In a previous post I talked about my new scanner and my early antenna adventures. Now I am happily set up and done playing with antennas, so I thought I'd tell you what the final verdict is. Also, it has been requested that I post some pictures. The pictures are here, and I'll embed some of them in this post.

The antenna I'm using is actually not the one I described making in the previous post. It would have worked fine, but I found the functional equivalent at Radio Shack for $5, only slightly more robust. Here's a picture:

It is sold as an FM antenna. I think the package said dipole, but it's actually a folded dipole. I clipped the ends to match my target frequency, then soldered the leads together and put some electrical tape on for protection. Even when it was just an FM antenna it got better reception than the rubber duckie.

It is attached to the radio via a TV balun (300Ω to 75Ω) and a female TV-style coax to male BNC adapter:

I also constructed a dipole using coat hangers and electrical tape. I need to get a connector for this, since the balun is unnecessary, but even when I hook it up to the balun it does very well. I think the coat hanger being thicker helps. I think it even outperforms the folded dipole, both my custom one (not shown) and the FM antenna. A bit unwieldy though, compared to the FM antenna.

Speaking of baluns, I asked an expert and his unofficial opinion is that for reception only impedance mismatch isn't a big deal. Certainly seems to be the case in my limited experience (even with the TV balun, it's 75Ω when the scanner nominally wants 50Ω). Still, the TV balun makes a nice adapter, and it can't hurt. They're very cheap, too.