Antenna Needed?

[ucantcme]

First off, this is my first post! Glad to be a member here and hopefully I can get some help on my scanner while I am here.


Anyways - I live about 30 miles to the Northwest of Detroit Metro (KDTW) and I want to pick up the airport from my home! I do get the planes...Half the time. When I go to the airport, actually on the Airport grounds I hear the ATC and the planes. It would be great to pickup all of the DTW traffic from my house.

Do you think I need a special Antenna for my scanner? If so, what kind?

I have a Uniden Bearcat BCT-8 TrunkTracker III.

Thanks in advance!

 

[gewecke]

Welcome to R.R. and the hobby...

I too live close to a small community airport on 123.0 which I'm about 2 miles from,the way the bird...er, plane flies! If you're about 30 mi. away
I would say almost any vhf ham or monitor antenna would work well if it's 30-40 ft. off the ground.
Keep in mind aviation radios don't typically transmit with a lot of r.f.
but then up there they don't need it,right!
Happy listening and 73's!
N9ZAS.

 

[ucantcme]

Thanks for the reply.

Maybe I'll invest in an antenna and place it on my roof (50ft+)

Thanks again!

 

[N1SQB]

Howdy!
If an outside antenna is your choice, I suggest a discone. First of all, discones have an upward radiating pattern which is PERFECT for the aviation band.If you go to most airports, you are likely to find a discone somewhere on top of a building,hangar ect. There are plenty of choices in discones just stay away from Rat-Shack. Second, the discone can also be used for the rest of your monitoring needs (25-1300 MHZ.) Just make sure you use some low-loss coax cable and try to stay under 75 FT. of length! Hope this helps

Manny

 

[Turbo68]

Hello i got 3 of the Icom-AH7000 to monitor the Airbands and its performance is excellent and i live about 70 km from the main airport and i can hear the controllers talking with aircraft very clear and you do pay a bit more for the Icom antenna but you get 50 feet of good quality low loss coax from japan with 2 N type connections.

Regards Lino.

 

[mpcarlino]

Howdy!
There are plenty of choices in discones just stay away from Rat-Shack.

I'm using a RS 20-176 with fairly craptacular coax in an indoor configuration on the second floor, and two airports about 25 miles away come in 3x3 fairly consistently. This might be due to lucking out with local geography, but don't strike out the cheapo antennas so fast. At ~$30 for the whole works, I can't complain about such performance.

On the other hand, you will benefit from an outdoor and well-elevated setup, if it's within the rules/budget for you. In that case, make sure you're using decent coax and reinforcement from the elements. Another added bonus is you don't risk impalement of self/family members so much with an outdoor antenna as with my indoor setup.

 

[drasbell]

I bought a Base Scanner Antenna...Deluxe DISCONE...stainless steel off of eBay put it up out side on a 20' poll with RG6 coaxial, and I live around 30 miles away form our airport and can pick up all the conversations towers planes, and also get great reception on all channels police ,state patrol, ambulance, fire and more, not only form my local area but pic up from towns 100 miles away I mapped it out and can cover approx the lower 1/4 of the state of Washington.And parts of Oregon I was very surprised on this antenna, not exactly sure it its the antenna or just my location.. the antenna cost me 24.95 + shipping the person I bought the antenna from was suburbansupply if your interested.

 

[JLM7424]

If i may interject i would like to point out that i have been using the
WATSON W-901 air-gainer bnc on my 396t absolutley the best for
vhf-uhf aircomms extremly good results i must say for a handheld
I got mine at scanners unlimited in san carlos,ca http://www.scannersunlimited.com/