rdoc wrote:
On one car I have a magnetic (good for me) center loaded Hustler that a very
reputable car audio shop sold me saying that all the truckers there like it
best. It does OK, but I wondered if I could do better.

If "all the truckers there like it" then it's probably a CB antenna -
designed for 27MHz - and will not be all that effective at railroad
frequencies near 160MHz. [0]

A guy at work told me that 160.800 is right in the middle of the 2 meter
band, but he doesn't have a radio and can't say how he knows this. He's one
of those guys who's right about odd tidbits often enough to sometimes check
what he says... but so 'full of it' often enough that I *always* check what
he says before actually using any of his suggestions, if you know the type.

Literally, 2 meters is 150MHz. (the speed of light, divided by the
wavelength - but that's more than you wanted to knowgrin) Usually the
term is used to refer to the 144-148MHz ham radio band. This is close
enough to 160MHz that 2-meter ham antennas will be useful for your
purposes.

What is a good antenna for this purpose? Is there a removable version?

A lot depends on how large of an antenna you're willing to tolerate. In
general, the bigger the antenna the better, but you probably don't want
to fasten a phased array of 19-element Yagis to your cargrin.

Two examples (of many!) of antennas you might be interested in:
http://www.diamondantenna.net/m285.html
http://www.cometantenna.com/products...ID=4&childID=3
(the SBB-25 - the antenna in the middle of the page - is the one
you'd be interested in)

VHF ham antennas are usually sold in two pieces. You purchase the
antenna itself separately from the mount. The antenna is always
removable from the mount. If you want to be able to remove the mount as
well, you'll have to use a magnetic mount. (which will work just fine)

The mounts available from Diamond (and again, there are plenty of
competitors):
http://www.diamondantenna.net/Produc...og/mounts.html
(for the antennas listed above you'd want "UHF" or "SO-239" mounts)

What about one for using on the scanner as a portable clipped to my belt?

Again, the larger the antenna the better, but again you're going to run
into practicality issues.

Two pages showing portable antennas:
http://www.cometantenna.com/products...ID=1&childID=4
http://www.diamondantenna.net/Product_Catalog/HT.html

You only really *need* a single-band 2m antenna for railroad monitoring.
But it looks like you can't get onegrin. A dual-band will work
fine. You'll need to match the connector (BNC or SMA) to what's on
your scanner - probably BNC but check the specs.

There are antennas sold specifically for use with scanners. Usually
they try to receive *all* the bands that people scan - low-VHF,
high-VHF, UHF, 800MHz. Since you seem to be interested only in 160.800
MHz (which is high-VHF) you'll probably find a single-band antenna more
effective.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com

[0] though there have been some problems with truckers operating
illegally in the 2-meter ham band, so it's not impossible this actually
is a 2-meter antenna. Can you post the URL to a picture? Maybe on the
Hustler website?