[ScanIndiana] Mobile scanner antennas

[Bob Burns K4RXR]

At 01:49 PM 11/27/02, Austin Townsend wrote:

>Does anybody know where to get a good quality magnet mount scanner antenna 
>for my car?

The stuff at Radio Shack may be inexpensive and readily available, but I've 
never been thrilled about the quality of their products. Oh, sure, some of 
their scanners are excellent, but a lot of their accessories and small 
parts are of pretty low quality, in my opinion.

Maxrad makes antennas for the commercial radio market. Their stuff is 
generally of good quality, durable, and works as designed. Luckily, you can 
order Maxrad antennas from some ham radio stores, like R&L Electronics in 
Hamilton, Ohio (800-221-7735).

Maxrad makes a scanner antenna designed to cover the 150-174, 450-470, and 
800-840 MHz frequency bands with unity gain on all bands. The antenna is 
only about 21 inches long and it looks a little like a cellular antenna, so 
it should be fairly unobtrusive on your car.

To go along with the antenna, you'll need a mount. Maxrad makes a small 
mag-mount that should do the trick. Unfortunately, R&L only carries the 
version with the PL-259 connector (also called a UHF connector), so you'll 
probably need a female UHF to male BNC adapter to connect the cable on the 
mag-mount to your scanner.

Part numbers and prices at R&L are:

Antenna BMAXSCAN1000    $18.95
Mag-mount       BGM             $16.50

>   I am looking for an antenna with a good range.

When it comes to antennas, there's no free lunch. Multi-band designs are a 
compromise. They rarely work as well as single-band antennas. And to get an 
antenna with good gain figures, you need to put up longer antenna elements. 
A quarter-wave whip antenna for the 2m ham band is about 19" long and has 
unity gain. A 5/8-wave antenna for the same band is about 48" long and only 
gets you 3dB of gain over the quarter-wave.

Luckily, today's scanners have pretty hot receivers, so they don't need 
much antenna. Depending on what scanner you have, you may be disappointed 
by the reception you get with a good mobile antenna. An inexpensive 
handheld scanner may be swamped by strong signals. Putting an antenna on it 
that's any better than the stock rubber duck will only make the problem 
worse. On the other hand, if you are driving around in your car with your 
handheld scanner and rubber duck antenna, just getting that antenna outside 
the car will bring in signals that you wouldn't otherwise hear.

Bob...