Did you buy the discone desktop or the mobile/desktop? Thanks
Whistler Scanner Antennas
- Thread starter WhistlerWendy
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Did you buy the discone desktop or the mobile/desktop? Thanks
Mobile/Desktop Scanner Antenna - Multi Band
SKU: WMM-460
SKU: WMM-460
Sounds like a phony Amazon scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How so? Whistler is selling them, directly.
CycleSycho
Member
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
Replying to myself.
Pros-
-Wideband coverage, had good rx on VHF-high, UHF low and high, 7/8/900. Was able to knock out some far-flung mystery freqs during my week in Vegas. VHF-low not tested.
-Solid unit, not much wobble
-Direct wired, no adapters to fumble with
-Quick to erect (giggity)
Cons-
-Needs a carrying case/soft bag. I like the (vinyl?) sleeves the Diamonds come in. With the Whistler, I fumbled the elements into a rolled-up tote bag and threw it in the suitcase. Maybe a cardboard mailing tube cut to size will work; will investigate this.
-Elements feel funny. I'm so used to the Diamond D220R that these ones feel hollow and fake-y. Did not impede reception, so this is just a whine.
-Mag base could be wider. If there's nothing to "stick" it on, and, say a highly-intoxicated roommate wants to look out the window, well...
Side note- best way yet to make a housekeeper gossip about you. I tracked down the housekeeping freq for my hotel and heard the "spy room" mentioned more than once. Someone mentioned it may be a toy satellite. I left a healthy tip.
Next test period will be in Alabama in 2 weeks.
mrc333777
Member
can these antennas be used for transmitting?
CycleSycho
Member
I was wonder if anyone has been using one of these Mobile/Desktop Scanner Antenna - Multi Band I know they are sold out I was looking if anyone has a big difference on uhf/vhf etc?
rayvelcoro
Member
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2017
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- 207
In my experience, new antenna designs and products generally generally perform well for basic UHF and VHF scanning. I have found that improvement in 700/800 Mhz digital reception has only been achieved after trial and error and frustration with the RS 800 Mhz -type rubber duck and the lengthier offering from Laird Technologies. I’ve had no luck with stubbies, telescoping, or mobile antennas. Have not tried a roof antenna for 700/800 Mhz. Does anyone have experience with roof antennas for this band? I’ve read many posts and reports of Yagi antennas being the bee’s knees.
eyes00only
Member
My problem is with 700 & 800 Mhz too but I can't do an outside antenna. It gets pretty expensive buying & trying antennas. I've found that my Whistler TRX1 is only good for DMR & NXDN.
Before I moved, I had a fairly inexpensive full size Radio Shack Discone antenna on my roof feed with low loss coax. It was by far the best scanner antenna I ever had, and it worked great on 800MHz. It would pull in 800 MHz channels at full scale that my scanners would not pick up at all with any indoor antenna.
How about Whistler using it's clout to bring back Maldol's AL-500H whip, centering on vhf air and mil-air? Either bnc or sma versions.
Long discontinued, it worked very well for me, especially on older scanners that were prone to FM broadcast / vhf pager overload. Like Icom's narrow-tuned vhf airband transceiver duck, the Icom FA-B02AR, the Maldol seemed to be very tight as compared to other more general purpose whips like the classic Diamond RH-77ca.
The combination of being resonant in the civil / mil-air bands (measured) AND being narrow on vhf is what made it a favorite of many. That would certainly be a worthy antenna for the portfolio. Currently being used on my Uniden 436HP, so it helps the ENTIRE scanner community as well.
Long discontinued, it worked very well for me, especially on older scanners that were prone to FM broadcast / vhf pager overload. Like Icom's narrow-tuned vhf airband transceiver duck, the Icom FA-B02AR, the Maldol seemed to be very tight as compared to other more general purpose whips like the classic Diamond RH-77ca.
The combination of being resonant in the civil / mil-air bands (measured) AND being narrow on vhf is what made it a favorite of many. That would certainly be a worthy antenna for the portfolio. Currently being used on my Uniden 436HP, so it helps the ENTIRE scanner community as well.
Who cares! I'm not sure why YOU seem to be so distracted by the fact Whistler sells products built by somebody else. Yea, nobody else would ever do anything like that!
LOL!!Very much in contradiction to one of the most highly respected antenna engineers on the planet. Further, he also reliably predicted that most HAM amatuers (because that was the main audience) would state exactly what you stated: "...canceling each other...". He said absolutely not and it's a huge misconception in the field.
That is by far my impression!! My RX signal strength has improved immensely with this antenna, and I'm receiving a lot of stuff I could never get at all. I'm very happy with it.
I have the diamond also, this antenna blows it away. The diamond is my favorite whip / ducky antenna, but this antenna is much stronger.
No, sounds like you work for a marketing firm contracted by Uniden.
Funny you should mention that. I was recently educated abotu how antenna's work electronically speaking. I always assumed the entire element was "working" at rx'ing or dx'ing the signal. Turns out only the outside skin of the element does anything with the signal. This of course does not include any protective/support cover or coating (fiberglass, rubber...). So the reality is it does not matter if an element is hollow or not for functionality. Of course it's nice to have a solid element for longevity/robustness/rigitity.... but it won't affect the resonance.
Regarding a case and traveling: You may want to try/switch to the non-discone version of this antenna to travel with. It's abviously smaller without the discone elements, and it a bit shorter at the base I think. (have to go look at pics again). My expert source claims the discone version will not add any noticeable advantage over the other one without.
LOL!! That's hilarious... I've had some weird equipment in my hotel rooms over the years as well. I had a large odd shaped piece if polished stainless steel that was from a Bio-fermentor (pharmaceutical production equipment) years ago in Puerto Rico that I was bringing home from a plant down their. I was questioned at the front desk when I came back in as to what it was. They knew me pretty well as I was there almost weekly for a few years so it wasn't a problem but I got a chuckle out of it. Of course, security at the Ponce airport was interesting the next morning as well!
YES! Acorrding to the antenna design engineer I spoke it would actually be a very good broadband TX antenna. And that surprised me more than it's RX capabilities. I thought for sure that would be a problem as per what Ubbe was stating, the elements would adversely affect one another trying to resonate. Apparently, only the best element (closest in freq size) would resonate, and the others would have no affect. This I was shocked at, but I'm not expert on any of this.
Absolutely, VHF is where it shines for me. But it improved my signal on every band I've tried, from 27 all the way up to 900.
Who cares! I'm not sure why YOU seem to be so distracted by the fact Whistler sells products built by somebody else. Yea, nobody else would ever do anything like that!
Yup, I'm the one distracted. If they can't move forward in scanner design, at some point the market will no longer be sustainable to them. If the scanner line goes away, the antennas for those scanners most likely will too. The more you defend these antennas, the more you show that you don't realize that the important part is that the TRX100/200 failed, there has been no indication of a project to compete with the SDS100/200 almost a year and a half after the TRX100/200 was announced and that the antennas, as good as they may be, are nothing more than attempt to remain relevant in the market while hoping people don't realize their scanners, even the newest ones, are running on 10+ year old technology.
A post about products that obviously did not make it to market in a thread about antennas available for sale. Perhaps create a new thread titled Unmitigated Whistler Diatribe and really share your thoughts. Hmm...you know, moderators could use that thread as a repository for similar posts.
+Over 80 words in a single sentence, so you got that going for you. A great way to start that thread.
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