"BDK" wrote in message
...
A ground plane made with an SO-239 connector and some coat
hangers will blow a discone away. A total waste of money, unless you
want it as a back up antenna to transmit on....

BDK

A ground plane antenna, though, will limit the useful range of frequencies,
won't it? I agree that it could outperform a discone at (and around) its
resonant frequency, but for wideband scanning purposes, how could it
outperform an antenna better optimized for wideband use like a discone?
Like Donald K, I have had very good experiences with a discone. It even
worked well for HF listening with compact wideband receivers that overload
easily with wire antennas.

On the other hand, if one needs a band-specific antenna, a ground plane
would be easier and certainly cheaper.