WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hi all,

I was looking at this product:

http://www.prestigecom.net.au/index.php ... ts_id=2300

And was wondering what the performance would be like, for receive only.

Transmitting I can tell most of you will say don't bother and I would have to agree transmitting from inside a car at window angle wouldn't do wonders for range.

But my application would just be a scanner, I currently use a normal 477Mhz antenna and it works tip top for anything. I am also trialling a mobile phone like on glass 477Mhz for receive only and it works fine as well (maybe 20% worse than the normal external antenna for far away signals).

Thoughts? Maybe I should be the Guinea pig? If it was a few dollars I wouldn't hesitate, but $55 (and on eBay) is a bit steep.

I don't know for sure but my initial thoughts are it would perform less than what you already have.

Yep, I don't expect it to perform better at all, just good enough.

I just want to get rid of the external antenna as the boot lid chews the cable up.

Just an update for those interested, I purchased one of these.

I tested it side by side receive only with an RFI glass mount (mobile phone style) on another radio at the same time. I can't rule out one radio being slightly better than the other though (on glass is GME CB, Laser is Uniden CB).

Performance is definitely poorer than an external antenna, this was almost garranteed. However it is still 'ok'. If you are stuck needing to use this I'd say go ahead, for short range or receive only for good transmissions.

I have not tested the range but was able to trigger the CH1 repeater from at least 20k's away, and talked to a truck 100m away.

I have also tested a receive only internal antenna from eBay (two sucky cups onto the window connected to a bit of wire) and that was worse, unless the signal was perfect it was almost useless.