I dont know if this is crazy or not but I saw a youtube video of a guy using a mobile car antenna as a base antenna in his home. He just plopped it down on his table and hooked it up to his radio. Just trying to get opinions on something like that. I also have looked at WAN-97A Active Nomad Base Antenna antenna and what little research I've done I see the product has got mixed reviews.
Mobile antenna for bcd396xt?
- Thread starter daggit
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This all depends on what you want to listen to and where you want to listen from. Are you listening while in your car or at home? What frequencies most interest you?
You can make an antenna very easily and cheap too. Just let us know the answers to the two questions and we'll go from there.
You can make an antenna very easily and cheap too. Just let us know the answers to the two questions and we'll go from there.
I'd just make two 800 MHz antennas. One for the basement and one for upstairs and mount them outside.
I made a commercial-quality Yagi for a friend of mine and it worked wonders at his house. If you have access to a drill press and some simple tools, you can make a couple fairly cheap out of aluminum that you can get from a hardware store.
Otherwise, you can make a j-pole out of copper wire or a ground-plane antenna out of a coat-hanger.
Either way, it's a lot cheaper than spending hard-earned money on a VHF/UHF antenna that probably won't live up to your expectations for 800 MHz monitoring. Experimentation is fun, cheap, and you learn as you go.
Have fun!
I made a commercial-quality Yagi for a friend of mine and it worked wonders at his house. If you have access to a drill press and some simple tools, you can make a couple fairly cheap out of aluminum that you can get from a hardware store.
Otherwise, you can make a j-pole out of copper wire or a ground-plane antenna out of a coat-hanger.
Either way, it's a lot cheaper than spending hard-earned money on a VHF/UHF antenna that probably won't live up to your expectations for 800 MHz monitoring. Experimentation is fun, cheap, and you learn as you go.
Have fun!
Can you solder?
If so, and if you have a chassis-mount SO-239, just cut some solid 12 ga wire and solder it to the connector.
Use this formula:
2808 / Frequency = Antenna length
It will give you the length of the radiator in inches. So 2808 / 850 = 3.3 inches, so just over 3 1/4". Then make 4 more of those for the ground plane and solder each of the ground plane elements to each of the 4 holes in the SO-239 chassis. Then solder the radiator element (first one you made) to the center contact of the SO-239.
Then connect your coax to it and move the antenna around until you get the best reception. It will not be weather-proof, but should be better than a rubber duck on your hand-held.
You can find other antenna plans on here as well.
If so, and if you have a chassis-mount SO-239, just cut some solid 12 ga wire and solder it to the connector.
Use this formula:
2808 / Frequency = Antenna length
It will give you the length of the radiator in inches. So 2808 / 850 = 3.3 inches, so just over 3 1/4". Then make 4 more of those for the ground plane and solder each of the ground plane elements to each of the 4 holes in the SO-239 chassis. Then solder the radiator element (first one you made) to the center contact of the SO-239.
Then connect your coax to it and move the antenna around until you get the best reception. It will not be weather-proof, but should be better than a rubber duck on your hand-held.
You can find other antenna plans on here as well.
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