warbirdphotographer
Newbie
Hey everyone, forum lurker on here. Wanted to chime in and ask for some suggestions as I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of antennas that are out there and frankly, I'm not all that knowledgeable when it comes to what's good or bad in the least.
I have two Radio Shack Pro 97s that I use at airshows all over the West Coast. I rarely ever use it for police/fire/etc and pretty much stick to Civilian Aviation Freq (100 range) and the Military Freq (300-400 Range). I use the Win97 software to program the 97s with all the latest Airshow/Airport frequencies.
At any rate, I replaced the stock antenna with one of the RS800 antennas a while back, and while that did help reception from the stock one I found two issues with it...
1) It's still pretty stiff for an antenna and often gets caught in my other gear putting wear and tear not only on the antenna but the BNC connector base.
2) It's range still seems limited... this could be also because of the wear and tear on the antenna, but there's some times were I'll go to the opposite end of an airport and have issues picking up the tower.
So I'm looking for a good antenna that is better (if there is one) for general aviation and military aviation frequencies. After doing some searching on here I've seen a lot of people recommend the Diamond RH77CA as being one of the best antennas of all time but it is rather quite long and might get in the way at airshows since I have the scanner strapped to my shoulder. The Diamond RHF40 looks pretty appealing because it is bendable, but I've seen hit or miss reception posts about it. Aside from those two, are there any other suggestions for antennas for those bands I use? Would any of the stubby low profile antennas work better than the RS800? I'm not really needing anything in the 800 level, just something that can pick up an F-18 coming in a few miles out or can pick up a tower nice a clear even if I'm far from it on the airport.
Thanks!
I have two Radio Shack Pro 97s that I use at airshows all over the West Coast. I rarely ever use it for police/fire/etc and pretty much stick to Civilian Aviation Freq (100 range) and the Military Freq (300-400 Range). I use the Win97 software to program the 97s with all the latest Airshow/Airport frequencies.
At any rate, I replaced the stock antenna with one of the RS800 antennas a while back, and while that did help reception from the stock one I found two issues with it...
1) It's still pretty stiff for an antenna and often gets caught in my other gear putting wear and tear not only on the antenna but the BNC connector base.
2) It's range still seems limited... this could be also because of the wear and tear on the antenna, but there's some times were I'll go to the opposite end of an airport and have issues picking up the tower.
So I'm looking for a good antenna that is better (if there is one) for general aviation and military aviation frequencies. After doing some searching on here I've seen a lot of people recommend the Diamond RH77CA as being one of the best antennas of all time but it is rather quite long and might get in the way at airshows since I have the scanner strapped to my shoulder. The Diamond RHF40 looks pretty appealing because it is bendable, but I've seen hit or miss reception posts about it. Aside from those two, are there any other suggestions for antennas for those bands I use? Would any of the stubby low profile antennas work better than the RS800? I'm not really needing anything in the 800 level, just something that can pick up an F-18 coming in a few miles out or can pick up a tower nice a clear even if I'm far from it on the airport.
Thanks!