Need Mobile Antenna Recommendation

[KAPcsg]

I'm looking for a good mobile antenna for the car. It will be used mainly near town, for an 800mhz trunked system.

I would like a broad coverage antenna (say 100mhz - 1000mhz), but my main desire is for gain, and I'm thinking that I may sacrifice gain for coverage if I go that route. So perhaps an antenna that is cut for 800mhz would be better.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[N8IAA]

I'm looking for a good mobile antenna for the car. It will be used mainly near town, for an 800mhz trunked system.

I would like a broad coverage antenna (say 100mhz - 1000mhz), but my main desire is for gain, and I'm thinking that I may sacrifice gain for coverage if I go that route. So perhaps an antenna that is cut for 800mhz would be better.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Larsen makes a tri-band antenna for 150/450/800Mhz. Worked well for me until I misplaced it somewhere and can't find it now. HRO in Doraville sells the antenna. It has a NMO base.
Larry

 

[b7spectra]

Check eBay, you can get some good deals on them there.

 

[n5ims]

I'm looking for a good mobile antenna for the car. It will be used mainly near town, for an 800mhz trunked system.

I would like a broad coverage antenna (say 100mhz - 1000mhz), but my main desire is for gain, and I'm thinking that I may sacrifice gain for coverage if I go that route. So perhaps an antenna that is cut for 800mhz would be better.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

In general you can get gain in an antenna or you can get a wide bandwidth (broad coverage, as you called it), but not both. One compromize is to get a dual-band antenna (note that this is more like two gain antennas in one vs a wide-bandwidth single antenna) where you'll get gain on the specified frequency ranges and some performance (but non-optimal possibly) on others. The Larsen 2/70 C (also the B model) would be one example Larsen Amateur Mobile Antennas NMO 440B

One question is why do you really need (or is it just want) gain? In a city, a gain antenna will not only pick up wanted signals, but many unwanted ones as well and can actually cause you more problems than an antenna with less gain. What you may get is too much signal that may overload your scanner's front end, causing noise, distortion, or even your scanner to not receive the signal. This is worse on simulcast systems where several signals from different towers reach your scanner and can cancel eachother out, causing no signal to decode. With less signal, you only get the signal from the strongest tower and things work fine. More gain can also cause more intermod (two strong signals mixing together to cause signals where none should be) as well.

I have several of the Larsen 150/450/800 tri-band antennas that have little gain, but cover the most popular scanner bands well (VHF-Low isn't covered well). It's also 17" high and looks like many cell antennas so doesn't stand out too much as well. The Austin Spectra also works well on them and also covers the VHF-Low band, but is much taller and not as stealthy.

 

[tampatracker]

This has worked great for me with a magnet mount. I don't think SM has them in stock anymore, but you can still get them straight from Laird. https://www.scannermaster.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=20-540972

 

[klej53]

One question is why do you really need (or is it just want) gain? In a city, a gain antenna will not only pick up wanted signals, but many unwanted ones as well and can actually cause you more problems than an antenna with less gain. What you may get is too much signal that may overload your scanner's front end, causing noise, distortion, or even your scanner to not receive the signal. This is worse on simulcast systems where several signals from different towers reach your scanner and can cancel eachother out, causing no signal to decode. With less signal, you only get the signal from the strongest tower and things work fine. More gain can also cause more intermod (two strong signals mixing together to cause signals where none should be) as well.

I agree with this, especially for Columbus. I have observed much better performance here using a lower gain antenna on my portable than a roof mounted high gain antenna on my truck.

 

[KAPcsg]

Thanks for all of the great information.

 

[blue5011]

I use a plain-jane 1/4 W whip cut for 150 mhz on a NMO roof mount. The whip cost all of $10 at a two-way shop. Unless you have a base, where an antenna can be erected high, a gain antenna specifically for 800 mhz on a mobile is a waste of money.