Antenna for Military and Civilian Air

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

They also have a UHF Military aircraft antenna for mobile use.
Mil UHF (225-400 MHz) 1/4 Wave Mobile Antenna (Wideband)
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.
 

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Silent Key
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The Diamond D220R in my post #38 is actually intended for mobile use if you use a good mag-mount. You might draw a lot of attention to your vehicle. The picture below is of an earlier model with the coil, the D220. It's been revised to the D220R shown in post #38.
1549308391988.png
 

DeepBlue

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...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.

What interests me most on the SFB3512 is the vertical gain. Best between 10 and 85 degrees elevation. This looks like what I would want in a vehicle antenna listening for things in the air rather than the ground stations. With the gain and a good quiet preamp, it might hear Satcom, etc.

S.
 

TailGator911

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The Diamond D220R in my post #38 is actually intended for mobile use if you use a good mag-mount. You might draw a lot of attention to your vehicle. The picture below is of an earlier model with the coil, the D220. It's been revised to the D220R shown in post #38.
View attachment 68245

A guy had this exact same antenna at the Dayton Air Show last year, attached by CB radio mirror mount clamps to a metal rake handle cut in half with a rubber bicycle handlebar grip on one end, holding it up to a level of about 9-feet using a BC125AT and about 5-ft coax, and his little system rocked. He had a crowd gathered around him listening in.

JD
kf4anc
 

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Silent Key
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A guy had this exact same antenna at the Dayton Air Show last year, attached by CB radio mirror mount clamps to a metal rake handle cut in half with a rubber bicycle handlebar grip on one end, holding it up to a level of about 9-feet using a BC125AT and about 5-ft coax, and his little system rocked. He had a crowd gathered around him listening in.

JD
kf4anc

I believe it! I've been monitoring both VHF & UHF airband frequencies and it's performing beyond my expectations.
 

prcguy

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Its got a fairly typical vertical pattern but in the UHF Satcom range it does point upward and Shakespeare mentions it can be used in a pinch for satcom.


What interests me most on the SFB3512 is the vertical gain. Best between 10 and 85 degrees elevation. This looks like what I would want in a vehicle antenna listening for things in the air rather than the ground stations. With the gain and a good quiet preamp, it might hear Satcom, etc.

S.
 

bearcatrp

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Has anyone tried the D220 indoors? Curious if this would work for me until spring comes and can put up a full size discone. Then I can use the little one on my camper
 

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Silent Key
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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.

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner. The Diamond D-220R does not disapoint on UHF military air bands, works great!
 

bearcatrp

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This thing works awesome. Getting allot better distances than with the antenna that comes with it. Picking up air that I couldn’t hear before. Put it on a gutted floor lamp close to the ceiling. Am impressed.
 

Ubbe

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I would think that any external $100 antenna will perform better than a $10 antenna that comes with a portable scanner.

/Ubbe
 

bearcatrp

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The antenna that came with the R30 seems allot better than the antenna that came with the 436, which I changed out with a tri band antenna. I didn’t expect to much more than a little putting the D220R in my living room.
 
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