Would it be possible to post some of these test reports?
Whistler Scanner Antennas
- Thread starter WhistlerWendy
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CycleSycho
Member
If it is a Whistler designed antenna I doubt it as they (and just about everyone else) don't publish specs anymore beyond a generalized chart(s) or specification(s) sheet. MichaelBhere
Member
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- 151
I do not see where Wendy said anything about designing them. She said they spent a lot of time testing antennas to bring what they feel were the best ones. That being said, the prices are reasonable and it seems they are addressing requests possibly from customers that used their scannersuggestion email. I am sure they may also get requests from customers not part of this forum as well. Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop, the world may never know.
CycleSycho
Member
"Our engineers have spent a lot of time testing antennas to bring you what they feel are the best ones"
I started by stating the magic words "IF it is a...."
Try not to misread or read into what I said.
I started by stating the magic words "IF it is a...."
Try not to misread or read into what I said.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2004
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- 133
RG174 does have high loss at 800 MHz (26.9db/100'), but given there is only 12' of it involved, that translates into about a 3db loss. That's bound to make it a better answer than using the stock antenna inside the car.
I don't know if it's the case here (and the specs don't say), but there are several antennas that are advertised as "dual band" for transmit (2 meters and 70 cm), while listing a broad range of receive frequencies (to help the uninitiated understand that it can receive on a lot of frequencies).
So I see no "dumb mistake" in the ad at all, and I think your comment "well Whistler ought to be embarrassed" is uncalled for.
Ok, on advice from THE GUY that designed the antenna's on a few of the NASA lunar landing modules in the 60's as well as a bunch of other VERY high level NASA, military and commercial projects over the last 50 years and going, I purchased the "Mobile/Desktop Scanner" antenna, the one without the discone. He said, "compared to the standard rubber ducky that comes with a scanner, or even an upgraded 'multi-band 800mhtz tuned antenna'(such as those on Amazon....), this antenna should improve BOTH receive and TRANSMIT signals (if one were going to use it for that, for example 2 meter band) for most frequency bands". Quote, unquote. He added the unit with the discone was likely not required and/or would not give you any perceived benefit over the one without the discone. He went on to explain why that was, but it was way way way over my paygrade, so lets just leave it at he recommended this one (without discone) to me. Not that the discone would cause a problem, it just would not add much benefit, and again he explained exactly why, and I did not understand any of it.
Surprising to me is, how having 3 or 4 different antenna's all connected at the same time, it just seems they would interact with each other, or negatively. And I asked him exactly that question. His answer was absolutely not again with a very technical explanation as to why. In particular on the transmit side, he explained how the SWR would be so far off on some "off" elements, that the entire signal would only resonate on the proper element with no loss on the others. Interesting stuff!!
So anyway, I received it Thursday and have been playing around with it a little bit. So far it makes a WORLD of difference over any other antenna I've tried on my scanners, and I have 7 or 8 different antenna's here. I have a $140 tram, I have the amazon 80mhtz 8" little whip that is always suggested on here (which does work better than the stock by the way), I have the orig ducky of course, I have an old Radio shack multi-band discone antenna, I have a shorty 3" (which is useless!), I have a RS mobile…. and by far, this Whistler desktop antenna outperforms ALL OF THEM. I'm absolutely shocked to be honest. Not that I didn't trust it, but in a world ther is always something new and better, you buy it and get it home and "kerrrrrplunk", you get nothing from it! Well, I'm 100% happy I bought this thing. It particularly does really well on the VHF and lower bands in the 120 range (aka Air bands). I'm receiving a bunch of ground control (baggage guys, ground crews...) at a local airport that is about 30 miles away, that I have NEVER herd before from home. Marine VHF band is probably a 20 or 30% improvement over the orig antenna. I have a lot more testing to do with it, but the initial results are FANTASTIC!
In my truck, it is a 1000% improvement! I plopped the big magnet mount on the roof and had the scanner in the truck with the 12' cable in the rear sliding window. It's of course a HUGE improvement over the rubber ducky INSIDE the truck. This is to be expected simply because it is now outside the vehicle/metal surrounding, but it really performed nicely. I did not do a lot of testing with this, but it was clearly noticeable.
This is the one recommended to me, and I bought:
whistlergroup.com
That sounds somewhat contradictory to what I was told.... the multiple elements would show very little interaction with each other.
Thanks Wendy, me thinks they did a good job, THANKS!! Now go tell the engineers to figure out show to turn a light on, on the TRX1 scanner as soon as you hit the power button, so we know it is booting up when we are trying to turn it on in the dark!!! This drives me nuts, in the dark we have no way of knowing whether we hit the power button long/hard enough to get the unit to start booting, and since it takes so long to read the SD card, test the data, load memory.... I sometimes wait what seems like an eternity only to find I didn't hit the power button properly.
Surprising to me is, how having 3 or 4 different antenna's all connected at the same time, it just seems they would interact with each other, or negatively. And I asked him exactly that question. His answer was absolutely not again with a very technical explanation as to why. In particular on the transmit side, he explained how the SWR would be so far off on some "off" elements, that the entire signal would only resonate on the proper element with no loss on the others. Interesting stuff!!
So anyway, I received it Thursday and have been playing around with it a little bit. So far it makes a WORLD of difference over any other antenna I've tried on my scanners, and I have 7 or 8 different antenna's here. I have a $140 tram, I have the amazon 80mhtz 8" little whip that is always suggested on here (which does work better than the stock by the way), I have the orig ducky of course, I have an old Radio shack multi-band discone antenna, I have a shorty 3" (which is useless!), I have a RS mobile…. and by far, this Whistler desktop antenna outperforms ALL OF THEM. I'm absolutely shocked to be honest. Not that I didn't trust it, but in a world ther is always something new and better, you buy it and get it home and "kerrrrrplunk", you get nothing from it! Well, I'm 100% happy I bought this thing. It particularly does really well on the VHF and lower bands in the 120 range (aka Air bands). I'm receiving a bunch of ground control (baggage guys, ground crews...) at a local airport that is about 30 miles away, that I have NEVER herd before from home. Marine VHF band is probably a 20 or 30% improvement over the orig antenna. I have a lot more testing to do with it, but the initial results are FANTASTIC!
In my truck, it is a 1000% improvement! I plopped the big magnet mount on the roof and had the scanner in the truck with the 12' cable in the rear sliding window. It's of course a HUGE improvement over the rubber ducky INSIDE the truck. This is to be expected simply because it is now outside the vehicle/metal surrounding, but it really performed nicely. I did not do a lot of testing with this, but it was clearly noticeable.
This is the one recommended to me, and I bought:
WMM-460 - Mobile/Desktop Radio Scanner Antenna - Multi Band
Our Middleweight Champion WMM-460 For desktop or mobile applications, this magnet mount antenna offers 4 tuned elements! Standing at 25” tall and weighing in at 1.7lbs, the WMM-460 will enhance the reception of any scanner. FEATURES Desktop/Mobile 4 tuned element scanner antenna Frequency RX...
whistlergroup.com
That sounds somewhat contradictory to what I was told.... the multiple elements would show very little interaction with each other.
Thanks Wendy, me thinks they did a good job, THANKS!! Now go tell the engineers to figure out show to turn a light on, on the TRX1 scanner as soon as you hit the power button, so we know it is booting up when we are trying to turn it on in the dark!!! This drives me nuts, in the dark we have no way of knowing whether we hit the power button long/hard enough to get the unit to start booting, and since it takes so long to read the SD card, test the data, load memory.... I sometimes wait what seems like an eternity only to find I didn't hit the power button properly.
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
I have my discone packed and ready to go to Vegas with me tomorrow. Results to be posted.
Ubbe
Member
If that was what he actually said, then I wouldn't trust a thing he said. All standard antennas work equally well or bad for both receive and transmit. There's no magic switch inside them that makes them perform differently when you transmit.
All metal close to an antenna will interact with the active antenna element. That's a fact. I have an antenna that are LTE protected. It's an element that sits at a distance from the other elements that are totally mistuned and works as a short at LTE frequencies. The same will happen when you put several vertical elements together. At some frequncies one of the elements will work as a short.
I have a $5 telescope antenna with a plastic foot and a short coax cable and that beats any portable antenna I have and works wonders in my car when put on the dash board. Any antenna that are bigger with more metal in the air will usually work better than a shorter antenna on a scanner.
The shear mass of metal in that multi vertical antenna will make it work better than any standard antenna that comes with a scanner.
/Ubbe
Personal opinion based on observations:
1. These are not groundbreaking antennas-they have been on ebay for years
2. Why, years after obtaining the GRE IP have they just now decided to offer antennas? I'm not buying the "give the customer what they want" line.
3. If so many customers wanted this, it would be a reasonable deduction that Uniden customers are demanding it of them too. Yet, we don't see Uniden clamoring to add antennas. This leads me to two possible conclusions; 1. Uniden doesn't care about their customers (which could very possibly be true) or 2. Whistler is attempting to make it appear that they are still active in the scanner market.
This announcement has generated 3 pages of discussion about products that have been on the fringe of the hobby for years. It has brought Whistler's name into an active part of the discussion board (at least more active than has been lately) in a positive light, From a sales rep's position, it does everything that that person gets paid for.
What I am afraid of is that it is nothing more than a diversion. The left** hand is showing you these flashy (if not gaudy) antennas-Wendy's statement:
I want to see Whistler be successful in the scanner market, but I'm not sure they have the ability. Perhaps they should try to collaborate with someone who has attacked and won the LSM decode war. If they had worked with Unication to develop the TRX-100/200 they may not have seen the same profit margin, but they would probably have had a marketable product instead of the black eye of a ton of lost R&D money and the embarrassment of the public announcement that the project had failed.
Do not let low cost, shiny objects distract you from the big picture. Unless new radios are announced, Whistler is only trying to offer band aids for their current products to keep you spending your money with them.
**No offense intended to left handed people
1. These are not groundbreaking antennas-they have been on ebay for years
2. Why, years after obtaining the GRE IP have they just now decided to offer antennas? I'm not buying the "give the customer what they want" line.
3. If so many customers wanted this, it would be a reasonable deduction that Uniden customers are demanding it of them too. Yet, we don't see Uniden clamoring to add antennas. This leads me to two possible conclusions; 1. Uniden doesn't care about their customers (which could very possibly be true) or 2. Whistler is attempting to make it appear that they are still active in the scanner market.
This announcement has generated 3 pages of discussion about products that have been on the fringe of the hobby for years. It has brought Whistler's name into an active part of the discussion board (at least more active than has been lately) in a positive light, From a sales rep's position, it does everything that that person gets paid for.
What I am afraid of is that it is nothing more than a diversion. The left** hand is showing you these flashy (if not gaudy) antennas-Wendy's statement:
indicates commitment, but shouldn't those engineers have been working on an SDR based LSM capable scanner? What is the right hand doing? There have been no advances beyond the GRE IP with regards to Whistler Scanners, yet they are committing resources to antennas for technology that is now 10 years old.
I want to see Whistler be successful in the scanner market, but I'm not sure they have the ability. Perhaps they should try to collaborate with someone who has attacked and won the LSM decode war. If they had worked with Unication to develop the TRX-100/200 they may not have seen the same profit margin, but they would probably have had a marketable product instead of the black eye of a ton of lost R&D money and the embarrassment of the public announcement that the project had failed.
Do not let low cost, shiny objects distract you from the big picture. Unless new radios are announced, Whistler is only trying to offer band aids for their current products to keep you spending your money with them.
**No offense intended to left handed people
You contradicted yourself?? First you state it would not work, then you state any antenna like this one with more mass will work better. Which is it? The point he was making with it working both ways was, it would also work great for TX, not just RX. He was just educating us (there was an larger audience than just me!) of how well it could work. Most of us were concerned (as you also sound) about the multiple elements affecting each other. His comments contradicted that, they would not adversely affect anything, without measuring with extremely sensitive equipment. In other words, there would be no perceived negative impact and the positive impact of the antenna in gernal would greatly outweigh it.
I suggest you re-read the first sentence in my post, his resume is most impressive, trust me. If NASA and the US military trusts him, I'm 120% sure we can. He has invented and designed a multitude of very high tech antenna's over the years, and is very well known top expert on the subject.
Yea, so? Who cares! I never read anywhere that Whistler said they "invented it", or that it was "ground breaking", or that they are the first to ever sell them. They said they tested several, liked this one best, and are now selling it. Is that a crime?
Again, WHO CARES? Is it a crime for Whistler to try and sell some product and make money? Good for them, I hope they sell millions so they make lots of money so they can continue to R&D and make new scanners.
Oh, maybe I should pack up the new shinny antenna I paid a whopping $29 for, and send it back for a refund because YOU don't think Whistler should be selling such things! LOL
The antenna works AWESOME, as it was suggested to me it might from an antenna design engineering expert. It's inexpensive, it works, and makes my scanner work MUCH better over the other antenna's I've tried. Oh the horror!! LOL
I appreciate your actual review. I may have to try one myself. Sometimes things that shouldn't work well just do. Back in the 80's and 90's I had several expensive antennas that were supposed to be great for SWL. The best SWL antenna I ever used I made myself out of a Slinky toy.
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
This antenna brings back memories of the Nil-Jon Super M Antenna that many of us (myself included) got suckered into buying. I found that one not to be any better than anything else.
I never said they shouldn't be selling such things, I merely pointed out that, based on observation of timing, the addition of the antennas is most likely a distraction from their inability to actually build a scanner of their own. It appears that some are more distracted by this than others.
Ubbe
Member
I never said it wouldn't work. I said it will work better than the standard antenna that comes with a scanner. The different elements will interact with each other. It could sometimes be in a positive way and sometimes negative. At some frequencies, and dependent of the direction to the source, the elements will interact so that they cancel out each others signals.
/Ubbe
The same engineers that brought the TRX-100 and 200 ? Oh wait.....
Received my multi band desk top antenna 2 days ago. BEST money I've spent on an antenna outside of my OmniX outside antenna. Picking up fire depts on the 453 band other side of Aiken County. Reception on other frequencies that was poor before, now coming in clear. Well worth the try for someone looking to improve their coverage or reception.
eyes00only
Member
Thanks for the review. Wish I could afford one. Maybe next year.
seth21w
Member
For my TRX1 I prefer a diamond rh77ca. Works great!
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