Air Band Antennas

[Airbender]

I know that antennas are a mixture of Voodoo and Black Magic and it can be very hard to measure there quality exactly. But, I was wondering if anyone has had a positive experience with a dedicated Air Band antenna for a handheld scanner? When you tried it did you say something like "Wow.. that was worth it!" ? Or was it more like "What's the difference..?"

Thanks....

 

[bluefox2163]

i have one from universal radio and it seems to work pretty good i get a lot more aircraft farther a way than my other antennas i recommend that and also smiley antennas airband antenna is good too it is telescopic and very long and tuned to acenter freq of 118.0000

 

[ka3jjz]

I'm pretty sure this is the one Bluefox means when he mentions the one from Universal...

Maldol AL-500H Air band Scanner Antenna

However, just like any handheld antenna, its performance will be compromised by all the surrounding objects. A better - and much less expensive, if you have enough stuff in your junk box - for a base application would be a simple, easy to make ground plane. Here's one example...

Ground Plane photo - Dick Harris photos at pbase.com

It would need a little work to waterproof it, and of course the coax connection would also need waterproofing, but it would work quite well, given a little height above any surrounding objects...73 Mike

 

[WA1ATA]

A cheap easy to make antenna that performs significantly better than the rubber ducky antennas that come with handheld scanners is a folded dipole made out of 300 ohm twinlead. Google "300 ohm folded dipole" to see several websites with construction info.

I use a standard TV 300 ohm to 75 ohm balun with F connect output, and a F to BNC adapator to connect to my scanner.

The one I use is about 35" length, cut for around 157MHz marine VHF band and then a couple feet to run to the balun and adapator on the scanner. The antenna is just tacked up against a wall and improves my reception significantly on the marine band.

It also improves my airband reception. Obviously, cutting the antenna a bit longer would make it even better for airband.

If you can mount an outside antenna up high, high, high, then do so. But you might be surprised at how much improvement you can get with a simple twinlead folded dipole, and it is easily moved to other locations.

Charlie

p.s I was able to use some NOAA weather radio stations are fixed signal level transmission to compare different antennas. For airband, if you are lucky you will have some ATIS stations you can use to compare antennas. In general, I've found that hearing the planes is much easier than picking up towers and ATIS, and most difficult are the ground controllers -- they seem to be running at low power.

 

[CalebATC]

Airbender, as everyone said before, with aviation, height is the key! You want to get the antenna as high as you possibly can. Aviation radios run at a low power.

As said before, the airport is the hardest thing to get, next to the ARTCC's.

I have been thinking of making a 1/4 Ground Plane cut for the airband range, and another cut for the Milair band. I will let everyone know how that works too

But for now, I would reccomend a discone. The Diamond D-130 should do the job. Also, run by the Home Depot and get a amp for it too. That helps tremendously for me, a RCAG is right near me, but most of the planes are very far. The mountains don't help either I have 50' of RG-6 with the F-BNC connector + a 12db premap. Works great. I have logged planes south of Atlanta, and north of Knoxville, TN. About 150+ nm

Anyway, go with a discone, or the Antennacraft ST-2. Those are a great starter antennas.

Good luck!
Caleb

 

[eorange]

You want to get the antenna as high as you possibly can. Aviation radios run at a low power.

To an extent, but remember there's minimal line-of-sight obstruction as long as you're not in a valley. Even with my Diamond Discone at modest 20 feet high, I've picked up airplane comms from 100s of miles away. A 25W airband transmitter can go a long way without obstructions.

But back to handheld antennas:

Diamond RH-77CA: I've had this antenna for 12 years, wideband receive, and does great on VHF and UHF air bands.

Maldol AL-500: about the same performance as the RH-77CA, but a little longer and more floppy.

My personal record: I heard a military aircraft report in from 50,000 feet with my BR330T using the RH-77CA, just standing in my driveway.

 

[kny2xb]

I also use a Diamond RH-77CA. It works great on both Civilian & MilAir comms. It gets rotated between my Uniden SportCat-150 and my Realistic PRO-97. One of these days, I'll slap 6 AAs in my PRO-43 and see how well it does with that.

The Diamond receives VHF-Hi, UHF & 800 MHz very well also. I haven't checked it on VHF-Lo yet.

I love it, it's the perfect choice for my radios.

My best catch has been the Space Shuttle after liftoff. I'm on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida [Tampa Bay area], and I've received the Shuttle on Air-to-Ground 1 259.7 MHz on it's way to orbit.

It's a great antenna, you can't go wrong with it in my opinion.

On a side note, for transmit, it's cut for the amateur bands. I wish that Diamond made this in a commercial 150/450 MHz version. I'd love to see how it would perform on my ICOM GMRS H-T, or on a MURS H-T. Wishful thinking. Hey Diamond......

 

[Airbender]

Thanks guys... that info should get me headed in the right direction.

 

[eorange]

The Diamond RH77-CA does pretty good on VHF lo band, too. A local agency near Cleveland still transmits on 39 MHz which I can receive just fine, and I've picked up - due to skip - the Kansas City state patrol (or whichever Missouri agency uses lo band), in the low 40 MHz range.

I also bought the SMA version of the RH77-CA for my 2m/440 HT. All-around good antenna!

 

[Airbender]

My Diamond RH77CA arrived today. I live between Philadelphia and New York so picking up more signals is not noticeable. But, what I am picking up has much less static than before. I’m very happy with this new antenna.

Thanks for everyone’s help…

 

[e737]

CalebATCs quote about the HD amp intrigued me, so I pulled it the website and sure enough they had it locally. I ran down and picked it up for 15$ so far this thing works really well on vhf/uhf. I hooked it up to an ST-2 25 ft up on the roof using rg6. Well worth the 15$.Here the link GE Video Amplifier 4 Way - 23290004 at The Home Depot mines looks slightly diff than advertised.

 

[e737]

double post

 

[CalebATC]

Hey CalebATC I was intrigued with what you said about the HD amp. Yesterday I ran down there and sure enough they had a few in stock I picked it up for 15$. So far so good it has done very good on vhf/uhf cant go wrong for the money! Im using an ST-2 25 feet up with the stock rg6. Heres the link GE Video Amplifier 4 Way - 23290004 at The Home Depot although mine is silver.

Sounds like the same setup I have. How much more bars did it give you on an ATC UHF and or VHF? Some work good, some just suck.

Glad to hear it worked! I saw that same one the other day, I guess I will go and get it.

 

[e737]

I got about 2-3 bars on average.

 

[e737]

We have a couple PDs that are still on 800 conventional that I wasn't able to receive before also, but can hear them loud and clear also.

 

[CalebATC]

We have a couple PDs that are still on 800 conventional that I wasn't able to receive before also, but can hear them loud and clear also.

Ok, seems to be that the 800 Mhz does alot better on the amps. What do you mean "still on conventional?" Our is still using the 150 MHz band, with a repeater, and two channels hooked into a repeater. LOL.... We are in the 21's century!

Truthfully though, I have been wondering when they are going to get a 800MHz system.

Anyway, back to the amp. Glad to hear it works.

 

[e737]

Most of the PDs around here use the MSP 800 trunk system, but a couple still use the conventional.

 

[AB9IL]

Anyone up for a yagi or log periodic? I've been having fun with some java applets and worked out an air band 10 element yagi and 10 element log periodic antenna based on some familiar ham and FM band antennas.

Here's the link: High Gain Air Band Antennas

There's an air band listener who built the yagi and likes the signals he gets on planes going coast out / coast in off of New Jersey. The wooden boom is a bit heavy for either antenna, though.

Phil

 

[BMT]

Airband Antenna's

From everything I have read here, I'm doing everything wrong.

Check this link out the start of every week.
Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV

I regularly get the ground side from RCAG's 50-100 miles away. ;-))

None of my antenna's are higher than 25'.

BMT

 

[CalebATC]

Wow, funny I came across this.

I am going to build one sometime this weekend with electric fence wire (16 gauge). I have a few calculators for it for the log periodic. I plan to make it with about 10.5 db of gain, and some RG-8X feed line.