Just curious, what is a good airband Base antenna? I'm using a dual band 2m/440 now but I'm sure there are better..
Base antenna
- Thread starter dmoore12345
- Start date
Arrow antennas makes a pretty hefty quarter-wave ground plane model, specifically for the air band (and others, as well). This is the type you will often see around airports. For aircraft monitoring, a gain antenna isn't really helpful as the pattern is squished down toward the ground.
prcguy
Member
A typical scanner Discone like a Diamond D130 series or similar but without the top whip makes an excellent VHF air and UHF air antenna. Many airports use a very similar Discone. Any commercial 1/4 wave ground plane that covers the entire 118-136MHz VHF air comm freqs will have a very fat vertical element to cover the band. The most common airport base antenna is a fiberglass radome about 4ft tall with a fat vertical half wave dipole inside.
While I haven't used this specific antenna, Sirio antennas has an excellent reputation. SWR is < 1.5 across VHF airband. It should be very good if you can mount this high as possible.
www.sirioantenne.it
SPO 118-2
1/2 λ, Omnidirectional, TX band: 118-136 MHz @ SWR ≤1.5 No tuning required, RX band: 108-136 MHz, Professional Wide-Band, Systems: VHF Airband
www.sirioantenne.it
Ubbe
Member
It's ground stations that are difficult to receive. Aircrafts up in the air can be received using a wet noodle as an antenna.
I use a directional Sirio 7dBi gain antenna pointed at the airport to receive the tower more clearly but it still receives all aircrafts from all directions as good, and often better, than a 1/4 antenna. But at $150 it isn't a cheap antenna. You can build an antenna at almost no cost that probably will work better than the HAM antenna.
/Ubbe
I use a directional Sirio 7dBi gain antenna pointed at the airport to receive the tower more clearly but it still receives all aircrafts from all directions as good, and often better, than a 1/4 antenna. But at $150 it isn't a cheap antenna. You can build an antenna at almost no cost that probably will work better than the HAM antenna.
Amazon.com: Sirio WY 108-3N 108-137 MHz Air Band 3 Element Yagi Antenna : Electronics
Buy Sirio WY 108-3N 108-137 MHz Air Band 3 Element Yagi Antenna: Antennas - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
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/Ubbe
The Omni X is a good air antenna. Discone is too. Whatever you get, you need it above your roof line for a good signal. My discone picks up the ground automated transmission from a airport about 10 miles as the crow flies (direct line). But if your sure you only want air, then a dedicated air band antenna would be the best.
jaymatt1978
Member
Definitely go with the discone!~ Also the height more the better
fasteddy64
Member
Does the added whip on a discone interfere with the VHF/UHF performance?
prcguy
Member
It can and I believe it does in most cases. A Discone is a Discone. A Discone with a whip is a combination of things, some of which are not good. If you don't need to receive below 100MHz then I would recommend loosing the whip.
Ubbe
Member
The whip uses a bottom coil that are supposed to work as a low pass filter, isolating the whip from the discone at higher frequencies. But it's far from any type of brick wall filter and will still be part of the antenna system at lower frequencies like VHF AIR. And to add to the problem the whip receives signals at another phase than the discone and the two signals will in some degree cancel each other out. So definitely remove the whip if not needed.
/Ubbe
