WATSON w-881 antenna any good???

[WARLOCK]

looking for a good antenna to use with my realistic PRO-2039 scanner mainly listening around 459.700 mhz -would a watson w-881 antenna be of any use for this ???

[paulears]

Loads of subjective reviews on the net but I note not even Waters and Stanton don't have a gain figure - in fact I couldn't find a gain figure anywhere. It's a bigger antenna with a larger capture area, and no doubt the matching at the bottom makes the match ok - I'd be very surprised if it really had any gain at all over a ¼ wave - maybe if it acts as a 5/8th on some frequencies? The lack of any meaningful specs or reviews from anyone makes me think it's all snake oil and mirrors!

[scanhermit]

I bought a Maplin telescopic and it beats my Moonraker MRW100 hands down.

[Mikel]

Ive got the Watson W-881, the Watson WHXX-270, the Moonraker MRW-100 and the Nagoya NA-771 here and they are all visually very similar and perform pretty much the same as well, (which is quite good for a set top antenna) the main difference is that the Nagoya was about a third of the price of the others when I purchased it.

Telescopic antennas work very well because you can alter the length to peak resonance at different frequencies but as I have found can be a bit fragile when rock climbing or scrambling through undergrowth when trying to escape from the Police (only joking). I have got the Watson W-889 telescopic, a couple of telescopics that came with Yupiteru scanners and a Diamond RH-770 2m/70cm telescopic that is about 90cm (3ft long) that does exhibit significant gain at certain frequencies but is far too long to be practical if out and about, but works great sat on the upstairs windowsill - oh and these cost between £30 - £40, a lot of money for a telescopic antenna, just be careful there are fakes on the market so make sure you purchase from a reputable dealer.

Ive got about 30 set top scanner/HT antennas in total and all the above mentioned are about the best of the bunch performance wise. However if I need something small and discrete that fits in my pocket then my favorite is definitely the Nagoya NA-701, only about 20cm (8 inches) long but a good compromise for a 'pocket' antenna. I also have a Watson WSMA-7000 with a bnc adapter that is slightly shorter but still a good choice if you don't want to look like the garden gnome with a fishing rod when listening to the local store detective.

So is the Watson W-881 any good? Yes it is a good antenna and amongst the best of the bunch for a set top antenna in my experience.

[scanhermit]

Mikel's excellent post filled in the blank left by my post - location. My telescopic is indeed only for indoor use, or parked up somewhere.

Wouldn't dream of using it in more energetic situations!