Once upon a time, there was a semi-crazy man that posts mainly to the
shortwave NG. This crazy man had bought a Uniden 785D multiband scanner
but soon discovered that the scanner was virtually destroyed by intermod,
even with the simple telescoping antenna that came with the radio.
Unfortunately this man lived very close to a cell tower and not so far
from some television transmitter antennas. Woe was this man, being
reduced to using a 1 ½ inch portable antenna for the Uniden, lest the
intermod monster drive the man even more insane. The man lived with
tolerance of his 785D, realizing that it could be much much more, but
having to content himself with the abundance of local police, fire, and
paramedics. One day, as the man was cleaning his basement, he discovered
his outdoor scanner antenna from days of yore. He thought, "for old times
sake, I'll hook this antenna to my 785D to see how bad the intermod is!"
To his great surprise, when connected in a causal manner, (the antenna
standing on one of the elements, with another element leaning against the
wall), there was no intermod, even though the temporary configuration was
on the end of the property nearest the cell tower. The man was intrigued.
He next pondered "I wonder if I can use this antenna permanently, so he
moved the antenna to the desired permanent location, but withheld the
final wiring until sure. Lo and behold, the antenna worked there as well,
though a little tweaking of the location was necessary to insure optimum
performance. The permanent location was to the rear of the house, and the
first trial location was to the front. The offending antennas would be on
an axis of about 45 degrees if the front of the house was assumed to be
zero degrees and the rear of the house 180 degrees.

Bottom line, when I got the radio, I had hoped to use my outdoor antenna,
but had the intermod problems as described above. I did not believe it
possible to use the outdoor antenna, since any form of indoor antenna
would produce grotesque intermod distortion from the cell tower and
television stations. ALL of my portables are plagued by intermod in this
location, though the Yaesu VR-500 and the Alinco DJ-X10T can handle the
intermod if their attenuation features are used. My Yaesu VX-5R is
hopelessly plagued by intermod in this location.

Any insight into why the scanner antenna would permit normal operation of
the 785D without the problems of intermod being a real nuisance? My
outdoor antenna is identical to the Antenna Craft ST-2 seen (minimally)
here http://www.durhamradio.com/scanacc.htm and
http://www.starkelectronic.com/scanner.htm and
http://www.valcoelectronics.com/scanner/scanner.htm though I purchased
it at Radio Shack several years ago.

I thought that if the telescoping antenna caused massive intermod that
there wasn't a chance to use an outdoor antenna, where I figured that the
signal levels would be higher. With the Uniden, the reception in the
upper 800 MHz range seemed dismal with this antenna, but I connected the
Alinco DJ-X10T and viola, great signal levels. Apparently my 785D isn't
very sensitive at those frequencies. Oh, and by the by, when I connected
the Alinco DJ-X10T to the antenna, I got surprisingly good shortwave
reception, at least on the several frequencies that I tried. The antenna
is fed by coax, so I don't believe the feedline helped with reception.
Any insights into why the scanner antenna would offer augmented reception
down to as low as the 7.415 that I tried it at? It is rated to 30MHz, I
guess that might be part of it.

Using the antenna, I am now able to use the Uniden Service searches, such
as aircraft, railroad, CB, FRS, and marine with a high degree of success.

Regards.