Looking for disguise scanner antenna/Austin Ferret?

[n5gqb]

Looking for ideas for a diguise/stealth base scanner antenna. I have been eyeballing the Austin Ferret antenna as it looks like a "stick" and not like an antenna.
Any comments or suggestions welcome on this antenna or other ideas welcome.
Thx, Sly

 

[RISC777]

Omni? Directional? Frequencies?

There are some fiberglass omnis that would have that "stick" look . . .

 

[MacombMonitor]

At 8 feet, the Austin Ferret can hardly be consider stealth!

Consider something like the Nil-Jon:

[click here]
http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT10MBS.html

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi GQB and all,

Yup, Austin makes great eye catchers and they're way overpriced for the performance. Oh, you can make a nice bottle of snake oil out of a Ferret, just leave the fuzzy ones alone.

If you want stealth check out the Ventenna offered by HRO, they should like most Amateur antennas work well for receiving out of band too. For best performance you should use the 2M model for VHF and the 70cM model for UHF naturally, I doubt either one like most ham AND scanner antennas are all that hot on 800MHz. For that problem band it's best to use a band specific antenna, an 800MHz cell phone antenna is just fine and not too expensive. Like a cell phone it should be OK indoors, that band gives great penetration.

 

[n5gqb]

Omni, all bands 30 mhz thru 900 but mainly 150mhz and 856mhz. I should say "stealth" as in doesn't look like an typical antenna, like a discone or a scantenna, not as invisible. The ni-jon may work and I may check out some other fiberglass "stick" options invisible.Reviews on the Ferret are slim and have seen both positive and negative comments.
Thanks sly

 

[Al42]

Or make a parallel dipole for 150 and 850 and enclose it in some PVC. It'll only be a hair over 3 feet long, plus about 18" for mounting. Mount it on a vent pipe and it'll look like some kind of extension to the pipe.

 

[STiMULi]

Discone in the attic!!!!

 

[trooperdude]

Austin's are overpriced and underperforming.

 

[n5gqb]

Trying to get a little more height than inside the attic. If I had a 2-story it would work out good but I don't

 

[n5gqb]

Anyone have thoughts on putting an antenna in a tree? Would the leaves/branches degrade reception performance?

 

[JHaislet]

Putting an antenna in a tree would probably be a bad idea as far as signal goes (at least when there are leaves on the tree). Leaves unique composition and their haphazard positioning makes penetration by most types of RF signals extremely difficult.

On the other hand, the type of tree (eg scrub oak vs pine) and the antennas location in the tree could make a world of difference as far as signal penetration is concerned. If you could get most of an omni above the crown of a decent size pine tree it probably wouldn't be too bad of a setup. You mentioned discrete though, and having something poking out the top of a tree may not be discrete enough.

BTW, who are you trying to listen in on? You should be able to hear TAMU UPD anywhere in Brazos Co as they’re up on top the press box at Kyle Field. Also CSPD & BPD have decent tower locations if you’re located within the city limits of either.

 

[n5gqb]

Yea I can pick Bryan/College Station and Tamu with a back of set antenna. I do listen to surrounding cities at times to and low power stuff hence the desire for ext ant.

 

[omniryx]

I use a Ferret and am completely happy with its performance. I have it mounted on a mast about 10 meters off the ground and it performs well with my Uniden BCD996XT. I know that lots of people take shots at it, think it overpriced, etc. but it works for me a lot better than a couple of discones that I have tried in the past and, God knows, it is built to survive a hurricane. I use Times Microwave LMF-600 coax which is admittedly a bit pricey but extremely high quality and tolerates our high UV and muggy heat here in Central Florida.