cb/scanner antenea???

The answer is NO ....

That said the problem is to work right a antenna must be cut to the frequency that you want to hear .

EXAMPLE ....

Cb is on 27 mhz and a 1/4 wave antenna is about 106 inches.

POLICE are on 150mhz ( a 17 INCH antenna ) 460mhz (a 6 INCH antenna ) or 800 mhz ( a 3 inch antenna )


MANY police departments are going digital and you need a scanner that does that to copy them REBANDING has made many old " TRUNKING " scanners into useless bricks on any MOTOROLA system.

Here in Clearwater Fl our system has just rebanded and my PRO-2053 is now useless except on the local PD EDACS system.

 

Interesting....I was under the impression that since you're not transmitting you could get away with almost any antenna.

In fact I want to install a better antenna on my Radioshack NOAA weather radio so it picks up the weather alerts better. The weather freq's are in the 162 mHz and the antenna is maybe a foot tall yet during a recent tornado it failed to go off. The thought of a 102 whip outside the house to get a better receive did cross my mind.

Now to transmit correctly, yes the right size antenna is required...but for bird dogging I don't see why a slightly bigger antenna would hurt. Care to elaborate why?

 

Why excactly are you interested in listening to a police scanner anyways? You moonshinin or sumptin? (jus joshin ya there bud)

Not positive, but there may be some legal ramifications if you get caught.

Besides, there's some cell phone app out there that'll let you tune into scanners from across the U.S.--and according to the news media (take them w/ a grain of salt) there is questionable legallity to using/having the app.

Just my 2c.

 

I'm not really so much interested in a police scanner, but truth be told I did want a scanner that could pick up cops, fire, ham, weather, etc. all in one package. My concern is my NOAA weather radio that sometimes doesn't go off when it should because it gets a weak signal.

 

you might find this page interesting about weather radios, coverage areas, and different antennas:
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/gyx/nwrhist.html

 

Go to www.noaa.gov and there is all sortsa stuff on there to get info.
As far as CB NOAA updates, I've gotta little Cobra Roadtrip with a 7 or 8" magnetic antenna that picks up WX stations just fine. I get good reception from the Cobra 75 all-in-one handset in the family truckster too.
There's plenty of straight short-wave/weather emergency radios out there as well.

 

To work right you must match the feed inpedeance of the antenna to the input of the scanner most common is 50 ohms and a 1/4 wave antenna gives you just that.

The other problem is when you have a antenna that is WAY too long your antenna pattern both transmit and receive is a cluge of lobes not one nice clean one like a 1/4 wave will give you.

SCANNERS are illegal in cars in many states and one that covers cell phones is illegal under FEDERAL law. YES THEY ARE .....
Remember unlike CB radio you DO NOT have the right to lissen to any scrambled signal or phone calls even cordless phones are covered in many states.
IF it is leagal to have a scanner in your car you can lissen to any signals that are NOT scrambled ... many states EXSEMPT licensed HAMS.

Scanners are fun I have one here and it gets used ....

 

Understood...however when do NOAA radios like mine "transmit"?

I think the issue stems from when the weekly test goes out....the radio is supposed to get it. We're 50 miles away from the NOAA station.

However as of last week the radio didn't go off at all when our county was placed under a tornado warning...thankfully we had the TV on...of course then I pushed the radio button and it was then confirmed...when the NOAA station sends out the alarm signal, the radio turns on automatically all by itself.

So the radio was getting the signal, but the signal to turn on the alarm/broadcast wasn't picked up...I'm guessing because the radio is inside right under a window...we are outside an Air Force base so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. But in the past the radio has received the signal and went off.

 

At the distance you say, 50 miles, you at the max range for this service.

The the website above http://www.erh.noaa.gov/gyx/nwrhist.html it has a section "Radio Receivers and Methods to Improve Reception of Weather Radio Broadcasts" discusses how to improvement.

Leon
(kc0iv)