Best BNC connection Antenna for airband?

[Stachu]

Hi,

I have a Uniden EZI33XLT that I use for listening to airband. I live around 20 miles away from the the airport that I want to be able to hear the tower at. At the moment using the rubber antenna I can hear aircraft calling in to the tower frequency on the approach, but cannot hear the tower. I would also like to listen in to the HQ of Area and Terminal Control in my country, which is around 70 miles away from me. Essentially I am looking for a BNC antenna with an approximate range of at least 20 miles (but preferably more).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Stachu

 

[N9JCQ]

Stachu, there is a guy in the UK who hand makes scanner antennas. He makes some nice aviation specific antennas. His company is "Broadsword Antennas." I have ordered from him and his antennas work very well. Broadsword Antennas

 

[wtp]

many here say they never get the tower.
i used to live 4 miles from my local airport and also could not get the tower.
when a plane is in the air just 100 feet it can be heard for many miles.
i can get the space station in the 145 band at 250 miles up with a uniden 396T with an old radio shack 800 antenna.
so i would say go for antenna height to get some clearance and that might do the trick.
any antenna up high enough would be better than one at ground level.
and even then 20 miles is REALLY pushing it. and 70 is right out. (maybe)
good luck

 

[mmckenna]

I agree with @wtp

Altitude is your friend. An aircraft at 500 feet altitude will have a distance to horizon range of about 27 miles. Since these frequencies tend to be line of sight, it's not going to bend around the earth very well. The guys who design the air traffic control radio systems know this, and they know that having a short tower at the airport is more than enough to reach the aircraft on the ground and those in the air.

Your scanner, even with the best antenna on top, is going to have a distance to horizon of about 5 miles if you are 20 feet up (second floor?) No amount of BNC magic antenna is going to bend the laws of physics and work reliably. You need to have your antenna outside and up as high as you can safely get it. If the terrain around you is -perfectly- flat, and the airport has their antennas up at 40 feet or so, you'll need your antenna up about 100 feet above ground level to ensure a good line of sight.

You might get mixed results on the ground, but it likely won't be reliable. Before spending money on a fancy antenna for a hand held radio, make sure you understand the math behind all of this. The antenna won't make a signal appear if there isn't one to receive.

 

[iMONITOR]

For reaching distant VHF aircraft communications from the tower I think this would be about as good as it's going to get:

Sirio WY 108-3N 108-137 MHz Air Band 3 Element Yagi Antenna​

https://www.amazon.com/Sirio-108-3N-108-137-Element-Antenna/dp/B07FZJBRWV/ref=sr_1_13?crid=339K5FI065R9Q&keywords=aircraft+band+antenna&qid=1683334244&sprefix=aircraft+antenna%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-13

Brand Sirio Antenna
Impedance 50 Ohm
Item Dimensions LxWxH 58 x 4 x 4 inches
About this item

Type: 3 elements yagi antenna
Frequency range: 108-137 MHz No tuning required, 108-118 Mhz @ SWR less than 1.5 ; 118-137 Mhz @ SWR less than 2.0
Max. Power (CW) @ 30°C: 200 Watts
Gain: 4.85 dBd - 7 dBi
Connector: N-female with rubber protection cap

 

[Stachu]

Stachu, there is a guy in the UK who hand makes scanner antennas. He makes some nice aviation specific antennas. His company is "Broadsword Antennas." I have ordered from him and his antennas work very well. Broadsword Antennas

Thank you, I will have a look!

 

[Stachu]

many here say they never get the tower.
i used to live 4 miles from my local airport and also could not get the tower.
when a plane is in the air just 100 feet it can be heard for many miles.
i can get the space station in the 145 band at 250 miles up with a uniden 396T with an old radio shack 800 antenna.
so i would say go for antenna height to get some clearance and that might do the trick.
any antenna up high enough would be better than one at ground level.
and even then 20 miles is REALLY pushing it. and 70 is right out. (maybe)
good luck

Right I see. I've had this receiver for a few years but I lack knowledge when it comes to antennas and range and all that. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Stachu]

I agree with @wtp

Altitude is your friend. An aircraft at 500 feet altitude will have a distance to horizon range of about 27 miles. Since these frequencies tend to be line of sight, it's not going to bend around the earth very well. The guys who design the air traffic control radio systems know this, and they know that having a short tower at the airport is more than enough to reach the aircraft on the ground and those in the air.

Your scanner, even with the best antenna on top, is going to have a distance to horizon of about 5 miles if you are 20 feet up (second floor?) No amount of BNC magic antenna is going to bend the laws of physics and work reliably. You need to have your antenna outside and up as high as you can safely get it. If the terrain around you is -perfectly- flat, and the airport has their antennas up at 40 feet or so, you'll need your antenna up about 100 feet above ground level to ensure a good line of sight.

You might get mixed results on the ground, but it likely won't be reliable. Before spending money on a fancy antenna for a hand held radio, make sure you understand the math behind all of this. The antenna won't make a signal appear if there isn't one to receive.

Thanks, this clears a few things up for me. I know basically nothing about antennas and how they really work. I live in North London and Heathrow is what I'm trying to hear. Before posting on this forum, this was what I thought:
My rubber duck can receive fairly well for what I expected, hearing aircraft on the approach to the 27 runways, so I thought that surely any antenna thats bigger than my rubber one must be able to hear a bit further. But

Thanks again for the response

 

[Stachu]

For reaching distant VHF aircraft communications from the tower I think this would be about as good as it's going to get:

Sirio WY 108-3N 108-137 MHz Air Band 3 Element Yagi Antenna​

https://www.amazon.com/Sirio-108-3N-108-137-Element-Antenna/dp/B07FZJBRWV/ref=sr_1_13?crid=339K5FI065R9Q&keywords=aircraft+band+antenna&qid=1683334244&sprefix=aircraft+antenna%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-13

Brand Sirio Antenna
Impedance 50 Ohm
Item Dimensions LxWxH 58 x 4 x 4 inches
About this item

Type: 3 elements yagi antenna
Frequency range: 108-137 MHz No tuning required, 108-118 Mhz @ SWR less than 1.5 ; 118-137 Mhz @ SWR less than 2.0
Max. Power (CW) @ 30°C: 200 Watts
Gain: 4.85 dBd - 7 dBi
Connector: N-female with rubber protection cap

Thanks for the suggestion. I assume this would have to be up on my roof somewhere?
Also, as my receiver has a BNC connection, and the N-female seems to be the same as my receiver, I assume I would need an N-male, the one with the little needle like connector that will go into my receiver?

 

[iMONITOR]

Thanks for the suggestion. I assume this would have to be up on my roof somewhere?
Also, as my receiver has a BNC connection, and the N-female seems to be the same as my receiver, I assume I would need an N-male, the one with the little needle like connector that will go into my receiver?

Yes ideally it should be on your roof, with a mount at with some lenght of mast to get it up high. How high depends on how far you want it to reach out. If you have multiple airports in various directions, you're probably going to want a rotor as well. A Yagi mounted in a fix direction will have limitations on how will it perform in various directions. However I've used antennas similar to this inside my home office mounted on a 9' light stand on the first floor and they performed better than I expected. This of course would give you the advantage of adjusting it's direction manually as needed. A Yagi design such as this is directional, not omnidirectional. But I've had pretty good performances off the sides of Yagi's, just not off the back side.

When I recommended it I didn't realize you had a hand-held scanner and not a base. But it certainly can be used with a hand-held, so if you're using at home it should be fine. You can purchase pre-made coax cables with any connectors, adapters, pig-tails etc that you might need.

A preamp may help as well. I use a Stridsberg PRE-20 for boosting the performance of my aircraft antenna and it performs great!

 

[Stachu]

Yes ideally it should be on your roof, with a mount at with some lenght of mast to get it up high. How high depends on how far you want it to reach out. If you have multiple airports in various directions, you're probably going to want a rotor as well. A Yagi mounted in a fix direction will have limitations on how will it perform in various directions. However I've used antennas similar to this inside my home office mounted on a 9' light stand on the first floor and they performed better than I expected. This of course would give you the advantage of adjusting it's direction manually as needed. A Yagi design such as this is directional, not omnidirectional. But I've had pretty good performances off the sides of Yagi's, just not off the back side.

When I recommended it I didn't realize you had a hand-held scanner and not a base. But it certainly can be used with a hand-held, so if you're using at home it should be fine. You can purchase pre-made coax cables with any connectors, adapters, pig-tails etc that you might need.

A preamp may help as well. I use a Stridsberg PRE-20 for boosting the performance of my aircraft antenna and it performs great!

Thanks again for the reply! Very helpful