Band Antenna that is on a Ford CMax. After I trial both, my thoughts were to purchase a 2nd antenna of my favorite for my other vehicle and place the other antenna in my office.
I purchased the Hustler antenna from Amazon for $35.95. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HM9RHE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
When at home, I normally can only pick up the local county's traffic. (Walton County, GA) I can hear all that is on the system they are on, which is OARS, though, most of this system is encrypted. For that reason, I listen to police/fire/ems on OARS, local school buses/utilities/roads, etc., and just about anything else I can pick up so that I have something to listen to at home. I have never been able to hear anything from another system in another county while using the stock antenna or the Diamond antenna at home, or in a vehicle near home. As soon as placed the Hustler antenna on my truck and plugged it in, I started hearing traffic from other counties that I usually can only hear in my office, 15 miles away. I immediately gave the Hustler a thumbs up for my first impression of it. I listened to air traffic only, for about 30 minutes, and while I still could only hear the planes like before (not the ATC towers), the traffic was much more clear and understandable.
At work: I took the Hustler antenna off of my truck and into my office with me. I have a metal cabinet in my office and the top of it is about 1 foot shorter than the drop ceiling. At first, I was going to place the Hustler antenna up in the rafters, but decided to try it first just by sitting it on top of the cabinet. I cut a small hole in the ceiling tile and placed the antenna on top of the cabinet. The antenna goes above the ceiling tile about 20 inches. Just like at home, I can now hear traffic from another county over that I could not before. My office is in Snellville, GA (Gwinnett County). Looking west, I used to only be able to listen to some of Dekalb County, including Stone Mountain. With the Hustler antenna on top of my cabinet, I can now listen to all of Dekalb County, Atlanta PD/EMS/FIRE, Hartsfield Operations/PD/FIRE (airport), etc. I can even pick up a local golf course that is about 6000 ft from the office and their radios probably only reach 1/2 a mile or so. It is not perfectly clear, but I could not hear them at all before.
If you are needing to get a little more distance out of your scanner, the Hustler works great for that for me, with my short experience using it. It is not "pretty" being that it is silver and tall, but it works great, especially for an indoor application. I know there are better antennas for this, but because it is an office building, I am limited on what I can "permanently" place in the office.
*Please pardon anything that I said incorrectly. I am not a professional and am only learning as I go. If it were not for others on this forum, I would still be twiddling my thumbs looking for details on products that might work well for me.
Happy Scanning!
Environments:
Vehicle: GMC Sierra, antenna on bed rail behind rear glass on passengers side
Office: Located in center of single story building. Snellville, GA, Shingle Roof
Terrain: Not flat, but no mountains nearby (other than Stone Mountain, LOL)
Scanner: Uniden BCD436HP
Mobile Antenna (and what I'm comparing against): Diamond SRH77CA
I looked at different reviews on mobile antennas and chose 2 that I felt would work best for my needs and vehicles. The first antenna I chose is a wide band Hustler. It is a 33" silver color whip antenna with a black 3 oz magnet that I placed on my truck. It comes with 12' of RG-58U cable with a BNC Connector. It covers 30-50, 148-174, 430-450 and 800-950 MHz. I will write another review on the other antenna after I trial it . It is a Larsen NMO150-450-800 Tri-Band Antenna that is on a Ford CMax. After I trial both, my thoughts were to purchase a 2nd antenna of my favorite for my other vehicle and place the other antenna in my office.
I purchased the Hustler antenna from Amazon for $35.95. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HM9RHE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
When at home, I normally can only pick up the local county's traffic. (Walton County, GA) I can hear all that is on the system they are on, which is OARS, though, most of this system is encrypted. For that reason, I listen to police/fire/ems on OARS, local school buses/utilities/roads, etc., and just about anything else I can pick up so that I have something to listen to at home. I have never been able to hear anything from another system in another county while using the stock antenna or the Diamond antenna at home, or in a vehicle near home. As soon as placed the Hustler antenna on my truck and plugged it in, I started hearing traffic from other counties that I usually can only hear in my office, 15 miles away. I immediately gave the Hustler a thumbs up for my first impression of it. I listened to air traffic only, for about 30 minutes, and while I still could only hear the planes like before (not the ATC towers), the traffic was much more clear and understandable.
At work: I took the Hustler antenna off of my truck and into my office with me. I have a metal cabinet in my office and the top of it is about 1 foot shorter than the drop ceiling. At first, I was going to place the Hustler antenna up in the rafters, but decided to try it first just by sitting it on top of the cabinet. I cut a small hole in the ceiling tile and placed the antenna on top of the cabinet. The antenna goes above the ceiling tile about 20 inches. Just like at home, I can now hear traffic from another county over that I could not before. My office is in Snellville, GA (Gwinnett County). Looking west, I used to only be able to listen to some of Dekalb County, including Stone Mountain. With the Hustler antenna on top of my cabinet, I can now listen to all of Dekalb County, Atlanta PD/EMS/FIRE, Hartsfield Operations/PD/FIRE (airport), etc. I can even pick up a local golf course that is about 6000 ft from the office and their radios probably only reach 1/2 a mile or so. It is not perfectly clear, but I could not hear them at all before.
If you are needing to get a little more distance out of your scanner, the Hustler works great for that for me, with my short experience using it. It is not "pretty" being that it is silver and tall, but it works great, especially for an indoor application. I know there are better antennas for this, but because it is an office building, I am limited on what I can "permanently" place in the office.
*Please pardon anything that I said incorrectly. I am not a professional and am only learning as I go. If it were not for others on this forum, I would still be twiddling my thumbs looking for details on products that might work well for me.
Happy Scanning!
