Cut it up.

[Joel_av_dude]

Hi ya’ll, I am looking for the best antenna for reception of Air Traffic Control frequencies. What would everyone recommend? I would be placing it indoors in my attic. I have a Pro95 and am currently using http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=20-176
I would like to get more frequency specific.

I have herd that one can cut the antenna to be more responsive at the desired bands. How do I do this?

 

[n4jri]

What frequencies do you have your eye on? Antenna length probably isn't going to vary too much from 108-137 MHz. On 225-400 however, there is almost a 2:1 ratio of highest to lowest frequency.

I mostly watch the mil freqs, and have found a 10-inch antenna to provide the best combination of receptivity to various freqs while avoiding resonance with frequencies that bring interference.

If your needs are really specific, you can cut a vertical ground-plane antenna to 1/4 wavelength or a dipole to 1/4 wavelength per leg.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[Joel_av_dude]

Smack dab!

I would like to hit smack dab in the middle of commercial ATC freqs. I am very new to this, I understand the basic concepts of wavelength vs resonance vs antenna length….etc… However I am highly ignorant to antenna terms. If you could expound that would be great.

 

[popnokick]

Assuming you're not talking about a directional antenna but rather an omni, and are willing to spend $30-$100, here is a page with examples of some possibilities that will do quite well both with the commercial air band (108-137) and the Mil/Commercial UHF band:

http://www.grove-ent.com/scannerantennas.html

These are not necessarily the best prices, but offer a range of choices on a single web page so you can see the possibilities. (Actually, there are directional antennas on that page as well.) At least one of them would fit in the attic.