The BEST scanner antenna!
Gary Bourgois
This is posted to rec.ham-radio AND rec.radio.shortwave. SAY YES to
rec.radio.scanners, eh?
A year or so ago, I decided I wanted a GREAT scanner antenna. Wide
coverage, and the ability to pick up weak signals, since I live in the
boonies...
Everyone suggested I get a discone... And after the prices were
examined, I thought that $100 or so was a lot to pay for a twinky little
antenna with unity gain. Thus I decided to build one. Thanks to USENET
I collected all sorts of plans, diagrams, etc. Being lazy, it soon
became winter and my plans were put on hibernation.
Now spring begins to rear its head, and my thoughts again began to turn
to better signals.
In the meantime, I had done a lot of reading about scanner antennas, and
found out that one of the equipment reviewers in one of the magazines
uses the MOTOROLA MONITENNA Model #5094 as his STANDARD by which to
judge all others. No other antenna has yet beaten it, said the
reviewer.
Then I got my BOB GROVE catalogue, and in it, Bob says: "The best
Outdoor Scanner Antenna made is the MOTOROLA MONITENNA MODEL #5094"
However GROVE does not sell it. They said it is just too big for
storage and shipping, but if a person wanted the BEST, they should get
THIS one, from a Scanner Dealer or TV shop.
That convinced me that it must be good, and I am forever thankful to Bob
Grove Enterprises, even though the only thing I have ever gotten from
them is Monitoring Times (One of the best if not THE best
SWL/Scanner/monitor magazines of all time)...
Finding a dealer to sell me the antenna was a bit of a challenge, but
finally a local CB dealer said he would order it. He got three of them
in, and they sure come in a BIG box, which is very OXY to try and get
home in a compact car, let me tell you.
There were just one pleasant surprise after another with the antenna
though. The first good news was the price. My dealer only wanted $40
for it. I figured there must be a mistake, but that was HIS price (The
guy is not out to get rich, and runs his shop more as a hobby). The
next surprise was that the antenna requires NO assembly. It opens up
like an umbrella. Everything snaps into place. BINGO. The antenna
comes with 65 feet of coax already attached, AND a motorola plug
soldered in place. (I had to get a convertor to use it with my
PRO-2005)...
But the best news of all is that it WORKS. This antenna has GAIN on the
most popular scanner bands, and I began to pick up things I had NEVER
heard before even with other outdoor antennas.
This antenna does not claim to have the wide flat coverage of a discone,
but I am able to hear things very well outside of the bands that it says
it covers. EVEN the FM broadcast band was hopping with new stations.
The MILITARY air band works great, and I am also able to hear Canadian
Commercial aircraft. ALSO I finally heard a transmission on 123.45, the
pilot to pilot chat channel. Since we have only one commercial flight a
day out of our podunk airport, this one had to be way off in the wild
blue... I can now hear a mobile phone tower 60 miles away, and the
coast guard from over 100 miles away on channel marine channel 22.
Cordless Phones? HA! They are stacked three and four deep and that
band is NEVER quiet.
Would I recommend this antenna? YOU BET YOUR PLL I do... The other two
that the store ordered went like hotcakes, and he ordered three more.
There is one of those three left, and it is MINE. My second MOTOROLA
MONITENNA Model # 5094 goes up 40 feet SUNDAY....
Talk to your local CB or SCANNER store. Get your local monitoring group
in on the deal. Have your CORDLESS PHONE MONITOR SIG order them bulk!
This is one fine antenna....
(I do not work for Motorola, or any other electronics wholesale or
retail firm, I am a computer consultant, and the radio hobby is what I
do to stay sane)
--
== 14.313 == Amateur Radio Forum Saturday 11:00AM Eastern time == 14.313 ==
== Gary Bourgois flash@lopez (rutgers!sharkey!lopez!flash) GWN UPLink ==
== 3.950 Nationwide Amateur Radio Nightly after 0200z=Learning Channel ==
=============== WB8EOH = The Eccentric Old Hippie = WB8EOH ================
Bob Parnass, AJ9S
> SAY YES to
> judge all others.
The 5094 and 5094A that people use around here is made by Channel
Master. Did Motorola buy out Channel Master recently?
--
============================================================================
Bob Parnass, AJ9S - AT&T Bell Laboratories - att!ihuxz!parnass (708)979-5414
Marshall Lollis
What a salesman. I am now thinking about replacing my scanner antenna
with this Motorola model but I have a question...........
I am going to show my ignorance here......
If a receiving antenna has gain, doesn't that also mean it is directional?
Or is it an active antenna with an amplifier?
Please help me out here. What does the Motorola look like physically?
Thanks Gary,
*Marshall*
Donald P Perley
>If a receiving antenna has gain, doesn't that also mean it is directional?
>Or is it an active antenna with an amplifier?
Ignoring the question of whether it has to be directional, an antenna can
be directional in the sense that signals from overhead are suppressed
while signals from the horizon are enhanced. A lot of those white
fiberglass pole antennas you see on towers are really tubes with a bunch of
tuned elements inside to do this.
-don perley
per...@trub.crd.ge.com
Marshall Lollis
This antenna is manufactured by CHANNEL MASTER, not Motorola.
*Marshall*