dipole for civ airband

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doublescan

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Aug 23, 2011
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Blount Co, AL
After reading all the threads on the off-centerfed dipole, and variations, I tried putting one together a week or two ago for my airband listening experiments. After buying/installing an ST-2
recently and getting a whiff of the airport approach control, I wondered if the "classic dipole" that member herzian wrote about would do as well. I used instructions from one of his posts, to make a dipole with equal 22" lengths, connected directly to the coax. Since my best location is nearly 150' from the house, due to huge trees I can't cut, I connected an old tv preamp to it. I was amazed by how well this little antenna works! I have been hearing the Birmingham approach control day & night for almost two weeks, more than I have ever heard them with any antenna.
Most of the time I have heard the Bham RCAG (think that is the term for the Atlanta ATC repeater)
also. Depending on the weather of course, reception varies, but trying the ST-2 in the exact same place/height doesn't get me nearly as much air traffic.
I'm not sure I could've bought an antenna that would be better, at only about tree top level where I am! Thanks Herzian for your posts.
 
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nanZor

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May 28, 2009
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2,807
Thanks for the kudos. It's really a team-effort here, so thanks to all!

The ST2 in itself may not be bad on airband by itself (I have no personal experience with it), but the fact that it is a very wideband antenna *may* have meant that for you, desense and overload from strong out of band strong signals may be the reason for it not working as well as a relatively narrow-band dipole. So don't throw it away just yet, as a bandpass filter may save the day.

You may want to check out the other forum for amplifiers / splitters etc to see if changing your placement along the line would result in even better s/n performance.

At any rate, I'm very glad the homebrew dipole is working for you.
 

doublescan

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Aug 23, 2011
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Location
Blount Co, AL
Antenna in red

Finally got back to this thread, and decided to try posting a picture of this dipole. It's still working fine, and I'm still tickled with it. This picture was taken Feb 11, 2014 during our little snow. Five inches of it is a lot for Alabama, lol. Red paint was all I had so I used it.
 

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popnokick

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Mar 21, 2004
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Northeast PA
A tuned dipole trumps most broadbanded antennas (ST-2, OCFD, etc) nearly every time. Thanks for sharing your success!
 

mainetrunk

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May 29, 2011
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Location
York county Me.
WOW, I wanna build 1 this spring, but it would be ( hanging ) from a hook using military 1-1/2 inch 4 foot pvc with cap. I'm still playing with coils. Nice rig doublscan
 
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