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At the moment I'm using a magnetic mount antenna on the roof of my mobile home, which is working fine, but I would like to get a little more height. Is there an antenna that isn't expensive that will get the frequencies in this area of east Peirce county?

I have an old UHF/VHF antenna on the shop, but it doesn't do well on the 800 band. It's seen too many years of weather too.

Thanks~

I'm not sure what type of antenna your looking for. I can tell you that I own 3 of Radio Shack's http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2103641 antennas and they perform well in all areas. I can't speak for the geographics in Pierce County, but those work fine here! And at $30, they're reasonable.

If you want a true discone, their http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2103160 priced at $75 I've heard works wonders too.

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Interoperability is an attitude, not a technology.

Not to take away from Joeys post as the Discone is a good antenna, but here is a fairly good place to look at what is out there and then see what fills your needs.

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants.html

I have seen many posts where guys are using this one specifically and seem to praise its performance,

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ ... /2732.html

Good luck!

Also don't skimp on the coax. If it's over a 50' run you will want to use something like LMR400, or 9913. Don't buy Tandy cable at all.

Jim

Thanks for all that information, as I'm more of a casual listener I think that Radio Shack antenna will do the job for me.

Would there be any reception problems if I mounted this antenna on the same pole as the TV antenna and ran the cable down along side the TV cable?

Thanks again~

Shouldn't be, as both will be 'receive' only.

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I forgot to add...yes...low loss cable will make a big difference! The 400 cable is kind of expensive but it's worth it.

_________________
Interoperability is an attitude, not a technology.

Expect to spend from .75 cent to $1.50 a foot for LMR4000.

Jim

Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna
Model: 20-176 | Catalog #: 20-176
$26.99

100 feet of $1.50 a foot for LMR400.
$150.00

Getting the frequencies in this area of east Peirce county.
$ Priceless :D

_________________
" SILENCE IS CONSENT "

Made to Government Specs:
1) Measured with a micrometer.
2) Marked with a chalk.
3) Cut with an axe.

Jim N7UAP - Bellingham, WA / InterceptRadio.com

Hi
I live in Shelton on Hood canal and i am using the antenna craft SC2 mounted on a 10 foot piece of pvc pipe and i can receive all the trunking from Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue area using my Uniden BC-996T

I think HRO sells LMR400 for about 80 cents a foot. Far as I am concerned anything under 1.00 is a good investment.

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The antenna is in my budget's range, but that coax is not. Guess I better stick with what I've got, it works well enough although not great.

Thanks so much for all the information.

How far of a run do you want to do?

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The antennacraft antenna comes with RG-6 which is inexpensive and has reasonably low loss. For some antenna runs I use LMR-240 which is much easier to deal with than LMR-400.

Well, I have used RG6 for feedline before and it does work pretty well for both RX and TX applications (you get an SWR of only 1.5 in theory for TX but I could somehow get 1.3/1.4 and it worked great. It is a option.

LMR-240 is good option too; last I checked, its 25 cents less per foot than LMR-400 but I could be wrong.

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org