WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Last night i stuck my stainless steel pocket knife into where the antenna goes in, i hit the police scan button and whilst having the frequency list in my hand, noticed i was picking up Perth centre 468.6750 and was picking up fremantle beats on channel 26, i kept the scanner in the same position and put my stock antenna back in, nothing on both, just to make sure they hadnt stopped talkin i put back in my knife and yes, they were still talking, so i changed back over and the stock antenna wasnt picking it up, i have never picked up Perth centre and now can with my pocket knife . In conclusion, you are better off having a just metal antenna, with non of that rubber like the stock antennas (i presume it acts like a bit of a shield, preventing some of the weaker frequencies or something, maybe vk6 can enlighten us on that), and you will pick up frequencies that you cant with the stock antenna!
The channels came through strong too

If anybody knows where to buy a pure metal antenna, you will benifit everyones scanning abilities.

good find jimmy
we must now obtaina metal anteanna

By the nature of what an antenna does it is usually made of metal. A radio wave is just an electric pulse and threfore needs a good conductor to be carried. Good conductors are metals and water and various other things. Submarines often trail a line (metal) in water, for long distance VLHF comms.

What you have probably found with your pocket knife is that it is a nicely tuned piece of metal for the particular frequency you were hearing and that it may drop off and come back as you scan around different bands.

As for the rubber this doesn't affect the performance of the antenna. It serves only to protect the metal. The reason the signal is so bad on the Scanner antenna is that it hasn't been tuned very well for a specific frequency. Instead it has been tuned to get a reasonable signal on many different bands.

Regards,

JG-103 wrote:Last night i stuck my stainless steel pocket knife into where the antenna goes in, i hit the police scan button and whilst having the frequency list in my hand, noticed i was picking up Perth centre 468.6750 and was picking up fremantle beats on channel 26,

WAPOL 26 is a metro wide frequency.
Can pick it up anywhere in the metro area.

Thanks for that info brian, yeah numlox, iv found a position in my bedroom that allows me to pick up freo beats, but at the time it was a big find. JG103

I only have a $99 scanner and it has the stock rubber antenna. I live in Morley and it picks up Perth city ch34 100% of the time.

I have to agree on the metal.

I have one of these $99 Dick Smith UHF CB antennas on my 4wd:



and one of these $30 on my missus' hatchback:



And i have found the solid metal $30 one, outperforms everytime. Even when i put it on the raised feed one on the 4wd i get better RF. TX signals seem to be better too.

I was using a 'scanntenna' indoors but i replaced it with another of these $30 solid metal ones because it just blows any scanning aerial away. With my scanner I use it for 420.000 rail, 468.000 emergency services, 477.00 uhf cb and 118.000-136.000 air and at all these frequencies signal qaulity was drastically improved.

I also have one of these on my 4wd which stands 2.1m tall:



and the little metal 4.5db still beats it.

I use Icom 400pro's in the vehicles.

Pty, what antenna did u replace the scantenna with?

this one:



a Mobile One 4.5db stainless

Im looking at the bandspanner instead

Look for my post elsewhere about using a 90cm high steel VHF whip.

I have used every kind of antenna on my vehicle - including the Bandspanner - but the 90cm whip has given the best performance.

how much did it cost steve?

Well it's so long since I got it can't remember!

Have a look at the ZCG-Scalar and Benelec websites: they both have a stainless steel VHF low band whip at about 1m or so with a 'standard' 5/16" 26TPI mount. Should cost no more than $20 as they're of very basic construction. Get a good quality 'UHF' antenna base, too. Cut the whip down to 90cm from its very base (not just the 'whip' section). This is probably best done with a hacksaw: wire cutters just aren't up to it.