Pro-95 scanner: indoor antenna ideas solicited.
 

Hi there,

I'm about to get a Radio Shack Pro-95 scanner for Christmas. I live in an
apartment, so an outdoor antenna is out of the question. I do have a
second-floor balcony, but unfortunately, my apartment faces the landlord's,
so ANY antenna out there would be called into question. I am handy with
antennas, and have built several for my various ham transceivers in the
past. My main question, though, is what *indoor* antennas have you Pro-95
users successfully used to get better reception on your scanners? Either
commercially made or homemade would be fine by me (commercially made would
be OK if relatively small, and under $75, that is).

My primary scanning freqs, at least initially, will likely be the air bands,
local PD/sheriff/railroad bands(150-160 MHz), and once I get the hang of
them, the 800 MHz trunked frequencies (there are few of these around here
yet, but more are expected to come into being soon).

Thanks all,

Jackie

"Jackie" wrote:

I'm about to get a Radio Shack Pro-95
scanner for Christmas. I live in an apartment,
so an outdoor antenna is out of the question.
I do have a second-floor balcony, but
unfortunately, my apartment faces the landlord's,
so ANY antenna out there would be called
into question. I am handy with antennas, and have
built several for my various ham transceivers in the
past. My main question, though, is what *indoor*
antennas have you Pro-95 users successfully used
to get better reception on your scanners? (snip)


I've had great success, and fun, using simple end-fed wire antennas. I've
tried a lot of commercial antennas over the years, with very mixed results.
In frustration, I decided to try it myself. My first homebuilt indoor wire
antenna was a simple piece of thin wire with one end stuffed into the center
socket of the BNC connector on the scanner. This worked surprisingly well.
My current indoor antenna is a simple connector with a short piece of thin
(RG-174U) coax ran to a nearby window (three feet from the desk) with
various length wires (each cut to a desired frequency) soldered to the end
of the coax. This antenna has worked fairly well, perhaps better than some
of the commercial antennas I've used (is also well hidden behind the window
blinds and certainly works better than the standard rubber antenna included
with most scanners).


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
k.net...

I've had great success, and fun, using simple end-fed wire antennas.
I've
tried a lot of commercial antennas over the years, with very mixed
results.
In frustration, I decided to try it myself.

Dwight... just now seeing your reply... thanks! This is JUST what I was
looking for. I guess there is more room to experiment with antennas that
just receive as opposed to antennas for ham radios... not as "necessary" to
get that perfect 50 ohms match. I'm sure I'll have fun experimenting.

73 and happy holidays

Jackie

"Jackie" wrote:

Dwight... just now seeing your reply...
thanks! This is JUST what I was
looking for. I guess there is more
room to experiment with antennas that
just receive as opposed to antennas for
ham radios... not as "necessary" to get
that perfect 50 ohms match. I'm sure
I'll have fun experimenting.


Exactly. Everything is less critical when no transmitter is involved. So,
while one wants to keep the rules in mind with a receive only antenna, there
is a lot more room to play around and even flat out break all the rules. My
current antenna would probably destroy a transmitter in very short order
(I'd hate to guess what the SWR might be), but it works fairly well with my
scanner. The wire antenna for my shortwave receiver is even more, um,
unusual.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
ink.net...

The wire antenna for my shortwave receiver is even more, um,
unusual.

Sounds... interesting. What is it?

Jackie

"Jackie" wrote:
"Dwight Stewart" wrote:

The wire antenna for my shortwave receiver
is even more, um, unusual.

Sounds... interesting. What is it?


A very small, micro-thin, wire ran around the entire ceiling of the
apartment (right where the wall meets the ceiling), fed into a
tuner/pre-amp. To keep visibility low, the wire is glued in place (a tiny
touch of Elmer's school glue about every foot). Even though wire is running
throughout the apartment, it is virtually invisible (only one person has
noticed it, but only because he traced it out from the radio). The ceiling
is textured, so when I leave, any glue that remains will simply look like
the normal rough ceiling surface.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/

"Dwight Stewart" wrote in message
ink.net...

A very small, micro-thin, wire ran around the entire ceiling of the
apartment (right where the wall meets the ceiling), fed into a
tuner/pre-amp. To keep visibility low, the wire is glued in place (a tiny
touch of Elmer's school glue about every foot.

That's something that I could do here. Thanks for the ideas Dwight...

Jackie

"Jackie" wrote:

"Dwight Stewart" wrote:

A very small, micro-thin, wire ran around
the entire ceiling of the apartment (right
where the wall meets the ceiling), fed into a
tuner/pre-amp. To keep visibility low, the
wire is glued in place (a tiny touch of Elmer's
school glue about every foot.

That's something that I could do here.
Thanks for the ideas Dwight...


It works, but it's real overkill. In my case, it's done now so I use it
with the shortwave. But I probably wouldn't do it again. Instead, I'd
probably look into some type of folded wire antenna that is less intrusive.
Luckily, antennas for scanners are much shorter than antennas for a
shortwave receiver. Take care, Jackie.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/