Base station scanner antenna

[secret squirrel]

Real world speaking, What distance could be expected from a base scanner antenna to receive. From 911 tower, car to tower. I am getting about 50 miles from neighbor county 911 tower. 911 towers transmitting with 150 watts VHF 155mhz band. I get about 10 miles mobile receiving the mobiles are sending 50 watts at most. Hearing portables around town 4-5 miles, 5 watts. For me its a great improvement over using the indoor expandable antenna. Local township police are only ones using a repeater. finally found the scanner i was wanting on E-bay. Got it at acceptable price in very good condition. Realistic Pro-2001. Radio shacks first scanner with a PLL receiver. It still has the older style buttons on the front to turn channels on and off. and the red flashing lights like the scanner in the SWAT TV show intro, but is keypad programmable. I do not have a dedicated scanner antenna yet. I hooked the scanner to my Saturn B100 CB antenna. So far please with results. Thx all.

 

[autotuner]

Back in my Scanner days, before everything down here went encrypted digital, I had a Diamond discone. Wideband design. But I was listening all over the spectrum.
But if you are interested in one particular frequency like 155 MHz, I'd go for an antenna cut to that frequency. A 2m or marine band would be close.

 

[BJ radionut]

Be glad you can still hear info on those 150-160 MHz freq's.
Indiana still has those same groups, but traffic has been reduced to damn near ZERO.
Everything has migrated to the APCO Phase II 800 MHz system.. Then even with scanner so much traffic is a DATA Burst sent to in-car Laptops, to further inhibit "listening" in on locals.
Now requires a $600+ scanner to hear almost anything. Pennsylvania is still moving their traffic to APCO Phase II system. Over the next couple years you'll begin to notice less and less info being transmitted on the old Analog 150 meg systems. Like Indiana they even required local VFD/EMS to make conversion to full Digital. Costing Huge $$$ to taxpayers, and local volunteers..
Enjoy while you can.
All the Best
Gary

 

[357magnum]

Squirrel , I have 3 Base antenna's 2 currently in use , 1 El' Cheapo , 1 Di$cone , & not sure who makes it but looks like the Old 1/4 wave Gp with 2 elements in the center , 1 shorter . The Discone was about $150 when I bought it , the one that looks like a GP was fairly cheap back then , it's over 40 years old . To be honest I don't notice much difference between the Big $ Di$cone & it . I have NP's hearing Boston & that's about 75 miles from me . Certain days w/ squelch off ( And playing w/it ) I can get NH . I need to see if I can find out who made it & get back to you . It's been thru it's share of Hurricanes also w/ only minor repairs , ( Zip Ties are Wonderful ) . Stay Health & Safe ! 73 & God Bless ! Leo

 

[Blackcat630]

I've had a tram discone up for a few years now.. works great. Cheaper than the comet and diamond offerings.. does what I need it to do.
Model is 1411.. varies in price $45-50.

 

[freecell]

Avanti Astro Scan AV-801 by A/S

http://cbtricks.com/ant_manuals/avanti/av_801/graphics/avanti_av_801_om.pdf