Mobile Scanner Antenna Help PLEASE!!

[chrisnigro]

Here's the deal.... I have a large SUV that barely clears the top of my garage. I literally have no more than 3 inches of clearence. I have tried every antenna I can think of. Anything that receives well is too tall, and I have to remove it to get in and out of the garage. I monitor UHF, VHF and 800's.

I had an idea.... I have an old RS magnet mount antenna tuned for my needs. I was thinking of mounting it on my roof. Then just above where the mast goes into the magnet, bending the antenna 90 degrees so it parallels my roof line. The entire length of the mast would be 2 - 3 inches above the roof.

Am I wasting my time like I have been with everything else I have tried....

Any ideas or experiences?

Thanks in advance.

 

[seamusg]

Try a marine store. Most of the marine antenna mounts are side mounts and fold down.

 

[djeplett]

Not to say that the antenna won't still recieve, but it will not do well because you just changed it's polarity from vertical to horizontal. Most comms above 30MHz are vertically polarized. I would suggest placing it on one of the front cowls. It will recieve much better there in a vertical arrangement than it would if you bent the whip over.

The absolute best location would be the center of the roof, but unfortunately that won't work for you.

I wonder if there is one of those little dome antennas made for multiband. There's a forum on here that talks about the little dome antennas that are only about that high (3") but I believe they were only for 800MHz. If you used one that's only for 800MHz you'd be better off using a back of radio whip in the car for anything other than 800MHz. But maybe they make a broadband one. (I still doubt if they did that it would perform that well, though)

 

[seamusg]

My reply was for an antenna that would be folded down to let him in his garage and put up when out. Marine mounts are fold down for going under bridges etc.
Flat Surface Ratchet Mounts with Handle
* Fits all standard 1" marine antennas
* Features 4-way ratchet design
* Base measures 2 1/2" x 3 9/16"
* Mount with 1/4" FH fasteners

 

[chrisnigro]

Have you had any experience with the glass mount antenna's? The ones that look like the cell phone antenna's.

 

[Theo]

I would stay away from the glass mount they don't work very well. I use an L bracket that screws on the inside of the engine hood you never see the screws. Works with any size antenna. Try to use stainless screws if you can. A lot of salt on the road in my neck of the woods.

Just go to www.bncantenna.com and click on mobile.

 

[MacombMonitor]

Antennex makes a "Phantom" line of antennas. I've seen these on local police cars. They actually work quite well, and are very short.

Click here: http://www.antenex.com/

 

[hastingsmedic]

Mobile Solutions

Well, for various reasons I have been very reluctant to slam a big ol' magnet mount antenna on my little car (get enough grief just for having a scanner in the car... some people just don't get it do they?), and have tried various things.

I do in fact have a through-the-glass cell-phone style antenna on the car at the moment and it works 'okay'. Not as good a reception as a magnet or fender mount, but I can still reliably hear all comms from my local EMS service in a 30 mile radius, so I wouldn't discount at least trying one. Be warned though... you probably want to be sure the adhesive doesn't do 'bad things' to your tint before applying.

If you really really can't get an external antenna to work for you, I got 'adequate' results with a piece of 1/4" wide copper stick-on tape (used for stained glass work and available ay craft stores) which I trimmed to the correct length and stuck to the inside surface of my rear window... I soldered the coax directly to the copper and it was very inconspicuous!

A final solution? The folks at: www.durhamradio.com have two types of suction-cup antennas for inside your vehicle.

Andrew Gibson

 

[W4KRR]

Comet makes dual band (VHF/UHF) foldover mobile antennas. Of course, you would have to exit your vehicle to fold it over every time you pulled into the garage.

Another alternative is an "L" bracket mounted on the inside front fender in the edge of where the hood opens. You can then install an MNO mount, and there are lots of antenna choices for the NMO mount, and you wouldn't have to fold it over or otherwise remove it to pull into your garage.

 

[MacombMonitor]

Here is what the Antenex Phantoms look like:

 

[chrisnigro]

The Phantom looks great, the only problem is that I do not see a scanner option. The look like they are each tuned for a specfic range. I monitor UHF, VHF, and 800's...

I might try the fender mount. I actually had one a few years back (maxrad). It was great for 800's and poor for everything else. It looked like an old cell phone antenna. I am not as limited with whip length on the fender. I would be happy with a NMO mount that would allow me to try different whips. Does someone make a fender mount that will allow me to try different whips??

Thanks for all the great feed back!!

 

[mmartinfan]

I have the antenex phantom antenna.

and I use it with this set-up

Yes the antenna are for the specfic range but they work pretty good on all ranges.

Check Ebay just type in Antenex to see a few

 

[chrisnigro]

The plot thickens..... So I dug the old Maxrad out of the closet (fender mount). Believe it or not the thing will not work! Due to the hood design, there is not a flat verticle surface to mount it to. If I were to mount it the aerial would breach the lane next to me. I am guessing that GM in their infinite wisdom knew what I was going to do before I could do it and designed the aerodynamics to prevent me from accomplishing my goal. Aerodynamics, what a joke.... this thing is as aerodynamic as a brick.

So I am now down to this one... It seems OK.. but, it is inside the vehicle. It is already an improvement. Not exactly the performance I was after...

 

[CLTX11]

The plot thickens..... So I dug the old Maxrad out of the closet (fender mount). Believe it or not the thing will not work! Due to the hood design, there is not a flat verticle surface to mount it to. If I were to mount it the aerial would breach the lane next to me. I am guessing that GM in their infinite wisdom knew what I was going to do before I could do it and designed the aerodynamics to prevent me from accomplishing my goal. Aerodynamics, what a joke.... this thing is as aerodynamic as a brick.

So I am now down to this one... It seems OK.. but, it is inside the vehicle. It is already an improvement. Not exactly the performance I was after...

That is pretty much what the BCT 8 comes with (stock) I dont think it is the best, I would go with something else, that is my $.2

 

[LordJ]

I would try a NMO mount on the front fender that mounts kinda under the hood but pokes through the space between the hood and fender. Get a NMO cap for when you don't use it, and it really shouldn't get any higher than 20" which should still clear the garage hopefully.

 

[Al42]

I would stay away from the glass mount they don't work very well.

That's what I've said for years - until last week on a 400+ mile drive. There was something doing down the road - we were dead stopped for at least 10 minutes. I didn't want to get out of the car on an interstate (married men will understand why - it has nothing to do with vehicular safety), but I wanted to hear what was going on, if I could, so I just plugged the Larsen on-glass 144/440 antenna cable into my Pro-95.

After we got moving again, I left the antenna connected, just out of curiosity (and because I was mostly listening to 2 meters by then). I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it myself, but it pulls in 39 MHz just as well (or just as badly) as the Radio Shack mag mount does when it's sitting in the center of the roof. I experimented with it for the rest of the trip, and the Larsen works on VHF-lo, VHF-hi, 450 and 800 at least as well as the RS. It's not supposed to work at those frequencies, but I guess the antenna doesn't know much about "should".

 

[JMA]

mmartinfan:

Like that set up a lot; may I ask where you bought the lip mount and the antenna? Is it a multibander? Trying to replicate same set up.
Thanks.

Martin-

 

[popnokick]

Another vote for glass mount antenna

I had a foldover antenna on permanent NMO center roof of my Jeep. Worked GREAT... until one day about six months later I forgot to get out and fold down the antenna. Ripped open the roof of the car like a can opener on a tuna fish can. Stupid, I know. But can you say you'll never forget to get out of the vehicle and fold down the antenna?

I have one of the on-glass cellular-look alike scanner antennas. It goes into the garage easily when angled down. Most of the time I leave it that way and it still seems to work fine. This thread has a pic and more explanation of how it is mounted:
http://forums.radioreference.com/scanner-receiver-antennas/236659-new-member-general-question.html