Hello,

Will be buying one of the new GRE hand held scanners soon.
Like all handhelds, it comes with the relatively short vertical whip antenna
coming out of the top; I guess they are also termed rubber-duckies.

Not all that sharp with antenna theory:

My guess is that when held vertically, it is optimum for receiving verticall
Polarized signals, and my guess is, also, that all P.D.'s and Fire Dept
transmitters use vertically polarized signals.
Is all this correct so far ?

a. What happens if I lay the radio, with the antenna too of course,
hotizontally on its side ?
Will it still pick up "anything" ?

b. Transmissions from airplanes: is there any meaningful polarization from
their antennas, or is it pretty random by the time it reaches the ground,
such that any any antenna orientation would be pretty much the same ?

Thanks,
Bob