Police radios and antennas

[Josh]

Whenever I see a police car around Newport News, VA it always has anywhere from 2-6 antennas all over it. I was just wondering what kind of devices police officers have in their cars that require 6 antennas. It's my understanding that most pd's have abandoned CB radios for VHF. Is this true and are radios the only things that need antennas in a cruiser?

[gotthblues]

two-way radio,,cb, scanner, some have cell (bag) phones, and the more it antennas the more it whistles, i had four on mine, but i dont know what the fourth was for

[ZGXtreme]

two-way radio,,cb, scanner, some have cell (bag) phones, and the more it antennas the more it whistles, i had four on mine, but i dont know what the fourth was for

You were "Trooper'd Out!" refering to the fact you had an antenna for nothing!!! LOL, I think OHP broke their guys of that for the most part now.

JOSH; it varies from department to department. Here is a listing of how the cars here are setup:

• 800mhz Radio with Antenna
• GPS Tracking Antenna
• Laptop 800mhz antenna

Now I say "antenna," but don't use antennas here and instead use a lil white "doughnut" in front of the lightbar for the GPS and two slightly bigger black disc for the radio and laptop located behind the lightbar.

For other agencies... who knows, scanners, UHF radio, VHF radio, CB, HAM, Lo-Jack, you name it, and thats what the antenna could be for.

[e-man]

We have 2 antennaes on the roof. we have our police radio which is now on the county dispatch and we have another radio which os for other departments not connected to our county dispatch, Our computers have a antenna built into the side so we only have 2 on the roof. The PD just north of me has I think 4 anntennas and I like the look of it They also cover 3 different towns where I only cover 1.

[gotthblues]

[QUOTE=ZGXtreme]You were "Trooper'd Out!" refering to the fact you had an antenna for nothing!!! LOL, I think OHP broke their guys of that for the most part now.

i think the extra one was to break off and use as a night stick,,,
i had forgotten about that, the troopers,, i saw one that had 6 stickin up,,man that thing was loud.

[TrafficCopFPD]

In my experience, the number of antennas doesn't always reflect how many radios are in the car. Our sheriff's office has four antennas just for one radio, because it's microwave. Also, larger departments (Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.), have LO-JAC detectors in their cruisers, which will be indicated by four to six antennas in a square cluster, usually on the roof behind the lightbar. The devices require the cluster of antennas to work for whatever reason. Otherwise, the folks here are right - could be an MDT or MCT, two or three radios, a scanner, maybe even a CB (cops in the south still use CBs on the highways).

[webjeep]

If they have a LOJACK receiver there will be four antennae mounted on the roof in a square pattern. Most of the 800mhz systems use an antenna that looks like a cell phone ant. Some cars that run MDT's will have an additional ant for them depending on how their system is set up. Most cars in VA will have a low band ant (big bastard) for SIRS (statewide radio). Some guys have CB's and have one for that, and some have scanners and have another for that.

My car now has three, low band, high band (400mhz which is being phased out), and the 800mhz ant on the roof behind the light bar.

A car I used to have had 4 for lojack, 1 high band, 1 cel for MDT, 1 cel for personal, 1 low band (SIRS), 1 scanner, 1 CB for a total of 10. Looked like a damned porcupine on acid.

-web

[gotthblues]

If they have a LOJACK receiver there will be four antennae mounted on the roof in a square pattern. Most of the 800mhz systems use an antenna that looks like a cell phone ant. Some cars that run MDT's will have an additional ant for them depending on how their system is set up. Most cars in VA will have a low band ant (big bastard) for SIRS (statewide radio). Some guys have CB's and have one for that, and some have scanners and have another for that.

My car now has three, low band, high band (400mhz which is being phased out), and the 800mhz ant on the roof behind the light bar.

A car I used to have had 4 for lojack, 1 high band, 1 cel for MDT, 1 cel for personal, 1 low band (SIRS), 1 scanner, 1 CB for a total of 10. Looked like a damned porcupine on acid.

-web

10 dang, bet that sounded like a wind chime.

[JHoek]

every once in a while I see a neighboring agency with a 5 foot whip antenna.

My cruiser only has three... one for radio, one for computer and one for the body mic receiver (VCR). the radio and computer antenna is only 1 foot high and the VCR is only 3 inches.

[gotthblues]

every once in a while I see a neighboring agency with a 5 foot whip antenna.

My cruiser only has three... one for radio, one for computer and one for the body mic receiver (VCR). the radio and computer antenna is only 1 foot high and the VCR is only 3 inches.

sounds like you have "antenna envy",,,

[webjeep]

We are switching over to 800 right now and instead of ordering the hockey pucks or some other sort of low profile antenna they decided to be cheap and go with the same 14" cell phone looking hard mount antenna for investigations so all of our unmarked cars look like RC cars running around with some stupid cell phone looking thing sticking out of the middle of the roof

[Runnin' 87]

I like my hockey puck.

[ZGXtreme]

Yeah, the hockey pucks are nice... don't have to worry bout breaking the damn things. Does look wierd on the Lt's slicktops though... you have a black and white, with the lil white (GPS) puck on the front middle of the roof then the two black (Laptop and radio) pucks toward the rear. Just looks funny for some reason.

[Drunkcop]

If they have a LOJACK receiver there will be four antennae mounted on the roof in a square pattern.

So THAT's what that square arrangement is...You've just answered a question I'd wondered about for years. Thanks.

[oSutrooper]

Those were the days, having 6-8 antennas on the ohp cars lol