Options for Scanner Antennas

[Ranger379]

Hey guys, i have a mobile police scanner in my X and i hate the antenna. it recives VERY WELL in my opnion (30 miles away from my town and i still pick up the local cops) the problem with it is taht it is a cheap 35 dollar radio shack antenna and the magnet SUCKS BIG TIME. its always falling over, if u hit a low tree limb, even going 2mph it falls over, my wilson CB antenna will stand anything. question: what kinda antenna will work? dont know what kind of connector it must be. the site says BNC type adapter connector, will an amature radio antenna work? would like a wilson since i know they have good magnets

My Scanner

My Antenna

thanks for the help

[Jason94sport]

Do you have a roof rack? Cause you can zip tie the ant to the cross bar. I had my CB ant that way for years & it held great.

[dr_starcraft]

Antenna's are specifically tuned to work well on the bands on which they are meant to send and receive. Which means that an amatuer radio antenna is not going to be tuned for the police frequencies, as you are not meant to send/recieve with amatuer equipment. However, its probably pretty close to the 2-meter band, so if you have a 2-meter antenna, then it will probably work ok. If you wanted to get real technical you could find somone with an SWR meter and tune (lengthen/shorthen) the antenna by getting the SWR meter reading as close to 1 as possible on a specific band.

As far as the BNC style connector. Lots of stuff uses that. CB, Ham, just about everything. It's a quick easy military style "bayonet" connector. Which means you can take it on and off with about a half turn.

[Ranger379]

actaully i had a firestick on a really tiny magnet on my moms X for a while hers had a roof rack, it was electricl taped lol. as for mine...dont have a rack

starcraft, u happen to know waht a good anteanna would be to get?

thanks alot

[dr_starcraft]

I can't recommend anything that you can just buy off the shelf mainly because I don't use any of these types of antenna's. I stricly use the stainless steel whip style antenna's which is nothing more than a long peice of cylindrical steel. These in my opinion are the best because you can easily physically cut off the antenna to the exact length you want for a particular application.

[Ranger379]

oops...didnt realize i put this in audio forums, a mod can feel free to move it to the "Ham Radio & CB - Trail Communications" forum if u think thats a better place, sorry about that.

anyway, if anyone else has a scannner, what is anyone else using? thanks

[use a brick]

I'm curious as well, I just purchased a Uniden BC15T for my X and I need a good antenna, I read that all the Radio Shack antenna's break off when doing 60+.

[Nasty350LT1]

Originally Posted by Ranger379

Hey guys, i have a mobile police scanner in my X and i hate the antenna. it recives VERY WELL in my opnion (30 miles away from my town and i still pick up the local cops) the problem with it is taht it is a cheap 35 dollar radio shack antenna and the magnet SUCKS BIG TIME. its always falling over, if u hit a low tree limb, even going 2mph it falls over, my wilson CB antenna will stand anything. question: what kinda antenna will work? dont know what kind of connector it must be. the site says BNC type adapter connector, will an amature radio antenna work? would like a wilson since i know they have good magnets

My Scanner

My Antenna

thanks for the help

I hope you are in Law Enforcement, or a Professional Firefighter.

You do know that having a scanner in your car is illegal.

[Ranger379]

illegal? not here in PA, i have been pulled over with my mobile scanner in my X, cop could hear him self talk over it, didnt say anything about it. i think they may be illegal to have in a commercial truck, think thats a radar detechtor tho....now a police RADIO it would be, scanner is not illegal im positive

[use a brick]

Originally Posted by Nasty350LT1

I hope you are in Law Enforcement, or a Professional Firefighter.

You do know that having a scanner in your car is illegal.

only illegal if you use it to transmit messages on their frequencies.

[Ranger379]

anyway back to the magnet, i found a Hustler Super Magnet, 95lbs to pull it off, just what im looking for, now it say 3/8 x 24 threads, same size as a CB antenna right? should i just get a new antenna as well that is that size? anyone have a scanner with a mag mount? need input on a good one to get...... says it has 16 feet of RG58 Coax and a PL-259 conector, is there an adaptor i can use to make it a BNC? thanks again

[Ranger379]

perhaps this set up?

VALOR SCANTENNA MODLE 660

VALOR SCANTENNA MODLE 660 18" STAINLESS STEEL ANTENNA FITS ANY 3/8 X 24 MOUNT COVES ALL RANGE RECEPTION (NOT FOR TRANSMITING) 25-1000MHZ

SKU Number:VALOR SCANTENA MODLE 660

Price: $12.95

pic here http://www.cbcity.com/shop/images/619.jpg

and this magnet
http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=10021

[Ranger379]

ok one final question before i order some parts, if anyone has seen a crappy wallyworld cb anteanna for 10 bucks when u unscrew the spring its not the normal 3/8 x 24 thread. its smaller. thats what my scanner anteanna is. i found the huslter 95 lb. pull magnet and its a 3/8 x 24 thread. i seen some adaptors maybe i can use one to make the current anteanna fit on the larger magnet? anyone know what kinda the smaller one is called? the 3/8x24 = the stud is on antenna with the mag having a hole to screw it into, on this the stud is in the magnet with the hole being in the antenna