[MilCom] Milcom Inexpensive Base Antennas?

[jeff]

On Sat, 2006-09-02 at 17:09 -0400, Ken wrote:
> **Radio Shack Model 20-176 Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna,  ($25.99) 

This was the first antenna I threw up in the attic.  It absolutely
worked.  It's *very* cheaply made and I wouldn't recommend it for
permanent outdoor mounting, but it did its job inside.  

I ran it through RG58 down 2 floors (~40' cable), into a cheap antenna
amplified splitter (20db @ 50-900MHz), then to 4 scanners.  


> "Sky Band" Antenna ($39.95) discone 
> http://www.scannermaster.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=15%2D540715

I graduated to something along these lines, which works much better.  I
also went to LMR400 cable, which helped a bit too.  In an almost
unprecedented event, my wife said, "It's ok - you can run that stuff
through the living room - I don't care."  I love my wife.

LMR400 is more expensive, considerably larger in diameter and much more
difficult to work with, especially if you're going around corners.  It
also has much less loss than 58/59.  I don't have the loss charts handy
but they're available online.  It's less critical at VHF than UHF/800,
obviously.


I'm not sure of the mfgr, but imagine the above antenna put in a dryer
and shrunk waaaaay down, then attached to a mag-mount for your car.  I
saw it at a hamfest recently.  If nothing else, it'll get some odd
looks :)



> Has anyone had any experiences with either one of these antennas monitoring 
> typical MILCOM (138-151 mhz (200-400 mhz)?

No problem here, with the caveat that I only have these to compare, so I
might not know any better.  Either of them are pretty broadbanded and
should work ok, depending on your location.


Otoh, while switching mobile antennas the other day, I noticed my RS
Pro-96 rcvd 800 *without* the antenna.  It does well on most bands with
that ~12" BNC antenna (Diamond D77?), but doesn't natively rcv 225-400.



Best of luck, Ken.  Let us know how it works out.