New Antenna Help

[vlcano57]

I am looking to get rid of my unsightly NMO scanner antenna, and replace it with something a lil more...well less ugly.

This will be used on a scanner, and i am looking to do away with the huge black thick spot (where the coil is i think covered).

CT is a regurge for all freqs so I need to monitor everything from lowband, vhf, and uhf/800

my lowest freq i need to monitor is 33.70 and the highest being 800pd. My antenna now hits about 25 miles away at the Quinnebaug Valley Dispatch, and Valley Shore 911 on the 33's and 40's.
I am looking at one of these http://www.wpsantennas.com/cw30-antenex ... ewhip.aspx
or something similar from larsen. But my question is will this pick up my desired vhf, uhf, and 800's also.
Thoughts, answers, suggestions. I just want rid of the black thing in the middle of the antenna, or no coil half way up. I know it helps but it looks awful.

[FireCpt809]

Honestly what I used when I had a scanner in my car was a regular 1/4 wave VHF antenna. It would get lowband decent and the the other bands just fine.

[vlcano57]

I did use a quarter wave for a while but it just wasnt any good for my area. Low Band was ok, but it was awful in my district where I need it the most.

[Bill_G]

Hi J. - the low band antenna you are looking at will cut your range further for every band except 33Mhz or so. No coil in the middle though. Honestly, good tri-band monitor antennas work well, and little else will measure up. A vhf quarter wave is the best compromise, and as you've already noted, it doesn't do what you wanted it to do.

You should look at the Sti-Co disguise AM-FM antenna series. It won't be a perfect solution, but if you picked a preferred band, and lived with the degradation out of band reception suffered, these antennas will look just like your OEM AM-FM.

http://www.sti-co.com/antenna-products/ ... -antennas/

[vlcano57]

ok thanks for the info. UHF and 800 rx is good no matter where i go its the low band that would be the most problematic with receiving from different locations. I have never had problems with UHF and 800 with the quarter wave it was always hitting the low band which was the problem. Thanks for the info guys. I will look into that one Bill

[Bill_G]

A pop can is a good dual band antenna for UHF and 800 (UHF ~ can height, 800 ~ can diameter). But, low band can be tough since you need a rod anywhere from 50 to 90 inches. Now, if you want to be state trooper cool, you can mount a sweet chrome ball mount quarter wave on the rear fender of your 64 Dodge, and I'll bet it does fine with all the other freqs of interest. The babes will be diggin it.

OR

You might try to find a real Larsen mounting base and put the longest rod you can find in it. Their 900M antenna comes with a black plastic NMO mount base that has no matching coil. Throw away the 900M rod, and put in a 40 inch rod. It will look like a VHF 5/8ths wave. Not too ugly, and it might do the job.

[vlcano57]

Thanks those are exactly what I am looking at now Larsen/Antenex 50"

[motorola_otaku]

Honestly, the only purpose-built multiband scanner antenna I've used that was worth a hoot on lowband was the old-school Radio Shack #20-032 mag-mount.

I don't mean to be rude, but you're sort of asking for the impossible here.. "less ugly" and "lowband" are mutually exclusive, or close enough to it to not be feasible. On top of that, most modern scanners have miserable sensitivity down there so they need all the help they can get in the antenna department. If you just positively can't do without lowband my recommendations are the aforementioned RS antenna on a NMO mount or a lowband-tuned antenna multicoupled with any of the popular VHF-Hi/UHF/800 antennas out there. If you can live without lowband, however, then the only antenna you'll ever need is right here: http://www.tessco.com/products/displayP ... ventPage=1