--- My reply to what Bill wrote 12/29/2003 1:48:14 PM

You are right, a good antenna can really improve things but just as important,
some times more important, is a good quality coax. I would suggest at least
9913 or better.

As for the antenna, it is hard to pick just the right one for everything you
want to hear. You either have to compromise on gain to pick up wide band
performance or you have to pick a gain antenna on the band you are most
interested in and let the other signals be received as well as they can be.

A lot of antennas are made with low quality materials and poor construction
techniques. For all around (wide band) I like the Icom discone antenna it has
the loaded whip for low band and does a fair job up to about 1200 MHz. Being a
discone it has no gain but is wide band. Construction is good and I have had
one up on the roof a number of years.

An antenna you should consider, if you live outside town or have signals
mostly in one direction you want to hear is the scanner beam. You can mount it
fixed in a direction or put a rotor under it. I have found, it works quite
well. I am not impressed with the materials used in it but so far it has
survived the weather for 8 months without falling apart.

You can buy, or build a single band, gain antenna that should do a good job on
a single band and will receive local stuff on the other bands. If you have a
couple of these for different bands mounted you can switch back and forth as
your scanning needs change, These will truly give you the best gain. Look to
buy or build with something with at least 6 to 9 db of gain, mount it as high
as you can, away from power lines and metal. They will do a good job.

As I mentioned before, the coax is very important, if you lose all the signal
you gain by putting the antenna outside you end up with nothing better than
you have except the time and cost. Use the best coax you can afford, 9913 or
better and keep it as short and direct as you can. Do not use adapters or
spitters unless you have to (the add a lot of loss) and make sure the coax is
weather tight.



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Bill Crocker ...

^ I'm considering putting up a good antenna, to go with my
^ new BC796D scanner. It seems many of the scanner antennas
^ on the market are made very poorly, and don't hold up over
^ time, and weather. Has anyone spent the big bucks ...


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