Antenna and line

[radiosniffer]

Hello everyone.
I know this is a broad questions and depends on frequencies etc. But looking to purchase an antenna and line for my SDR's? I have a few different ones from USB dongle to hack RF etc. All I have is the extendable basic antenna hack rf came with.
What would be my best solution 1gig and below and above?

 

[dlwtrunked]

Hello everyone.
I know this is a broad questions and depends on frequencies etc. But looking to purchase an antenna and line for my SDR's? I have a few different ones from USB dongle to hack RF etc. All I have is the extendable basic antenna hack rf came with.
What would be my best solution 1gig and below and above?

Like you, I own those same SDRs and also AirSpys and SDRPlays. There is no one antenna to cover all bands. A good discone will do from about 100 MHz to 1 GHz or so. If you are using indoors, look the one below at the and put it on a microphone stand.

Diamond® Antenna ~ D220R

On HF and below (<30 MHz), no whip antenna will do decently. The closest to that that will is an E-field probe but those have to be mounted away from wiring for best performance. Other options are of course a long wire antenna or a loop antenna. If indoors is necessary, try a loop antenna but the gain of you receiver might be an issue. The antenna below from AirSpyUS works remarkably well on the AirSpy HF+ Discovery.

YouLoop HF loop antenna – Airspy.US

v3.airspy.us

(only about $30)
Be warned that some cheaper look alikes with the same name on eBay are actually smaller loops and not as good.

For microwave, and only if you want to try that, you might consider a Vivaldi antenna. You can see some of those at

RFSPACE Antenna Products

I have had issues with Vivaldi antennas from eBay arriving damaged.

 

[radiosniffer]

Like you, I own those same SDRs and also AirSpys and SDRPlays. There is no one antenna to cover all bands. A good discone will do from about 100 MHz to 1 GHz or so. If you are using indoors, look the one below at the and put it on a microphone stand.

Diamond® Antenna ~ D220R

On HF and below (<30 MHz), no whip antenna will do decently. The closest to that that will is an E-field probe but those have to be mounted away from wiring for best performance. Other options are of course a long wire antenna or a loop antenna. If indoors is necessary, try a loop antenna but the gain of you receiver might be an issue. The antenna below from AirSpyUS works remarkably well on the AirSpy HF+ Discovery.

YouLoop HF loop antenna – Airspy.US

v3.airspy.us

(only about $30)
Be warned that some cheaper look alikes with the same name on eBay are actually smaller loops and not as good.

For microwave, and only if you want to try that, you might consider a Vivaldi antenna. You can see some of those at

RFSPACE Antenna Products

I have had issues with Vivaldi antennas from eBay arriving damaged.

Excellent, thank you for the info.
I might look at amazon.ca and see what type of discone they have also.