Replacement Antenna suggestions for Bearcat UBC73XLT Scanner

[gainsi]

Hi all,

My name's Ian and I'm an aviation enthusiast living in Melbourne. I'm going on a 6 week aircraft photography trip in a few weeks time & I don't want to lug my AOR AR1000 scanner with me, so I found your great site & read up on a suitable 2nd compact scanner.

I purchased a Bearcat UBC73XLT and I've been familiarizing myself with it over the weekend.

This has left me with 2 questions that I'm hoping someone can help with.

1) I know that the supplied antenna is fairly ordinary, & the one on the AOR works better, so I'm after a better antenna (for airband only). I've read a little about a Diamond RH799 and a ScanDucky, both for under $50. Anyone have any recommendations ?

2) I've tried setting up the Close Call RF Capture Technology feature just to work on airband - I've turned all of the other bands off. I was at Melbourne Airport yesterday & the scanner's performance was underwhelming !! Does anyone have a Uniden scanner with this feature that has some experience with getting the best out of it ?

Thanks for reading this far and I appreciate your help.

[yorky]

Just a note on the Close Call feature, I've found you have to be pretty darn close to the actual transmitter for it to activate unfortunately it isn't very sensitive

[gainsi]

Fair enough Yorky & thanks for the reply. I'll be mainly in airport hotels, so it will get a thorough workout !!

Do you have any thoughts on the replacement antenna for the airband frequencies ?

[yorky]

No I don't sorry, there should be so antenna buffs reading this shortly though hopefully [-o<

A lot of it is line of sight type stuff, you want to be at the highest ground you can.

[Zebedee]

Welcome to the forums Ian, glad you found some information that was useful

[gainsi]

Thanks fellas. I've done a little more research & it seems that a telescopic antenna would be best for indoor airband scanning (20.5 - 26"). The Diamond RH799 seems to get a reasonable review - has anyone got any experience with it or another similar antenna ?

[robbage]

Any of those telescopic that extend to 600mm or more will do for an on-radio antenna for airband.

[Nafenn]

Going to move this to Scanners and Receivers - more to do with that than aviation.

any problems PM me

[Pty]

I have a Laser bnc 3db UHF handheld antenna which is about 35cm. You can specify which frequency you want when you order the antenna, for me i ordered 477mhz because i use it as a long range antenna for my Icom 41s UHF CB. This antenna works great for scanners for almost all bands and the best bit over a telescopic is that it's flexible. This past weekend i used it to pick up amateurs on HF 10, 20, 40 & even a conversation on 80 metres with my Icom R-20






http://www.laserantenna.com.au/


cheers

[gainsi]

After some more research, I purchased a Diamond RH795 from Strictly Ham in Bayswater, VIC. The antenna is virtually identical to the RH799, without the bend feature.

I haven't had much time to play with it on the Uniden, but I've tried it on the AOR1000 and it is sensational. I've noticed that I get better results with the LOCAL / DX button set to LOCAL, whereas with the supplied AOR antenna, reception was much better on the DX setting. Can anyone explain why ?

The Diamond seems very well made & covers 70-1000MHz - I'll try it on the Uniden over the weekend & see if it helps the sensitivity of the Close Call facility on airband.

[Fastlane]

After some more research, I purchased a Diamond RH795 from Strictly Ham in Bayswater, VIC. The antenna is virtually identical to the RH799, without the bend feature.

I haven't had much time to play with it on the Uniden, but I've tried it on the AOR1000 and it is sensational. I've noticed that I get better results with the LOCAL / DX button set to LOCAL, whereas with the supplied AOR antenna, reception was much better on the DX setting. Can anyone explain why ?

The Diamond seems very well made & covers 70-1000MHz - I'll try it on the Uniden over the weekend & see if it helps the sensitivity of the Close Call facility on airband.

Without looking at the specs, you may find the Diamond has better signal gain and hitting DX just results in more crap being amplified, whereas the standard antenna may have no gain at all and thus benefits from some pre-amplification.

[gainsi]

Thanks Fastlane. I'm assuming that any antennas' gain is different at different frequencies ?

Your explanation made sense to even a non-technical user like myself - appreciated.