I found a mobile antenna for trunked systems that really works well.

[Jphila20]

Not sure if this would be the right place for this. I have no connection to either company.

I have a SDS100 and a while back I wanted a better antenna for the car. I bought a SUV and the standard scanner antenna isn’t ideal for the top of it. I started looking around and found a LAIRD Technologies TRA6927M3NB-TS1 Antenna, Phantom 698-2700 MHZ which required a base. I chose a magnet mount by HYS Universal NMO to BNC. The antenna was $55 and the base was $28 about a year ago. The overall height of the antenna and base is 4 ¼”. For trunked systems it has worked better than expected.

If you listen primarily to trunked systems this combination has worked great. It will still work with VHF non-trunked systems.

If you have any questions, contact me directly.

 

[IdleMonitor]

A Larsen NMO150-450-800 Tri-Band Nmo Antenna probably would've been better and covers more bands.

An antenna doesn't care if you're listening conventionally or in a trunked system. What matters is the frequencies you want to target. That antenna you suggest is likely not going to be great on VHF at all.

I get it also about the height on the vehicle, I have a Chevy Trailblazer, so yeah, I don't have one on the roof either. Mainly because I didn't want to use a magnet yet on my new vehicle. But I do use an NMO lip mount with my hood. It works great. I however used to use this on a magnet on my roof on previous suv and it was fine. Except for very low parking garages. Other than that...they were fine.

 

[prcguy]

The wideband 700-2700MHz types are usually low gain at any given frequency due to what you have to give up in a wide band design. It would be a horrible antenna to use on VHF. The Larsen triband is about 1/4 wave performance on any given band including 800 but at least they work ok on both 800 and VHF if the OP needs both those bands.

 

[Jphila20]

A Larsen NMO150-450-800 Tri-Band Nmo Antenna probably would've been better and covers more bands.

An antenna doesn't care if you're listening conventionally or in a trunked system. What matters is the frequencies you want to target. That antenna you suggest is likely not going to be great on VHF at all.

I get it also about the height on the vehicle, I have a Chevy Trailblazer, so yeah, I don't have one on the roof either. Mainly because I didn't want to use a magnet yet on my new vehicle. But I do use an NMO lip mount with my hood. It works great. I however used to use this on a magnet on my roof on previous suv and it was fine. Except for very low parking garages. Other than that...they were fine.

I bought a plastic film from Amazon that you put on the car and it keeps the car from being scratch. I had it on my old car and when I pulled it off you couldn't tell anything was there.