Hello,

Will be purchasing a scanner, and like most scanners these days, has a range
of about 30 MHz to 1.2 GHz.

If I obtain a telescopic antenna for the unit, and wish to stick with just
this antenna realizing it will always be sort of a compromise, the following
question arises:

If I leave the antenna extended to its longest length, will this
"automatically" provide me the best possible
broadband coverage on "all the frequencies (particularly at the low end), or
is this long length negated by the fact that the antenna wouldn't be tuned
to exactly 1/4 wavelength most of the time ?

I guess the question would relate mainly to what happens on the really low
30 - 50 MHz frequencies.

Must the antenna in that range "really" be tuned to exactly a 1/4 wavelenth
to be effective, or you gain so much by
having a quite long length that exact tuning isn't all that necessary ?

Thanks,
Bob