Any ideas for a scanner antenna for an apartment?

[StlouisX50]

Does anyone have any ideas for a scanner antenna for an apartment? I will be moving soon and want to pick up as far as I can. Right now I am using the

I will be on the bottom level so I need something with high gain.

[bart99gt]

What are you wanting to listen to in particular? VHF, UHF, 800/900MHz??

If you only listen to one band, a vertical tuned specifically for that band will be the best option, and with some creative mounting, can be made nearly invisible from any nosy neighbors who would want to turn you in for having an antenna mounted somewhere. If you're on the top floor and there is access to the attic area somewhere in your apartment (there was an access in one of the closets) you could take that discone and hang it from a rafter. Or you could take a mag mount meant for an automobile, make a small ground plane for it, and clamp it to a railing on the patio or make a bracket to mount it to an exterior window sill when you're using it, then take it down afterwards.

[StlouisX50]

I want to monitor, VHF Low, VHF High, (Very Little UHF), 700MHZ and 800mhz Bands.

[bart99gt]

For optimal results, you'd almost be better off getting two antennas. One for VHF, the other for the 700-900 MHz stuff. You can stick with the discone you have a picture of, but it will be difficult to keep that under wraps and usually doesn't have any gain on any particular band.

For VHF, you could almost just string up an appropriate length of wire (vertically polarized, of course) and use that as a dipole antenna. As long as you're handy with a soldering iron and buy the appropriate impedance match, this should be relatively cheap and is easily hidden on the outside of the building.

For the 700-900 MHz band, there are a number of commercial antennas from Larsen and Antennex that will get the job done. A buddy of mine monitors some 900 MHz data from his apartment with a small mag mount Antennex antenna (I don't have the model number handy) out on the balcony railing and is able to receive data from 20-30 miles away.

[StlouisX50]

Bart, could you tell me how to make the "For VHF, you could almost just string up an appropriate length of wire (vertically polarized, of course) and use that as a dipole antenna. As long as you're handy with a soldering iron and buy the appropriate impedance match, this should be relatively cheap and is easily hidden on the outside of the building. "????

[bart99gt]

Here's a calculator for the length of the wires needed and some simple plans on how to put it together. Most of the lengths they give are for monitoring HF (shortwave) frequencies, so don't freak out at the lengths. An antenna for your purposes should be about 4 feet in total length, depending on how low on the VHF band you want to monitor.

[StlouisX50]

What do you use? Just coax cable? Piping?

[bart99gt]

For the wire? Anything really. It doesn't matter if it is insulated or not as long as it isn't shielded.

[StlouisX50]

What about antenna thought. DO you have any pictures?

[bart99gt]

That's what I meant, the antenna wire can be any kind of unshielded wire. Your feed line (the cable running from the antenna to the scanner) needs to be coax. Unless you're going to use an impedance match (not really needed), you can just use cable TV type coax. Look at the link I provided and it should be a little more clear.

For the record, you CAN make the antenna elements themselves out of tubing, metal rod, etc. I just think for your purposes a wire antenna will work just as well and will be more "stealth" for the apartment.