Low band antenna.

[ffemt25]

Hey group,

I am looking for a low band mobile antenna. I have a few agency's in my area (I.E. WVSP, Allegeny County Fire) and I can't find one that will work for me. they have them for like the 30 - 35 megahertz and 40 - 45 Megahertz. well I need one that will do both of them since WVSP is on 42.1 and Allegeny is on 33.78. any help would be thankful!

 

[DPD1]

When they give those ranges, they basically mean that's the range you will be able to tune it for one freq and get a good SWR. Anything outside that and it will probably not be a great SWR, because the way the coil was designed stops being effective. Because it's low band, it automatically has a more narrow bandwidth compared to stuff for higher bands. So bottom line, there probably isn't going to be any average antenna that has that wide a margin. But you could just get one that covers one or the other, or get one that would be in the middle and tune it to that once you get it. Either way, there probably won't be a huge performance difference. Those aren't hard margins where the reception just completely stops outside that range... It's mainly a guide for good SWR on transmit.

 

[SCPD]

wpsantennas.com - Cellular Antenna and Amplifier Reception Solutions - Lowband Wideband Unity Models

The CW34 model could easily take care of you... The center freq can easily be adjusted for 34mhz. You can still transmit on the higher freq with only a slightly higher SWR. It wouldn't be signficant loss in power. You can adjust the center freq a bit higher to find the right balance.

 

[SCPD]

Someone will likely disagree with me, but I have an interesting low band receiving experience to share.

Don't buy a specialized antenna. That's right, don't buy a specialized antenna. I say this, because in the 80's I was listening to Nebraska State Patrol, which is still running in the 42MHz band. I had a spare CB mag mount antenna that I connected to the scanner. The reception was much improved than the stock built-in antenna. I took it one step further then, and connected the scanner to an outdoor CB mast, and was stunned by the increase in reception.

For low band VHF and some high band VHF the CB antennas worked near perfect. Things got a little noisy while listening to 460MHz in the UHF band, but for being local it wasn't all that bad. I sure wouldn't expect the same results in listening to 800MHz with a CB antenna these days though.

Of course, others will argue that the antenna is mismatched to what you are listening, etc, etc... but in my experience for VHF low band, a CB antenna is quite sufficent.

Good luck with your scanning.

 

[wylie_k]

I agree with Dak48. I work for a company that uses low band (40.0mhz) in west Texas. Most of the time you can use a CB antenna to listen because most Low Band radios transmit with between 60 and 120 watts. Try using an NMO 40 antenna to listen to CB, trust me it dosen't work. If you are going to transmit on Low Band the antenna MUST be tuned. Low band gets serious SWR interference from anything.(trees, other antennas, or a dirty antenna) and you can cook a radio quick. Also, depending on the antenna, some CB antennas actually listen to VHF pretty well. Some manufacturers do this because some CB's can monitor the NWS weather radio freqs around 162mhz. I reccommend if your going to listen to low band only, just make sure you have a long mast.

good luck.

 

[wylie_k]

If you still need an antenna, i can hook you up with one at 40mhz, just let me know.