New Scanner Antenna Advice

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BTFire21

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I am looking to buy a new scanner antenna to mount on my roof which is about 25' off the ground. I monitor mainly VHF LO, HI and UHF, nothing higher than 512. Would a discone be better choice or would a scantenna?
 

Bucko

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ScanTenna would be the way to go here. The Discone is broad antenna and does not have the gain the ScanTenna would have.
 

RISC777

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$0.02

uuuuuuhhhh..... Discones are omni-directional and unity gain. The Scantenna is spec.d at 4.9 dB 'gain' for VHF-lo only (and they don't specify dBd or dBi). And only Stark Electronics posts that "4.9 gain" detail, no one else does that I've come across.

The Scantenna is lower cost, but you'll have to adapt from F to BNC to connect at the scanner end of the supplied 50' cable. If the balun goes, which apparently they do pretty easily, that will have to be replaced periodically.

Size comes into play also. Some discones have a whip on 'top,' others don't. The Scantenna is overall pretty 'tall.' The other potential consideration is a fiberglass omni which wouldn't have elements 'sticking out,' just its height to be taken into account.
 

STiMULi

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If you do not need the gain a Discone is a great chioce.

I used a high end TV antenna mounted vertically on a rotor as a high gain directional antenna. I pulled in stuff thew blew others minds.

My neighbors though I was nuts.
 

RISC777

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Al42 said:
The Scantenna has gain over a discone, Warren. :)
Al, All I've seen along that line is Stark's 'spec.s' showing 4.9 at VHF-lo, none above that. Have you seen more detailed specifications on the ST2?
 

Al42

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The ST-2 is a dipole, so unless it has a problem it has 0dbd gain (by definition). 4.9db? Maybe 4.9dbc (dbs over the bare connector on the receiver).

A discone has about -2dbd gain, so a Scantenna has gain over a discone.
 
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