Antenna for Military and Civilian Air

[737mech]

There are two Omni X antennas from DPD the Omni X mentioned above post #14 and the other one I have Miltenna Omni X MilTenna Omni UHF/VHF Base Antenna I got the miltenna version because I monitor more military than vhf airband. Both work very well as reported by many happy users here.

 

[bearcatrp]

Anyone with a Omni-X that can pick up a airport tower have an educated guess on distance your able to listen to them? I know aircraft flying over shouldn’t be an issue. Have looked at some discone antennas that go from 25 MHz on up but better reviews on the Omni changed my mind.

 

[questnz]

Yes, I am rising my hand, I can confirm you can do, I am about 15 kms (10 mls +/- ) from local airport in straight line and can easy and cleanly receive tower transmission on Omni-X. No problem. Onmi-X exceed my expectation, it replaced old D130 with excellent result. Dave is also nice guy to deal with and very helpful to send Omni to my location from the US of A.

 

[opiekitty]

I have been monitoring military and civilian aircraft for almost 30 years. I have tried a number of different antennas, including many discones, DPD production antennas, air band ground planes, multi-band ham etc... I have always felt I was not hearing everything I could with a good antenna setup. I have recently come up with a solution that is working really well for those that are interested. I am using KB9VBR slim jim antennas, one tuned for air band and one tuned for 310 mhz. I have a number of KB9VBR slim jim antennas that I use for transmitting and receiving, and they all work really well. I use the slim jim antennas because they are a very quiet antenna. My monitoring location has a high noise floor on VHF. The slim jim design seems to help reduce noise problem. I feed the antennas to a SSE diplexer, then to a PAR scanner filter, then a stridsberg multicoupler.

Every monitoring location and other factors are unique. This solution seems to work better than all the other antennas I have tried, for an omni-directional antenna at my location.

Receivers and scanners that I have used with this setup are; Uniden BCD996XT, BCT 15, AOR AR8600, AR8200, and Icom R20. They all responded well.

The antenna on the right is just a 2 meter 5/8 wave ground plane type antenna.

View attachment 67381

View attachment 67382

Hi Erico, Awesome set up and information. I have a AOR AR8600 MK2 and I have noise in simple AM band. Just 640 KFI talk radio. I do have a Uniden SDS100 & BCD536 scanning at the same time. Have you experienced this with a regular telescopic antenna & the small M/W antenna inserted? I appreciate any assistance......Thank You

 

[bearcatrp]

Yes, I am rising my hand, I can confirm you can do, I am about 15 kms (10 mls +/- ) from local airport in straight line and can easy and cleanly receive tower transmission on Omni-X. No problem. Onmi-X exceed my expectation, it replaced old D130 with excellent result. Dave is also nice guy to deal with and very helpful to send Omni to my location from the US of A. View attachment 67841

Thanks for the reply. That looks sweet. Definitely getting one now.

 

[questnz]

And dont forget some quality Coax stuff to match, I am running about 20m of 5D-FB it is about RG6 thickness with thin 3m pigtail on end (receiving only) You may don't have this in US of A but an equivalent or better is recommended. Some of my friends running Belden 9913 with very good results. Most I see on this forum recomment LMR 400 but I am personally not convinced that it will make great difference on 15-20 m (60 ft +/-) run for Scanning, opinions of the hard hitters may differ !
Good luck, Chris

 

[bearcatrp]

Will do. Thanks

 

[DeepBlue]

Folks, let me toss a secondary question at you. What do folks use to monitor VHF Air and Mil Air freqs when mobile? A standard whip cut for these freqs would have a standard donut pattern but would potentially not be that great overhead? Just curious what folks are using for that? My older Icom IC-208H dual band Amateur Radio does AM and FM in that range so might as well look for an antenna that works there too. Just using a multi band VHF/UHF for now and testing it out. Curious if anyone has anything like a mobile egg beater or anything strange they are using? Mini mobile discones anyone?

S.

 

[ka3jjz]

For VHF Civil air, DPD Productions has the following....VHF Air (118-136 MHz) 1/4 Wave Mobile Antenna

 

[vagrant]

Folks, let me toss a secondary question at you. What do folks use to monitor VHF Air and Mil Air freqs when mobile?

I use a Larsen NMO 150-450-800 antenna. I listen to more than military air in the vehicle, so that does the all around duty.

If I am car camping, I have a quick deploy discone.

 

[N9JCQ]

Like others have said, my mobile antenna serves multiple purposes. I am a ham and have a Yaseu FT-7800 dual bander in my car. It has wide band receive so I often use it for my civil/milair work as well. Als , I use a Uniden 396T scanner in the mobile as well. The antenna I use the most, but is hard to find in the Anli DC-124 tri band mobile-https://www.amazon.com/ANLI-DC-124H...0042G1SRM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[prcguy]

I'll bet my Discone is quicker deploy than yours. How bout one that you pull out of a tube and the cone elements (all 16 of them) are spring loaded and pop into shape then you stick on the top disc with a 1/4 turn Dzus fitting. The storage tube can be the mast and a spike unscrews from the tube and installs on the bottom for sticking in the dirt.

I use a Larsen NMO 150-450-800 antenna. I listen to more than military air in the vehicle, so that does the all around duty.

If I am car camping, I have a quick deploy discone.

 

[prcguy]

I use various military surplus mobile antennas that cover the VHF and UHF mil air range with my favorite being the Shakespeare SFB3512 series. You don't need to worry about an upward pattern, you want the best pattern at the horizon for distant aircraft. Anything overhead is so close you can pick it up with a paper clip.

Folks, let me toss a secondary question at you. What do folks use to monitor VHF Air and Mil Air freqs when mobile? A standard whip cut for these freqs would have a standard donut pattern but would potentially not be that great overhead? Just curious what folks are using for that? My older Icom IC-208H dual band Amateur Radio does AM and FM in that range so might as well look for an antenna that works there too. Just using a multi band VHF/UHF for now and testing it out. Curious if anyone has anything like a mobile egg beater or anything strange they are using? Mini mobile discones anyone?

S.

 

[vagrant]

I'll bet my Discone is quicker deploy than yours. How bout one that you pull out of a tube and the cone elements (all 16 of them) are spring loaded and pop into shape then you stick on the top disc with a 1/4 turn Dzus fitting. The storage tube can be the mast and a spike unscrews from the tube and installs on the bottom for sticking in the dirt.

Your plethora of antenna options will always be greater than mine, even if you sell me your hand-me-downs.

Yes, your discone is quicker to deploy. On mine, a 1" PVC tube holds the 16 elements and the head is fastened to one end. The 36" long PVC tube acts as the mast, but I do not have a spike solution for the base. I need to put some thought into a way to mount or fasten the tube in various ways; vehicle, ground, mast, etc. For now, a cap is friction attached at the base to keep things in.

By the way, if you recall, what is the model number of that quick deploy discone?

 

[prcguy]

If you were local I would probably give you a bunch of stuff. My spring out Discone is a military AS-408/U from a late WWII model MAY-1 backpack transceiver. I had the complete setup with radio, antennas and transport case as new in the early 1970s but they are really obscure now. This antenna is rated for 225-400MHz but covers a little lower and a lot higher.

The elements look like thin wall brass tubing and the perimeter of the cone is held together with some hand tied waxed string. Their is a spring that allows the cone elements to fold down so it will fit inside a transport tube. Its really a work of art and would be expensive to duplicate today. Here is a picture of the Discone without top hat, then two top hats secured to the lid of the carrying case. http://www.navy-radio.com/xmtrs/ww2/may/may-1706-01.jpg
http://www.navy-radio.com/xmtrs/ww2/may/may1-1403-08.bmp

I have another portable Discone that goes together fast with only 6 disc and cone elements. Its sold through Motorola for their URC-200 and URC-500 series radios. https://www.hascall-denke.com/wp-content/uploads/100-500-MHz-1Y01650-FXDC100X5.pdf

Your plethora of antenna options will always be greater than mine, even if you sell me your hand-me-downs.

Yes, your discone is quicker to deploy. On mine, a 1" PVC tube holds the 16 elements and the head is fastened to one end. The 36" long PVC tube acts as the mast, but I do not have a spike solution for the base. I need to put some thought into a way to mount or fasten the tube in various ways; vehicle, ground, mast, etc. For now, a cap is friction attached at the base to keep things in.

By the way, if you recall, what is the model number of that quick deploy discone?


View attachment 68179

 

[db_gain]

My main scanner antenna right now is a Comet triband mobile antenna, good for 6m. 2m, and 70cm. I have it hanging in the center of the window so it's at ground floor level but it does great, gets plenty of m,il air as well as local ems.fire/police. I have two of these mobile ants, one has flaked coax so I might canibalise it and place the whip on the base of the discone, whenever I get the discone up.

 

[vagrant]

Interesting, the AS-408/U reminds me very much of an umbrella spring mechanism. The string controls the angle of the lower elements, which of course is a factor. Those discs look smaller than I was initially was thinking. I would have figured the disc to be about 46 cm in diameter and it looks around a low 20 cm something. ( Obviously it works as-is and I am an amateur )

The store bought civilian discones I own sweep well from 110 MHz to 1.3 GHz. The Radio Shack one of course dips at 50 MHz with the vertical stinger. The AT-197A mil antenna actually sweeps well from 180 MHz to 1.3 GHz. ( That N2061SA vector impedance analyzer is fantastic ) If I had another AT-197A, I would use it for the quick deploying antenna, as it is designed for a quick breakdown and reasonably quick setup; albeit not spring loaded. For now, it is affixed on the roofline and performing well.

I would like to see a sweep of the DPD base MilTenna. If the numbers are good I could see that as an affixed replacement for the AT-197A.

 

[iMONITOR]

I inquired a few years ago about using a Diamond D-220R antenna for civilian and military aircraft. The D-220R appears similar to being a small discone but others have pointed out it was not and was more like a glorified ground plane. A few people felt it would be an inferor antenna for the air bands. It's actually tuned for 1/2wave(144MHz), 2x5/8wave(440MHz). Three out of six of the cone element are skinny and the other three are about 1.5x larger in diameter. The fatter elements appear to have wire wound around the element, sealed under something similar to shrink tubing. Even the thinner elements appear to have small wire wrapped around them and sealed with that shrink tubing like material. I mounted it on a 6" diameter strong magnetic base which sits on top of a 4-drawyer file cabinet.

I finally purchased one anyway as I recently acquired an AOR DV-1 and the D-220R seem ideal for my current requirements. They claim it's good for 100 MHz-11600 MHz receive. Looking back on my original intentions I decide to give it a try for the air bands. So far I've only tried it for VHF aircraft, it really came to life! Signal level increase, sound was much clearer. Next I'm going to try it on UHF military aircraft and will report back.

 

[bearcatrp]

Have you tried it on UHF yet? Would like to put up multiple antennas but don’t think it’s in the cards for now. Have considered the onmi-x for air band and a loop for HF but think I will find a good discone to start for my R30.

 

[prcguy]

The AS-408/U is similar in size to the AT-197 and maybe slightly smaller. The AT-197 works from about 175Mhz on up and I've not swept the 408 but its probably closer to 200MHz on the low end.

Interesting, the AS-408/U reminds me very much of an umbrella spring mechanism. The string controls the angle of the lower elements, which of course is a factor. Those discs look smaller than I was initially was thinking. I would have figured the disc to be about 46 cm in diameter and it looks around a low 20 cm something. ( Obviously it works as-is and I am an amateur )

The store bought civilian discones I own sweep well from 110 MHz to 1.3 GHz. The Radio Shack one of course dips at 50 MHz with the vertical stinger. The AT-197A mil antenna actually sweeps well from 180 MHz to 1.3 GHz. ( That N2061SA vector impedance analyzer is fantastic ) If I had another AT-197A, I would use it for the quick deploying antenna, as it is designed for a quick breakdown and reasonably quick setup; albeit not spring loaded. For now, it is affixed on the roofline and performing well.

I would like to see a sweep of the DPD base MilTenna. If the numbers are good I could see that as an affixed replacement for the AT-197A.