Help finding antenna for scanner?

i know this has already been posted over a hundred times. but i have a question about antenna for a scanner. I have a Radio Shack pro-76 with a rubber ducky. i did however buy a a deluxe rubber ducky,

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2102470

i was curious though, i was looking into buying a pretty cheap or a little expensive, magnent car mount antenna. I was also curious how far i would be able to hear with it and what kind of i should get. I don't know much or really anything about car antenna's. I hear that certain antennas have to be 17 inches to be able to hear railroad frequency's the best. i don't really have any tool to cut it down to size, but does length really matter??? It would be great to get some information and i would greatly appreciate it.

Try looking here? http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44694

Or here? http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=45994

How about here? http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15727

Or maybe this one? http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=871

Depending upon what size city you live in, you could try going by a HAM store and looking at the antennas they have there. Most places are keen on helping you out and will even cut the antenna to length if need be.

15 years ago I used a Larsen NMO magnetic mount with a 1/4 wave antenna which was NOT cut to the 160 Mhz. It did just fine pulling in the radio either on the road or in the house (the wife did not like the antenna in the den, but oh well).

If you do not have a HAM store in town then I would either contact Larsen at :


http://www.larsen-antennas.com/mobile.shtml

or HRO:

http://www.hamradio.com/

HRO does and outstanding job of working with it's customers.

Good luck!

Be careful what you choose because if you are in a large, metropolitan area, a vertical antenna will bring in enough rf to overpower your scanner with "intermodulation" or intermod, for short. You do not want this.

Several years ago, I used a magmounted Larsen 5/8 wave 2 meter ham antenna with brilliant results. Mind you, my scanner was a base/mobile unit, not a hand-held. However, even with a handheld, out in the open country, the antenna was outstanding. The 2 meter amateur band is 144-148 MHz so it's close enough to the rail frequencies to make it just about perfect!

cheers, Ori

Asked and answered- check out the other threads related to antenna questions listed above.

-otto-