New guy looking for some help

[nfabiano]

Hello everyone,
Over the past few days I have found a huge interest in the radio scanning hobby. A buddy of mine sold me a BC355C scanner for cheap so I can scan the emergency frequencies my fire department operates on. Also, I am an aircraft mechanic and naturally I have a passion for all things aviation, and I am way more interested in scanning aircraft frequencies than anything else. So I have a few questions...

I was wondering if there is a better antenna I could purchase that is more "in tune" I guess one could say with the 118 - 136.975 MHz range aircraft operate on? and what adapters would I need if possible to connect said antenna to my desktop scanner?

Also, would an antenna signal amplifier do anything to help my range? I live fairly close to KEWR international airport and I can just barely pickup their tower communications though it is very faint and lots of static.

I greatly appreciate the time set aside to read my thread and I apologize if I misused any terms, like I said I am very new to this and I look forward to any and all feedback!

 

[ko6jw_2]

I would suggest a discone antenna. Broadband and higher angle (good for aircraft up in the air). Mount it outside and use good quality coax to radio.

Preamps are usually not needed or helpful. They also amplify noise and overload receivers. A good antenna and feed line will solve many issues.

Control towers use very low power. They communicate line of sight and over short distances. Same for ground frequencies. Approach and departure frequencies are easier to receive. Also, air traffic control "enroute" frequencies use higher power and higher locations.

All air communications use AM. Inherently more noise and static.

The RR database has ATC frequencies. Also, AIRNAV website has information on all airports in the US. It shows specific frequencies for any given airport and runway layouts etc.

 

[bgav]

I"m a huge fan of DPD Productions antennas. I own one of their ADS-B blade indoor models and it performs very well. He makes a discone for civil/MIL air:

https://dpdproductions.com/collecti...tennas/products/air-omni-uhf-vhf-base-antenna

 

[nanZor]

Try a better antenna first - usually a better solution than an amp, until you know they pros and cons of them.

We use a 355C at work on top of 7 story building with the vhf only version of the dpd productions antenna:

https://dpdproductions.com/collecti...roducts/vhf-air-vertical-outdoor-base-antenna

We chose the rx-only version as we were not transmitting on it. The tuned narrow-bandwidth means that we only use this for vhf airband scanning.

I'm VERY impressed with the front-end of the simple 355C even when used near downtown with the DPD antenna. I was sure we'd have to use an airband filter, but it seems to be robust enough to not need it. Of course it is limited in memory storage, but we seem to live ok with just the one "private" bank scanning.

There are many options, but even a commercial antenna won't guarantee success if you are just plain too far away, or attenuated by other objects. Mounted up high, I have a sneaking suspicion that if you are hearing KEWR weakly now, you'll have no problem with an external antenna.

 

[krokus]

Add this to the suggestion for an external antenna, possibly with an FM trap.

Sent using Tapatalk

 

[majoco]

You say a 'better' antenna but you don't say what you are using at the moment. I use a cut-down TV antenna which is only about 12 feet off the ground and there is a ridge between me and my local airport - my reception of the tower is marginal - I can always hear what they are saying but it's scratchy. They are about 13miles away.

For a cheap and cheerful antenna which will do the job well, make yourself a quarter-wave groundplane antenna - just a SO259 socket and five pieces of brazing rod was all I used for years. Cut each rod about 24inches long, solder 4 to the holes on the 239 and one to the centre. Bend the 'radials' down about 45 degrees. I think I just held mine up with a length of PVC pipe with the cable inside.

Otherwise ask the blokes in Avionics to see if they have an old ELT antenna lying around!

 

[majoco]

Oops - didn't put the sketch in! Coffee hasn't kicked in yet!

 

[wyShack]

I agree on the quarter wave. Just get it up high enough to clear the roofs and you will be surprised. Use good coax (RG6,RG8 or RG213). Make sure to waterproof everything and watch corrosion. Most of the towers just cover a short distance around them. After takeoff,planes switch to ATC (air traffic control)_ frequencies. If you hear the tower, they willsay something like contact ___ Center on xx.xxx -at times leaving off the leading one also dropping the finial 5 on some frequencies. You can get many of the ATC frequencies on this site or aviation sites like airnav.com or skyvector.com.

After adding a few 'area' frequencies to your scanning,the scanner may get busy...

 

[cmdrwill]

Great majoco, that ground plane would be my first choice also.

Lengths would be about 22 inches.

 

[bgav]

Also if you can find a Maldol AL-500H (discontinued) it's a great back of the scanner antenna. I'm running one on my BC700A and it's a great performer on the air band.

 

[nfabiano]

Try a better antenna first - usually a better solution than an amp, until you know they pros and cons of them.

We use a 355C at work on top of 7 story building with the vhf only version of the dpd productions antenna:

https://dpdproductions.com/collecti...roducts/vhf-air-vertical-outdoor-base-antenna

We chose the rx-only version as we were not transmitting on it. The tuned narrow-bandwidth means that we only use this for vhf airband scanning.

I'm VERY impressed with the front-end of the simple 355C even when used near downtown with the DPD antenna. I was sure we'd have to use an airband filter, but it seems to be robust enough to not need it. Of course it is limited in memory storage, but we seem to live ok with just the one "private" bank scanning.

There are many options, but even a commercial antenna won't guarantee success if you are just plain too far away, or attenuated by other objects. Mounted up high, I have a sneaking suspicion that if you are hearing KEWR weakly now, you'll have no problem with an external antenna.

Ironically that was the exact antenna I was looking at, I was curious though, What adapters did you need to connect the "N female" to the back of the BC355C?? I'm not as familiar with the nomenclature or able to recognize and identify the different types of connections.

Thank you

 

[nfabiano]

thank you all for the help,

bgav I was looking at the DPD antennas and ironically I discovered the same one that hertzian posted a link to in one of his replies. I am not as familiar with the nomenclature of the antenna connections from the coax cables to the backs of the scanners or radios, from what I gather the antenna from DPD has an "N female" connection and it looks as though it would not fit on the back of my scanner. I was wondering if there is an adapter out there and what I'd be looking for if one is out there.

Also, just a random question, does the length of the coax cable affect the quality of the receiving transmissions? Basically would a shorter cable come across more clear than a longer one?

Thank you again everyone all GREAT information for a beginner

 

[majoco]

Most of the towers just cover a short distance around them. After takeoff,planes switch to ATC (air traffic control)_ frequencies.

Ahh - you're talking about "Ground" - they are the ones in the tower, although smaller airfields often don't have a "ground" that's in use all the time - only busy periods. Here the one controller covers ground, (with or without a separate frequency and controller) approach and departure and then passes the aircraft on to the the area controller who is miles away on a different airfield - his transmitters are on a high ridge about 15miles away and he booms in. Once the aircraft gets over about 2000ft you should have no difficulty in hearing them. See if you can get a copy of the approach and departure charts for each runway at your local airport and listen to the Atis to find the runway in use and you'll get a handle on what's going on. Now all you have to learn is the jargon!

 

[wyShack]

If using good quality coax, a few extra feet of cable does not make much difference at avation frequencies. If your 'run' is less than 50 ft, 5 more will not be noticable. Once clear of obstructions, added hieght does not improve things as the planes hieght does most of the work. Most of the ATC 'remote' sites are situated on either high hills or towers. 'Ground' or 'Tower' usually cover only the airport so can be hard to pick up unless you are quite close ( say 10 miles or so). ATC, Aproach/Departure, and Clearance delivery are set up to cover a larger area. That said, you will often hear only the planes' side of the conversation. As they tend to repeat the controler's instructions, you can still 'folow' the action fairly well.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

 

[bgav]

thank you all for the help,

bgav I was looking at the DPD antennas and ironically I discovered the same one that hertzian posted a link to in one of his replies. I am not as familiar with the nomenclature of the antenna connections from the coax cables to the backs of the scanners or radios, from what I gather the antenna from DPD has an "N female" connection and it looks as though it would not fit on the back of my scanner. I was wondering if there is an adapter out there and what I'd be looking for if one is out there.

Also, just a random question, does the length of the coax cable affect the quality of the receiving transmissions? Basically would a shorter cable come across more clear than a longer one?

Thank you again everyone all GREAT information for a beginner

Seeing that it's an N Female connector on that antenna, you would need an N Male to BNC Male adapter like this:

Link: http://a.co/arJQqw1

 

[poltergeisty]

A vertical dipole cut for the aircraft band could work too. I haven't tried it, but it's an option.

https://nathan.chantrell.net/old-stuff/radio/radio-scanning/how-to-make-a-simple-dipole-antenna/


So for a half wave dipole all you need is a 3' 8" antenna. I used 130 MHz. Might as well make it a full wave length and make it 6' 4" long.

Then mount it on the side of the house about 6" separation from the side and pipe the coaxial into the room. Some people just put their antennas in the attic, but then you have a long run and a possible PITA wiring that up versus just drilling a small hole on the side of the room wall to the outside.

For my scanner, all I listen to is the 800 MHz digital trunked radio system in my area, I just use an old cell phone antenna mounted on the side of the house and the coax runs into the room. Even with that small off band antenna, I can pick up the local airport's AWOS.

Coax antenna connectors and convertors can be had on eBay. Like, search for "BNC to SMA connector", filter for the cheapest price in the U.S.

Edit-

Your scanner appears to use a BNC antenna connector. So you'd have a male BNC plug on one end of the coax cable. The scanner has a female BNC plug on the back. Manual is here.

 

[majoco]

Might as well make it a full wave length and make it 6' 4" long.

No! A half-wave has a nice low impedance in the centre which is a good match for the coax cable and the input impedance of your radio - a full-wave has a very high impedance in the centre and you will lose a lot of signal in the mis-match.

 

[cmdrwill]

Quarter wave over a groundplane has a good match to 50 ohm coax cables.

A halfwave has a higher impedance and does not match 50 or 75 ohm coax cables. And a full wave antenna has a very high impedance, as majoco stated, which would require a matching transformer to get close.

 

[poltergeisty]

Never knew about the impedance thing. I did use a half wave dipole for a CB many years ago and I blew away everyone with it. Funny thing was my CB was a Radio Shack hand held. Albeit, a nice hand held. I don't remember the exact model number and I've had little luck finding it on eBay. But it had two battery packs. One for like 6 AAs and another for NICad's.

 

[CaptMoore]

Hello everyone,
Over the past few days I have found a huge interest in the radio scanning hobby. A buddy of mine sold me a BC355C scanner for cheap so I can scan the emergency frequencies my fire department operates on. Also, I am an aircraft mechanic and naturally I have a passion for all things aviation, and I am way more interested in scanning aircraft frequencies than anything else. So I have a few questions...

I was wondering if there is a better antenna I could purchase that is more "in tune" I guess one could say with the 118 - 136.975 MHz range aircraft operate on? and what adapters would I need if possible to connect said antenna to my desktop scanner?

Also, would an antenna signal amplifier do anything to help my range? I live fairly close to KEWR international airport and I can just barely pickup their tower communications though it is very faint and lots of static.

I greatly appreciate the time set aside to read my thread and I apologize if I misused any terms, like I said I am very new to this and I look forward to any and all feedback!

Hello. I am just getting into Scanner monitoring as well. I am a pilot for a fractional operator, so I have knowledge on the use/phraseology, but not the technical side of radio communications.

I started with pulling out an old sportys airband v scanner (now discontinued) I was sent years ago for free. (I had to return a flat e6b calculator to sportys for warranty repair, but since they had discontinued the calculator they randomly sent me a scanner instead.)

The scanner was useles with the included antenna. It worked somewhat better with an old radio shack antenna I had purchased years ago, but still not very good. I put it aside for several years, until a few months ago.

Recently, I purchased a bc125at, so I could listen in the back yard while watching the aircraft fly the pattern over my house. The stock antenna on the bc125at worked somewhat, but not great either. I finally purchased a few antennas and now have both radios working well.

First, for the handheld I purchased a diamond rh77ca. It greatly increased the range, with both scanners (I used a right angle adapter for the sportys radio. This is the antenna I am planning on using with my mobile scanner from now on.

I then purchased two other antennas, both of which work well in a stationary capacity. I purchased a British slim-g antenna from eBay. It’s great because you can easily take it up/down and move it around the house. It is ugly however, and won’t pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor). I am now using this as an antenna in my garage, I may eventually try it as an attic roof antenna (indoors) or keep it as a mobile backup antenna.

I then purchased any installed last week the Dpd indoor blade antenna. I attached it as high as I could on the wall, then used one of those cord hiding conduit sold at Home Depot (cord mate 3 I think was the brand) to hide the rest of the wire down the wall to the floor. I then have the cable hidden behind some other cabinets/tv equipment until it plugs into the sportys receiver.

Of course, drilling a hole, routing cables outside, and installing a mast for a vhf antenna is the best solution vs an indoor antenna, except I would need to figure out how to do all of that (including lightning protection) so for now I am happy with an interior base antenna.

My next upgrade is replacing the sportys receiver with a bc365crs. When I use earphones on the sportys scanner, I get a loud distracting hum (although not on the internal speaker). I tried a ground loop isolator to no effect, also my bc125at does not do this, I suspect it might just be the age and low build quality with the sportys receiver. The bc125at came in much clear with the same antenna as well. I am hopeful the new base radio will be just as good as the handheld radio.