243 - Do You Really Need a New Antenna?

Do you need an aftermarket antenna for your scanner? Will changing your antenna help or impair your scanner’s performance? What You Need To Know Stock antennas included with your scanner can cover large frequencies. Antennas with wide coverage will sacrifice performance. Antennas with too narrow coverage can also impair your reception. You don't want to have an 800 MHz antenna on your scanner when you're trying to also listen to VHF. However, if you have an 800MHz antenna and need to monitor 800MHz, then you may find a big improvement in reception. When we look at aftermarket antennas, we need to check what type of connector do we have on top of our scanner. Today’s scanners use BNC or some style of SMA. You need an antenna to match or buy adapters to make your new antenna match your scanner’s antenna jack. After market antennas can have gain, which can certainly help us pull in weaker signals. There may be times where you want to cause an intentional degradation of reception If you have issues with P25 simulcast, maybe you want to knock out distant transmitters and detuning your antenna might actually help you receive better. If you are receiving well enough using the stock antenna, will swapping the antenna out actually improve anything? You can’t receive 120% of a signal.   ==================================== 🎙 Join our new Scanner Radio Community ==================================== Join our FREE Discord server and connect with other Scanner Radio Users! By using Discord, a free, multi-platform community portal, you can now be part of the Scanner Radio Discussion! Chat real time, share photos, ask questions, and give feedback to other's in chat. 🔗 https://www.scannerschool.com/discord   ==================================== 🎓 Check out our online courses ==================================== Our free Software Defined Radio course will have you up and running with a SDR in a weekend. Upgrade to our Advanced Course, and learn how to setup SDR Software like a pro. 🔗 https://www.courses.scannerschool.com   ==================================== ⚠️ I want to answer your questions ==================================== I am always looking to answer your scanner radio question. If you have a question you'd like answered, please leave me a voicemail with your question: 📞 516-308-2885 🔗 https://www.scannerschool.com/ask   ==================================== 🏆 Thank you Patreon Supporters ==================================== Thank you to all monthly Patreon Supporters. Supporting the podcast can be done for as little as $1 per month. Supporters at the $3 and $5 level will receive the podcast without the middle commercial break. Supporters at the $5 level not only receive the podcast early, but they also get access to discount codes, monthly zoom meetings, and Squelchy sticker packs. 🔗 Join our Patreon program at https://www.scannerschool.com/patreon   ==================================== 🎥 Subscribe to our growing YouTube Channel ==================================== We are live once a month on YouTube to answer your questions. 2022 will be the year of Video for Scanner School Be ready for the upcoming videos by subscribing now to our YouTube channel 🔗 https://www.scannerschool.com/youtube   ==================================== ➡️ Follow Scanner School on Social Media ==================================== ▶︎ Twitter - https://www.scannerschool.com/twitter ▶︎ Facebook Page - https://www.scannerschool.com/facebook  ▶︎ Facebook Community - https://www.scannerschool.com/faceboo... ▶︎ Instagram - https://www.scannerschool.com/instagram ▶︎ TikTok - https://www.scannerschool.com/tiktok  ==================================== All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  https://www.scannerschool.com/session243 #podcast