Need suggestions for a (suction) glass mount antenna or base.

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madrabbitt

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As the title says.

It will be used on a HP scanner, so SMA (although i can buy an adaptor)

This particular scanner covers VHF and 700/800.

The scanner is mounted indoors in an RF rich environment, not able to run anything outside. Ideally, i'm going to suction it to the top center of the nearest window.

Also, if theres any bases that allow me to use my own antenna, i'm open to that.
 

KK4JUG

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I have never, ever had good reception from a glass-mounted antenna.
 

cmdrwill

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How about this one that passed the '80 mph road tests'.
 

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KK4JUG

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that was literally the exact opposite of what i asked

Lose the attitude. Nowhere in your post did you ask anything.

The type of antennae you're asking about have historically been poor performers. Have you noticed that no one has recommended one? Some might get you by but most will be marginal at best.
 

jonwienke

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I have one of the Trams. It works, but is not a stellar performer.
 

KK4JUG

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For me, half the fun of buying new equipment is the research. Google "glass mount scanner antenna" or whatever you're looking for and see what's available. If you find something you might like, check the reviews, including eham.com. If it's still good, do a search on that particular item and find the lowest price and don't forget to check shipping costs.

Every once-in-a-while you'll find a really great.
 

Ubbe

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The OP is not looking for a car thru glass antenna installation. He is stuck in his apartment and cannot use an outside antenna and are looking for a suction cup antenna or any other good solution.

I know there where a suction cup antenna for apartment windows that looked like an X and worked at least better than putting the scanner close to the window. I guess there is no way to get a coax cable thru the window so you could have a suction cup antenna outside or hanging from a nail? There is always worse reception behind a window and with the newest low energi loss ones there are almost no signals getting thru.

/Ubbe
 

jonwienke

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If the window has any reflective coatings for energy efficiency, then a window mount antenna will not work.
 

QwKiE

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If this is for a scanner and you live in a apartment building you already have beat 1 thing you have height if you are up in the top floors of the building. If you get a good magnet mount antenna and stick it to a large pizza pan (steel) that will act as a ground plane find the best place in the area of your scanner. You should be able to hear most anything that a glass antenna can receive, it will work just fine in a building I have this set up and it works just fine.
 

cvfd625

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I have compared putting an antenna in a window sill and placing an antenna with a magnetic mount on top of a metal filing cabinet. And the metal filing cabinet wins hands down.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

madrabbitt

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The OP is not looking for a car thru glass antenna installation. He is stuck in his apartment and cannot use an outside antenna and are looking for a suction cup antenna or any other good solution.

I know there where a suction cup antenna for apartment windows that looked like an X and worked at least better than putting the scanner close to the window. I guess there is no way to get a coax cable thru the window so you could have a suction cup antenna outside or hanging from a nail? There is always worse reception behind a window and with the newest low energi loss ones there are almost no signals getting thru.

/Ubbe

Close, and correct. Cannot get anything routed outside (fixed windows). Am playing with the PVC style antennas for the VHF only scanner, and its kind of working. However, this particular home patrol is sitting in the base of the window, the window faces the mountain where the sites are located, however, it is still really low. I really wanted to get something higher, to the top of the window, hoping for a little improvement.
Also, its pretty much common opinion that the OEM little antenna on the home patrol REALLY REALLY sucks, so anything may be an improvement.



If the window has any reflective coatings for energy efficiency, then a window mount antenna will not work.

I took this into consideration. Pretty sure that there are no metallic or reflective tint. Also single pane windows, so i'm lucking out on that.


If this is for a scanner and you live in a apartment building you already have beat 1 thing you have height if you are up in the top floors of the building. If you get a good magnet mount antenna and stick it to a large pizza pan (steel) that will act as a ground plane find the best place in the area of your scanner. You should be able to hear most anything that a glass antenna can receive, it will work just fine in a building I have this set up and it works just fine.


Regrettably, this is on the first floor. However, the window has line of sight to the mountain that a majority of the antennas are located.

As far as mag mounts, i'm REALLY tempted to go with a mag mount either on the metal frame of the window or replacing a ceiling panel with a metal square panel and putting the mag mount on that... in fact that would give me a pretty great ground plane.


I have compared putting an antenna in a window sill and placing an antenna with a magnetic mount on top of a metal filing cabinet. And the metal filing cabinet wins hands down.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


See above. Also, weirdly enough there are NO metal filing cabinets in here. Everything is fake wood.
 

ecps92

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I use one of these when traveling
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants/3069.jpg
IT allows me to pick my specific antenna selection based on my target of monitoring
As the title says.

It will be used on a HP scanner, so SMA (although i can buy an adaptor)

This particular scanner covers VHF and 700/800.

The scanner is mounted indoors in an RF rich environment, not able to run anything outside. Ideally, i'm going to suction it to the top center of the nearest window.

Also, if theres any bases that allow me to use my own antenna, i'm open to that.
 

madrabbitt

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I use one of these when traveling
3069.jpg

IT allows me to pick my specific antenna selection based on my target of monitoring

A SMA version of those would probably be good to test and find a good whip to stick on it.
 

popnokick

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I can practically GUARANTEE that a flat-blade "leaf" type TV antenna placed in your window is going to work better than any suction-cup rubber duck stuck on the window. Here are two of the type I'm writing about -
Solid Signal HD-BLADE Flat Amplified HDTV Indoor Antenna Clear (HDBLADE100CA) from Solid Signal
The Best Indoor HDTV Antenna | The Wirecutter
And there are MANY others available in the big box home stores and Walmart. "But, but, but.... it's a TV antenna!" you say. Yep... and the scanner bands you wrote you want to listen to (VHF and 700/800) are adjacent to or even included in the receiving bandwidth of most TV antennas. Lots of user reports here on RR saying, "Yep, they work". Search and read. Two things you'll want to do though: You'll need an adapter to go from the F-male connector on the blade antenna coax, and before you put the antenna into place connect it to your scanner and rotate the antenna 90 degrees on the vertical axis. You may find it improves the signals you are trying to receive. Mobile communications signals are vertically polarized (TV is usually circularly polarized). Rotating the antenna on the window might help by turning some / all of the elements to vertical. C'mon... for about $15 + an F-male adapter to your scanner can you afford NOT to try it?
 

madrabbitt

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Actually, that was one of my potential solutions.

There are two scanners. One is a BNC and one is the SMA. The BNC one is VHF only, and i've been playing with PVC pipe antennas hanging from the top of the window. Generally snake oil, but i didnt pay a dime for it, and its better then the telescoping OEM. I was planning on trying it on the home patrol as well, so I already ordered a 15 foot coax with F on one end and SMA on the other end.

Walmart does stock the flat antennas cheaply, so I may go grab one. I can put it flat on the wall, window, or use push pins to put it on a ceiling tile.
 

madrabbitt

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also. allow me to point out how freaking frustrated that I am that we literally have an unused antenna tower (`50 foot) right next to the building, as well as two roof mounted antenna bases, AND open ports on the cable passthru in the wall, but i was told that I absolutely CAN NOT use them, regardless of my training, experience, or certifications in this field.

I would absolutely love to put a multiband discone up there, run it thru a single coax line, split it up between the two scanners, and boom.
 

popnokick

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The TV blade-type antennas are bidirectional to the broadside of the antenna. Window mounts are fine and help focus the receiving area OUTSIDE the building, which is what you want (unlike an indoor omnidirectional, indoor discone, or indoor mag mount antenna). So hopefully you're not planning on using pushpins to mount it flat against a ceiling tile, which will focus the receiving area toward the floor / basement and the floor above you.... not likely to be the direction(s) your desired signals will come from. "Point" it out the window!
The other nice thing about 75 ohm coax is you can use a cheap TV / CATV antenna signal splitter to have the one antenna work simultaneously with both of your scanners. They work fine... I'm using three scanners on one attic antenna. You can even get them with built-in amplifiers, but try the standard "passive" return path type first without an amp. If you can see the towers in the distance you should have plenty of signal; an amp might increase interference from other sources like FM broadcast transmitters. But a standard TV splitter will provide isolation so the two scanners don't interfere with each other, and minimize the signal loss between them.
 
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Ubbe

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I can practically GUARANTEE that a flat-blade "leaf" type TV antenna placed in your window is going to work better than any suction-cup rubber duck stuck on the window. Here are two of the type I'm writing about -
Solid Signal HD-BLADE Flat Amplified HDTV Indoor Antenna Clear (HDBLADE100CA) from Solid Signal
The Best Indoor HDTV Antenna | The Wirecutter

The first one looks like the X antenna I wrote about, but this one has some fancy extras attached to the X to make it look more sofisticated. All X and bow tie type antennas are broadbanded by design and should work ok.

The second antenna is a loop type, it also says so in the text, but still says it's omni directional which is totally wrong. Forget about that antenna as the loop size pretty much dictates the single frequency that it is tuned to. Read the user reviews and don't trust that authors text.

/Ubbe
 

QwKiE

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I think you missed something a good mag mount on a metal file cabinet or a big pizza pan will work just fine in side of your apartment it needs not to be outside. You are receiving not transmitting.
 
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