UHF Antenna for GRE PSR-800?

[cocomonk22]

Just got my first scanner today, but still waiting for the batteries and charger to come in. I plan on monitoring primarily UHF most likely between 400-500Mhz. Can anyone recommend a BNC antenna that would improve performance over the stock antenna for that range?

 

[SCPD]

Get your self a " 800Mhz " antenna.BNC

 

[N8IAA]

Get your self a " 800Mhz " antenna.BNC

And how would an antenna tuned for 800MHz work better on 400-500MHz?
Larry

 

[LIScanner101]

I've played around quite a bit with indoor antennas connected to my BCT15X on UHF. I've tried the venerable RS 800MHz duck, the Diamond RH77CA and a plain 18" steel whip in VARIOUS situations.. I have to say that the BEST for UHF ONLY seems to be the plain whip! I was expecting it to be the Diamond RH77CA with the RS duck coming in as a close second but I was pretty amazed that that wasn't the case. This antenna is actually tuned for VHF high frequencies but it rocks on UHF. I am going to try a dedicated whip cut to a UHF frequency as soon as I can get a hold of another whip.

PS - my best OVERALL antenna for BROADBAND coverage is my "travel" Antenna Specialists MON-52 but in certain situations its 800MHz coverage suffers. For dedicated UHF it's great but still not as good as my 18" whip.

 

[DickH]

... For dedicated UHF it's great but still not as good as my 18" whip.

A 1/4 wave antenna for 470MHz is 5.89". Multiples of that length might work OK.

 

[b7spectra]

I actually use a UHF whip on my BCD436 and only listen to 800 MHz on it and it works great!

 

[sibbley]

My area is primarily UHF standard and UHF "T" band. I was always looking for a good UHF antenna. I picked up a mobile antenna http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/laird-tech-qwb490-4481.html. The Laird QWB490.

I use it in the house, on the road, and at work. It is a bit of a pain to move around the long cable, but it works very well on UHF. Actually it works well on all bands.

I got the Laird NMO magnet mount for the antenna and it works well mounted to metal or just sitting on a table.

 

[kayn1n32008]

A 1/4 wave antenna for 470MHz is 5.89". Multiples of that length might work OK.

A VHF 1/4wave will be reasonably resonant on UHF. It works out to being 3/4wave...



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[br0adband]

Any antenna designed for 440 MHz Ham operation will pull in the range the OP is hoping to monitor without any problems at all, so I'd recommend something like the tried and true Diamond RHC77A (which technically is a 2M/70cm aka 144 MHz/440 MHz antenna) which is still a damned fine "wideband" antenna for most anyone.

Diamond® Antenna ~ RH77CA HT/Scanner Antenna

There are tons of antennas out there but that one has so many fans - including me - that it just can't be ignored and it's proven it's worth over the past decade or longer.

As for that 18" whip mentioned earlier, it's not that far off from being a 3/4 wave so it'll pull in signals in the 460 MHz area (1/4 wave would be 6.1 inches) without many issues, sure.

And as has been noted many many times over the years, the RS 800 duckie does remarkably well even on VHF/UHF even though by design it's tuned for the 860 MHz area. Pretty amazing little thing and I'm a long time fan of that one as well and I own both the RS and the Diamond like so many others.