

#Police scanner for car install
The most popular places to install a vehicle antenna are: Step 2 - Scanner Antenna Vehicle Mount Location What bands do you want to monitor on your police scanner? Step 1 - Choose Vehicle Scanner Antenna Bands
#Police scanner for car how to
If you live in a condo or townhome you’ll want to check with your homeowner’s association to see if and how big of an antenna you can install.Ĭhapter 3: How to Buy a Vehicle Police Scanner Antenna.A mast is just a pole which can be bought at any local hardware store for $10.You can hire someone to install your antenna on your roof for around $200. Home Police Scanner Antenna Good to Knows Some States, Cities, homeowners associations and insurance policies require antennas to be grounded. This is very easy to add and you can set up in minutes. We highly recommend grounding your antenna for safety. If your cable run is over 100 feet you may want an amp. 90% of scanner antenna installations do not need an amp or pre-amp and the best way to approach amps is to install your antenna first, then, if you are not getting the reception you’d like, buy an amp or pre-amp. Amps & Pre-AmpsĪmps and pre-amps boost signal strength from antenna to scanner. You may need a tripod to set your mast up on which you can buy here but there are several options to mount your antenna. You can find a mast at any hardware store for about $10 as it’s just a metal pipe. CoaxĪlmost every antennawe offer comes with materials to affix the antenna to a mast. Make sure the connector type of the antenna matches the connector on the police scanner (all scanners have either an SMA female or BNC female connector) or buy an adapter. Some scanner antennas include everything needed to install and others include none, so you’ll need to check the product page of the antenna (this is noted on all product pages).

There are three things required for every home scanner antenna to work: Read more about how to install an antenna here.

Attic - May work well enough to avoid installing on roof.Inside (where you will actually listen from) - You may not need to put your antenna on the roof at all.

Depending on your home, we suggest testing this in at least 3 areas: This will also help you choose an antenna location and make sure it works the way you want it to. Step 4 - Home Scanner Antenna Installationīefore installing your antenna you’ll want to connect it to your scanner to check reception. Learn more about scanner antenna types here. Yagi antennas are for single or narrow band use.
#Police scanner for car pro
Pro tip: Wide band antennas account for 90% of all police scanner antenna sales. This is by far the most important consideration when buying an antenna for your police scanner. If you only want to monitor something specific such as trunked frequencies, then you should buy an antenna that is optimized for 800 MHz, or whatever specific bands you want to monitor. If you want to monitor everything (police, fire, EMS, local businesses, etc.) then you should choose ‘wide band’ antenna. Like all things police scanner related, you need to determine what you want to listen to and what bands those frequencies broadcast on. Scanner signals work on line-of-sight, not satellites, so anything from a tree to a hill can inhibit signal.The higher you put your antenna (pitch of roof or top of vehicle) the better the reception.Typically, the bigger the antenna, the better the reception.We offer a wide range of scanner antenna manufacturers, all of which come with warranties of one year to a lifetime.You’ll want to make sure your antenna has the correct connector type or buy an adapter. Most police scanners have either a SMA female or BNC female connector type. You can simply change the settings on your scanner to fix this. This happens sometimes in metro areas if you’re too close to a tower. Before buying an antenna you will want to make sure you are not getting too strong of a signal causing ‘signal overload’ or ‘ attenuation’.
