Any antennas better than OEM for aircraft bands?

[djmiller]

Hi,
I am new to the forum and have several handheld scanners. Having started flying lessons, I am now only interested in the aircraft band.

I find that the stock antenna that comes with most handheld scanners don't perform well (My scanner is a PRO-95 radio shack).

Do any of you have any type of homemade or aftermarket antennas that work well on 118-136. I tried to make one from a 22" peice of 1/32 music wire attached to the center lead of some RG-58. It barely worked better than the stock antenna and had a lot of extra noise.

We still have an old VHF/UHF TV antenna on the house that I may be able to convert and use as an outdoor.

Any ideas

Thanks

DJ

 

[K2KOH]

First, good luck on the flying lessons. Second, welcome to the wonderful world of scanning. Your best bet would be a discone antenna, and I recommend the Diamond D130, as it is well-built. Use the BEST coax cable you can for this antenna; here I recommend LMR-400 low loss cable.
The discone antenna is broadband, and will receive 25-1300 MHz. I only suggest this in case you decide to upgrade to another scanner or receiver that receives the military UHF airband.
When you get the cable, try not to use adapters. You can use a PL 259 on the antenna end, and a BNC connector on the radio end. If you're not good at soldering, like me, you can have the dealer where you buy the coax put the connectors on for you. I hope this helps..if not, just ask away.

Have fun

 

[djmiller]

Thanks for the info. I will see if I can get ahold of a discone.
The software was fantastic for entering all the airport freqs and text descriptions.

It was a lot of fun to take a sectional chart and start with the airports closest to me and work my way out about 100 nm.

-DJ

 

[Starion]

I use a 40 inch halfwave telescopic antenna for the two meter amateur radio band. It works really well on the aircraft band. Of course, the antenna is really heavy and can put a lot of strain on the radio's BNC connector.

I also use RadioShack's 26 inch elescopic antenna. I leave it fully or nearly extended.

A shorter and flexible antenna about 14 inches long might work. I have a short 16 inch 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna that works a little better than the stock antenna. Of course, my telescopic whips work much better.

I hope I gave you some ideas about telescopic whips. For in home use, you could try hooking up a mobile antenna longer than 20 inches high to your scanner.

If you want to try a discone, go for it. I'm sure you'll hear lots of airplanes with the discone.

If you are on a tight budget, I would suggest that you use Radio Shack's Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna - #20-176. I live near Washington National and Dulles airport. I can hear planes about 100 miles away with the Radio Shack's 19 inch outiside ground plane antenna. The reception between 118 and 520 MHz is pretty decent. I can't hear the airport towers because I am too far away from them. I can, however, hear the air route traffic controll tower for high and low sectors.

 

[HuubRoem]

Very good results with my Diamond D777, see for details http://www.diamond-ant.jp/ama2/eng_ama_2_6_2.asp

Gain:3.4dB(VHF),5.5dB(UHF)