First let me start with, I know nothing about radio, and antenna's other
than what I experience. When I mentioned a while back I had found I could
shorten my antenna on a Pro-95 and still get the 800 trunked police calls
the same I got a bunch of e-mails from people who are MUCH more educated
than me, telling me all the reasons it would not work and do not try it. I
already had done it, with an extra antenna and it works just as well as the
antennas that came with the Pro-79 and Pro-95.
Now it did hinder the county police calls here that come out on the 150's
band, but I seldom listen to them and did not care. Also this involves Radio
shack. I know a lot of you have an ax to grind with them, again I don't care
so don't bother e-mailing me to tell me they are the worst place on the
planet to buy anything from. So all that out of the way G:
Since the city here started switching over to 800 trunked I learned to
program the Pro-95 I had bought a couple years ago. I found the reception on
the 800 band works better than the old 400 band, which the police are still
using while they up date all their radios, in areas that were hard to
receive before. Such as inside buildings where I work for example. It used
to be hard to pick up calls inside the buildings if the scanner was worn on
my belt, with the 800 it seems to make no difference, inside, outside, on my
belt or on my shoulder which was nice. When the weather was bad reception
did get a lot of static on the 800, but you could still hear them. Anyway I
noticed RS offered an antenna that was supposed to work better on the 800
trunked. I finally decided to give it a try, figured if it did nothing I
would just take it back. Well after trying it, it does work better, than the
original antennas, at least to my un educated ears. They "claim" it works
twice as well, now to my again un trained ears that's a stretch, but it does
work better. The new one does also work just as well on the 400 and 150's
band, even though they warned me at the store that it would not. I did not
care, but since the police here are transmitting on both right now it's easy
to check. So anyway for anyone who is an novice like me, if you are
listening to the 800 and having trouble it may be worth trying one of these.
You can order them off the RS site, I just went to the local store and
bought one.
--
"Liberalism is a mental disorder."

Michael Savage