Just got a BCD396T a couple weeks ago. I was in Radio Shack over the weekend and they had a sale going so I picked up this antenna. It got mixed reviews on their site, love it or hate type reviews. Most complaints were regarding the plastic piece at the base. 99% of it is metal and it has a small plastic ring above the BNC connector but it appears to be of solid construction overall. I can't see this breaking easily if you handle your scanner with care.
So far it seems to be slightly better than the stock rubber ducky in the 800Mhz range. There are three different lengths you can extend it for that range so it probably takes some trial and error. I can pick up transmissions from home that I could only pick up at work (closer to the transmission). It's adjustable depending on what freq. range you want so it seems like a pretty good all around antenna. I'll update when I test out some more ranges.
So far it seems to be slightly better than the stock rubber ducky in the 800Mhz range. There are three different lengths you can extend it for that range so it probably takes some trial and error. I can pick up transmissions from home that I could only pick up at work (closer to the transmission). It's adjustable depending on what freq. range you want so it seems like a pretty good all around antenna. I'll update when I test out some more ranges.