Using Car's FM antenna?

[_Jerry_]

I have a pro 2055 scanner mounted in my dash and listen to vhf,uhf, and 800 mhz. I have a couple of uhf antenex antennas. I've used them on an older scanner and they picked up the vhf and uhf decent enought. Would they pick up the 800 mhz band well? Or, could I just replace the car's fm antenna end to a bnc and use that? Thanks!

 

[Taloniilm]

Forget the car antenna... waste of time. If you want to get good reception on all the bands/ freq's take a look at the Larson.... it's gotten good reviews on here

 

[prcguy]

Not a wast of time, a stock cowl mounted AM/FM car antenna works surprisingly well across the 30 to 512MHz range. I recently did some field testing of a matching device for using the car antenna as a stealthy transmit and receive antenna for military radios. The target range was 30 to 90MHz but the car antenna was very usable to 512MHz which was the highest freq we tested. I have lots of data comparing the car antenna to the stock 1m long blade antenna used on the specific military radio. A roof mounted tuned antenna will work much better but some people cant go the perminant route. There are adapters that will allow simultaneous AM/FM and scanner use, check Ebay. I have a few but never got around to testing them.
prcguy

Forget the car antenna... waste of time. If you want to get good reception on all the bands/ freq's take a look at the Larson.... it's gotten good reviews on here

 

[bee]

I disagree!

 

[rcvmo]

Not a wast of time, a stock cowl mounted AM/FM car antenna works surprisingly well across the 30 to 512MHz range.

I agree also.
While I don't use my car antenna for scanner rx'ing, I do use it for my in car Amateur TV. Because of loading on the antenna circuit, the AM sensitivity degraded, so I threw in an antenna Spec. matching balun. Works very well.
I've done quite a few dept.s that have used the am/fm antenna for scanners.
The 1999 Crown Vic's with the antenna in the rear windshield were actually good for Transmitting on 30-50 MHz range but somewhat directional.
Rcvmo

 

[radact]

Using Car Antenna

When I bought my Nissan truck it didn't have a radio in it but the antenna was still there. I bought one of those AM/FM radio to scanner couplers and when I installed my Amateur radio in the slot where the music radio should be, I also mounted my BC780XLT in there.

I ran the antenna wire to the coupler and then the cable that said it goes to the scanner to the 780. Since I didn't have a music radio to put in there, I used the other cable that's supposed to go to the radio with an adapter to an F connector and ran a short jumper of RG6 cable TV coax to a USB TV module and plugged it into my laptop that's mounted in my truck.

The scanner works absolutely perfect thru the whole range of freqs, 25 mhz - 1.3g. Heavy trunking is used here in Las Vegas and it does great there. Very little intermod noticed.

As for the TV card, the AM/FM antenna brings in just fine the 15 over the air stations we have here in the valley. Even though the antenna is verticle and TV signals are horizontal, I see very little degradation of the signal.

So needless to say, I listen to the scanner and watch TV with no problems with the stock AM/FM antenna.

This is a different cosmetic design but same principal. This one already has the BNC connector for the scanner. The one I bought didn't and I had to get a Motorola to BNC adapter.

http://www.walcottcb.com/paradynamics-pdc64-amfm-to-scanner-splitter-p-389.html

Hope this helps.

 

[prcguy]

And another thing, the coax used for most car AM/FM antennas is very low capacitance/high impedance to help match the (very) short whip in the AM broadcast band. This also reduces coax loss when using the non resonant car antenna on multiple scanner bands. I'm not saying the car antenna is the best scanner antenna but I'll consider using it in my next vehicle before revving up the 3/4" hole saw.
prcguy

 

[_Jerry_]

Thanks for all of the replies! I didn't really have a problem installing an nmo antenna, but this is on a 2001 chrysler sebring lx and I just kind of want everything low profile. I took out my car stereo and replaced it with a 2055. All of this information has really helped and I thank you all again!

 

[_Jerry_]

Well, I've been using the car's f/m antenna for a few days now. I live in King George, VA which runs off of vhf. I can pick them up just fine. Range is a little more limited as opposed to an actual scanner antenna, but I can still get coverage over the whole county. I also scan a few other vhf systems and they work fine also. I do however scan 1 uhf system and 1 800mhz system. The uhf system I can pick up while mobile, but I encounter a few dead spots within the county. The 800mhz system I can pick up mobile only in one spot of the county, anywhere else in the county I have to be stopped.

So, all that said, I overall like the setup considering I can listen to all but one of the systems I scan. But, if you do alot of 800mhz scanning, I would avoid this option.

Regards, Jerry

 

[Viper43]

Just about anything can be made to work as antenna, look at some of the federal cars used for undercover work and you won't see obvious signs of antennas because they use everything from the original am/fm radio antenna to the mirriors and even the rear window defroster wire.

V

 

[windchaser]

jerry, check out www.sti-co.com windchaser usmm

 

[icom1020]

I remember back in the 80's, a police dept for a year or 2 used an after market broadcast band antenna on 155mhz which was slightly longer than the factory installed on their Diplomats. These were marked cruisers so the only thing I can ascertain was they didn't want to drill holes in the body. They didn't repeat this again.

 

[SCPD]

I also have had good luck using the car's AM/FM antenna for the scanner. I have had two cars where I used the car's antenna for the scanner, and put a little discreet 7" or so wire in the back window for the AM/FM radio. All the FM still come in fine.