HT Antenna

[les108]

Hello

I am looking for suggestion to find an HT antenna that would help me monitor milair in the central Indiana area..I have heard so much in connection to the Diamond 77RHCA or either the Watson 901 air gainer would be a good starting point.


Thanks

 

[ka3jjz]

or the Maldol AH500 series which has also been mentioned here before. All would be good for portable operation - but a nice base antenna will work far better than a little duckie - even a tuned one. 73s Mike

 

[les108]

or the Maldol AH500 series which has also been mentioned here before. All would be good for portable operation - but a nice base antenna will work far better than a little duckie - even a tuned one. 73s Mike

Do you have the AH500 Antenna???

 

[ka3jjz]

First, my bad - it is the AL500H; Universal sells it. Our Scanner Antennas wiki has the specific link.

No I don't have it (my pokey 245 doesn't do milair), but there seems to be a running discussion - whenever the 2 are mentioned - of which one is the better performing antenna. That's a pretty good indication of folks using either and how popular they happen to be. It's been awhile, but it was discussed in, I think, the Antennas forum. 73s Mike

 

[eorange]

I have both the Maldol AL-500H and the Diamond RH77CA. Performance is equal on the VHF air band, and maybe a little better on the UHF air band with the Maldol. I was listening to UHF aerial refueling on my VR-500 and the Maldol seemed to cause the signal to sound louder. But it's not like the Maldol pulled in signals that I wasn't already hearing with the Diamond.

Overall, I'd say the difference is negligible. Diamond is shorter in length, Maldol is skinnier and longer. Diamond is all-band and I'd highly recommend it; I've been using it for 8+ years. Maldol also picks up 400 MHz public safety even though it's optimized for the air bands. Diamond is cheaper; you won't go wrong with it.

Hope this helps.