Air Band Antenna

[bearcatrp]

Picked up a Icom 52A for my airband needs. At first I thought it wasn't that good compared to my R30. The R30 picked up my local airport (15 miles away) tower better than the 52A, both on stock antenna. Hooked it up to my outside discone and the 52A shined awesome. Pegged the s bar listening to the tower. the R30 and my R8500 only got 3/4's on there s meters. My guess the stock antenna isn't that great on the 52A. Looking for a antenna for 120 - 400 mhz antenna for this radio. Suggestions? Uses the same antenna connection as the R30.

 

[N5XPM]

Picked up a Icom 52A for my airband needs. At first I thought it wasn't that good compared to my R30. The R30 picked up my local airport (15 miles away) tower better than the 52A, both on stock antenna. Hooked it up to my outside discone and the 52A shined awesome. Pegged the s bar listening to the tower. the R30 and my R8500 only got 3/4's on there s meters. My guess the stock antenna isn't that great on the 52A. Looking for a antenna for 120 - 400 mhz antenna for this radio. Suggestions? Uses the same antenna connection as the R30.

is this an Ocom A25 or an Icom ID 52?

 

[prcguy]

A typical scanner Discone like the old Radio Shack or Diamond D130 is hard to beat for both VHF and UHF air bands. I would leave off the top whip.

 

[bearcatrp]

Wanting a antenna to screw into the radio like the current one. Did try swapping the antennas on the R30 and the 52A. Did help some but the R30 antenna is for a wide range. A specific 120 MHz to 400 MHz (or close) is what I’m looking for if they make such an antenna. I have the D130 but don’t want to mount that on my truck.

 

[prcguy]

Maldol used to make a VHF/UHF air band specific antenna called the AL-500H. I have one and it works well on both VHF and UHF air but its quite narrow band on UHF air. It was able to pick up decent UHF satcom signals from space stuck on a hand held scanner.

Wanting a antenna to screw into the radio like the current one. Did try swapping the antennas on the R30 and the 52A. Did help some but the R30 antenna is for a wide range. A specific 120 MHz to 400 MHz (or close) is what I’m looking for if they make such an antenna. I have the D130 but don’t want to mount that on my truck.

 

[bearcatrp]

Just did a search on the AL-500H. Did not find anything on it. Might have to look at wide band antennas like comet or similar. Thanks prcguy.

 

[N9JCQ]

Maldol AL-500H Air band Scanner Antenna I have two of these. Work good on my scanners like they do for PRCGuy

 

[bearcatrp]

Maldol AL-500H Air band Scanner Antenna I have two of these. Work good on my scanners like they do for PRCGuy

Do not see any for sale though. Did do another test using the antenna from my R30. Fully extended, picks up the airport tower better than on the R30. Am looking at the W100RX, which looks similar to the R30 antenna.

Scanner Antennas | Comet Antenna

wireless mobile and fixed station voice and data

cometantenna.com

 

[bearcatrp]

Just did another test with stock antenna and the antenna from the R30. This time 400 Mhz and up. The stock antenna did allot better than the R30 antenna.

 

[Air490]

https://www.comet-ant.co.jp/product/641/

https://www.comet-ant.co.jp/product/627/

https://www.comet-ant.co.jp/product/759/

https://www.diamond-ant.co.jp/english/amateur/antenna/ante_3hand/ante_hand2.html - scroll down to SRH1230

All are good airband antennas, but my favourite is the AB-35HS

P.S. The links are all in Japanese. I'm not sure if any of these antennas are available in the US. I have bought them from retailers here and in Taiwan (Ebay)

 

[Kiniutech]

Anyone for Watson 901 https://www.scannermaster.com/W_901_Airband_Portable_Antenna_p/28-541174.htm

 

[blackbelter]

Anyone for Watson 901 https://www.scannermaster.com/W_901_Airband_Portable_Antenna_p/28-541174.htm

My experience with this antenna has not been that all great. I reside within 3 miles of a regional airport and my 125 AT supplied antenna works better than the Watson 901 At $32. I also use an old RS telescopic antenna which performs well.

 

[DudleyG]

I have a Diamond RH789 (BNC connector) which is a telescopic antenna and on the packaging the follow statement basically tell you how long to extend the antenna. There is actually on the antenna very very very small lettering and numbers showing how long to make the antenna but I tried to take a picture with no luck at all plus the lengths are in centimeters which my mind doesn't handle well.

Packaging says ---> "It acts as 1/4 wave from 95-300 MHz and a 5/8 wave from 300 to 1100 MHz"

So, I did a quick calculation of lengths to set the antenna based on Mhz and wrote them on a sheet of paper which I am using to type this response. I have owned the Diamond RH789 for approximately 6 months and seen the same results on all receivers and scanners.

For 1/4 wave, you use the formula (234/Frequency) equals length in feet (times 12 to get inches)

Frequency Length
160Mhz 18 inches (trains in 160Mhz, police, fire in the 155Mhz)
125Mhz 22 inches (airplanes)
330Mhz 9 inches (UHF Planes)
460Mhz 6 inches (UHF police, fire)
800Mhz 4 inches (trunk systems)

For 5/8 wave, you use the formula (700/Frequency) equals length in feet (times 12 to get inches)

Frequency Length
330Mhz 25 inches (UHF Planes)
460Mhz 18 inches (UHF police, fire)
800Mhz 10 inches (trunk systems)

When using the Diamond antenna as a 1/4 wave and tuning in military air frequencies (230 to 400) and UHF Police in the 460 range, I tended to hear almost nothing. However, when I used the antenna as a 5/8 wave, I received military air frequencies and UHF police extremely well using an AOR AR8200MK3 which has a BNC connector.

I tried the same thing with the stock antenna for the R30 and the R30 saw the same outstanding results when I used 5/8 wave for the high frequencies. On the R30, using the antenna as 1/4 wave for the high frequencies, I had the same poor results as I did on the AOR AR8200MK3.

Notice one thing.... the length of the telescopic antenna for airplanes on VHF is 22 inches on 1/4 wave setting and airplanes on UHF is 25 inches using 5/8 setting, so I can set the antenna at 22 inches and it works great for both VHF and UHF.

The same holds true for police on the 155Mhz and the 460Mhz .... same length of 18 inches works for both.

@bearcatrp You might want to try the R30 antenna on your 52A as a 5/8 wave antenna on the higher frequencies and see what you get.

 

[AM909]

You'd do better to center "800" MHz LMR receiving antennas where the repeaters transmit, at 855 MHz (3 1/4" for a quarter-wave). "700" MHz repeater outputs are centered around 772 MHz (3 5/8"). A compromise to cover both is 813 MHz (3 7/16"), though 90 MHz (11%) bandwidth may be asking a lot.

You may want to calculate lengths for the lower frequencies based on what exactly you listen to, since even quarter-waves aren't going to perform as well over the entire ranges of those bands. Laird, for example, claims 5-7% bandwidth for their simple quarter-wave whips (though a suspicious 15-20% bandwidth for some other quarter-wave products).

 

[bearcatrp]

I went ahead and ordered the SMA-W100RX2 . I will try your suggestion after work.

 

[N9JCQ]

My experience with this antenna has not been that all great. I reside within 3 miles of a regional airport and my 125 AT supplied antenna works better than the Watson 901 At $32. I also use an old RS telescopic antenna which performs well.

I will second the experiences on the Watson Air Gainer. I usually use mine at air shows as its not as long as others I have. But when you are at the airshow, I bet a paperclip would work too.

 

[blackbelter]

For most part I choose to listen to my tower /ground through the streaming . I often hear the same noise level in the ATC head set which is being steamed .

 

[eorange]

My AL-500H (too floppy and I sold it), SRH-789 (the screw no longer holds the angle), Icom airband transceiver antenna (forget the model number), Icom R-30 whip, and various RH-77CAs all perform the same on handhelds for VHF/UHF airband, with the exception of the Icom airband antenna for UHF.

There's no appreciable difference between any of them.

Edit: Forgot the RS telescopic whip with the mystery black thing in the middle. Also performs the same.

 

[eorange]

I constructed a handheld dipole using copper pipe, centered for 126 MHz.

Depending on the day and the orientation I can barely get KCLE ground comms. There's no substitute for height. Or line of sight, which increases dramatically on the shore of Lake Erie.