Airband antenna

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btlacer

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I was thinking of making a ground plane antenna cut for civil airband with a female uhf connector and some copper, but got to thinking I have a extra radio shack discone (sputnick) sitting in the attic. Could I just cut that antenna and get the same results as building one?
 

prcguy

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So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
A " Sputnick" refers to a Radio Shack ground plane, not a Discone. Which one do you have?

The Sputnick is already too short for VHF air and a stock R/S Discone works just fine for VHF air, you could not improve anything by cutting it.
prcguy


I was thinking of making a ground plane antenna cut for civil airband with a female uhf connector and some copper, but got to thinking I have a extra radio shack discone (sputnick) sitting in the attic. Could I just cut that antenna and get the same results as building one?
 

aggie72

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Try it before you do any mods. I'm using one for VHF and UHF air with pretty good results.
 

doublescan

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Blount Co, AL
agree with aggie72

Try it before you do any mods. I'm using one for VHF and UHF air with pretty good results.

Been through the same process about a year ago. The radio shack ground plane does work pretty well for aircraft band, but the elements, as stated above, are a little short. I used it quite a while though, then dropped it off the roof and broke one of the lower radials off, so I decided to use the plans available for a homebuilt-model, with the closer dimensions to that aircraft range of freqs.
It blew me away, improvement big-time over the radio shack stock model. And it still picks up the VHF range that I listen to, 155mhz, and does that very well also.
Try one, you won't be sorry! Then build yourself a copper J-pole cut for aircraft band too, another excellent project.
 
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