I recently had to check out the 20-1300MHz Police Scanner Antenna from TREADALT-TEC for under $16. Wasn’t expecting much, because after all, when it came, realized how small it was and the magnet is also very small (I would not use this on a vehicle).
While this was made for a Police Radio Scanner, I had different intentions for this antenna.
As you can see, it is 20-1300 MHz. That is a pretty broad spectrum of frequencies.
HF BAND – High Frequency Band uses 3 to 13 MHz (CB uses the 27 MHz range)
VHF BAND – Very High Frequency Band uses 30 to 300 MHz (6-Meter amateur radio uses 50-54 MHz, Airband is 108-118 MHz, 2-Meter Band amateur radio is 144-146 MHz and Maritime Two-Way Radio uses 156-174 MHz band.
UHF BAND – Ultra High Frequency Band uses 300 MHz -1 GHz (70 cm band amateur radio uses 420-450 MHz, GMRS and FRS uses 450-470 MHz, 33cm band amateur radio uses 902-928 MHz, 23cm band amateur radio uses 1240-1300 MHz).
So, you get a big spectrum of frequencies. But while this is made for police scanners, I wanted to try it on several ham radio and GMRS handheld transceivers that also reaches a broad spectrum of frequencies to scan and listen.
First thing I needed to get was an adapter as the end uses a BNC male. I needed a BNC male adapter to SMA female.
Second thing, I attached the magnet with antenna to a metal cookie pan and then connected the other to my HT.
I then ran this through my NanoVNA to test the antenna for SWR. I was unable to get a solid lock on the frequencies and may need to do more tests. Unfortunately, these were high SWR from 20MHz through 352 Mhz, By frequency 357 MHz through the 500 MHz then things started to look a little better. But for most frequencies, it was high SWR.
In fact, on my HT’s, while it did pick things up, I get much more on a whip or tactical antenna. I think the cabling is just not the best.
I picked up things on certain frequencies including CB and UHF bands but to be truthful I didn’t pickup any discussions. I do feel the smaller cable is not effective.
But overall, if you read a lot of reviews, a lot of people are praising it. I have yet to test this on base station CB, Ham Radio and GMRS, as I only tested on handheld receivers but through my testing, the antenna sounds good on paper – inexpensive, HF, VHF, UHF but for what I wanted to test on, it wasn’t working all that great.
So, if you use this antenna as recommended with a Uniden Bearcat Whistler Radio Scanner, it may work perfectly. But on basic, low-cost HT’s, it was not as effective as I hoped.
