InterceptRadio.com Forums

Yep, I'm gonna do it. Another antenna thread.

Today's topic: 450-470 SMA ducks. No 440s. 144-165/450-470 splits accepted.


Your thoughts/opinions/experiences/hatreds/funny pics?

Maldol MH-209SMA. After seeing how good it worked on Mark's radio I got one for my BCD396XT. Performance is good considering its size.

If I want to go after 450-470, I usually with an adapter put on one of my Motorola UHF HT rubber ducks.

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Mt Wave SAR member
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http://www.mwave.org

They are all dummy loads...

So all this time I could have had a sleeker radio by just removing the antenna? Sweet!

On the XTS5000 I use the Motorola wideband ant, it covers 380 to 520. On my APX7000 I use the OEM long tri band (V/U/GPS). On the Kenwood stuff I use a KRA-27, or the Centurian SXD-450-SFU.

Jim

Santa brought the Maldol MH-209SMA. My semi-scientific tests shows that it's slightly worse than the stock duck, at least in the 452-453 range:

I'm using bcTool to record every time the scanner opens squelch. Upon the squelch closing again, bcTool reads the s-meter (0-5) and adds that to the filename (along with date/time, frequency, tone, etc). Using the dir command and Excel, I crunched the numbers from the s-meter.

Stock antenna:
Avgerage: 1.22
Mode: 1
Median: 1
Min: 0
Max: 5

Madol:
Avgerage: 0.99
Mode: 1
Median: 1
Min: 0
Max: 4


If we throw out zero:
Avgerage: 1.44
Mode: 1
Median: 1
Min: 1
Max: 5

Avgerage: 1.34
Mode: 1
Median: 1
Min: 1
Max: 4

The scanner was in almost the same spot, within a quarter inch. The stock antenna was used during daylight hours and the Madol after sunset, but I don't think propagation is going to have much of an effect this time of year and on UHF. But I'm not an expert on that.

The only big difference is the sample size (I was antsy for results): 2191 on the stock and 477 on the Madol (sample size throwing out zero is 1855 and 352, respectively).

I used a paperclip once in a pinch; does that count?

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

Not as much as the Jim Beam...

That's for medicinal purposes only.

Cough, cough.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

http://www.wpsantennas.com/exc450sm-ant ... tenna.aspx

6" model

http://www.wpsantennas.com/exd450sm-ant ... tenna.aspx

Stubby

BTW, this company is really good and has fast shipping thru USPS Priority. I get stuff usually in 2 days if I order in the morning.

I have several Maldol MH-209SMA's, and the older BNC version, and am very pleased with them.

Contact http://www.theantannafarm.com/ in Montana for the commercial version of the same antenna. Maldol lists it for 155/465-ish, but the model number escapes me right now. I have one on my Vertex VX-800 and it seems to do quite well.

Steve Z.