Strange looking Bi-Conical antenna....

[fires999]

Evening Forum,
I've recently been using an antenna on the car that is meant for 446mhz here in the UK ( I guess our version of USA FRS ?).
The antenna described as Bi-conical or basically two cone shapes point to point very similar to a jugglers "diablo",each cone 6 inches in height.
As mentioned, mean for 446mhz but 440-460mhz is covered and WOW !!! , for less than £30 its performance I thinks is great and sometimes out performs a couple of 420-470 mhz dedicated antennas.
I found mine on the UK website " MOONRAKER" , a well known and very well established company.
Take a look.....
( I have no affiliation with this company , I'm just a happy customer expressing personal views on the antenna- I believe this can be purchased at many other retailers also)
Thanks,
Kev (Fires 999 - USAF Mildenhall Fire Dept, UK)

**** Just found similar online called a COMET CBC-70 , hope that helps , although freq range shwing much wider band ? *******

 

[dave3825]

Deleted

 

[prcguy]

The Moonraker and Comet Bicones are just fat 1/2 wave dipoles and have no more gain than a half wave dipole made of wire. A commercial/military broad band Bicone is a different animal covering a very broad range of frequencies with increasing gain at higher frequencies. They also have a complex matching circuit which the Moonraker does not have that provides a good match over a large range.

Here is one commercial/military version and there are others with much greater frequency range. Due to the construction and complex matching circuits these are not cheap. RF-9070 VHF/UHF Biconical High-Power Antenna

 

[bbo14]

I've seen these all over Ft. Bliss when bypassing El Paso on Hiway 375 (AKA Transmountain Road). Army has them for the 30-76 MHz military range. They stick 'em up on 30 foot camo colored poles. Works for them.

 

[prcguy]

I've seen these all over Ft. Bliss when bypassing El Paso on Hiway 375 (AKA Transmountain Road). Army has them for the 30-76 MHz military range. They stick 'em up on 30 foot camo colored poles. Works for them.

Those would be the 30-88MHz OE-254 Bicones and they work quite well although not any gain to speak of. I've had a few and lengthened the elements to 10ft to work better on CB/10m while giving up a little of the top end. Here is one being installed.

 

[MUTNAV]

Evening Forum,
I've recently been using an antenna on the car that is meant for 446mhz here in the UK ( I guess our version of USA FRS ?).
The antenna described as Bi-conical or basically two cone shapes point to point very similar to a jugglers "diablo",each cone 6 inches in height.
As mentioned, mean for 446mhz but 440-460mhz is covered and WOW !!! , for less than £30 its performance I thinks is great and sometimes out performs a couple of 420-470 mhz dedicated antennas.
I found mine on the UK website " MOONRAKER" , a well known and very well established company.
Take a look.....
( I have no affiliation with this company , I'm just a happy customer expressing personal views on the antenna- I believe this can be purchased at many other retailers also)
Thanks,
Kev (Fires 999 - USAF Mildenhall Fire Dept, UK)

**** Just found similar online called a COMET CBC-70 , hope that helps , although freq range shwing much wider band ? *******

I have to wonder if for the same frequency coverage, something like this might be workable for FRS/GMRS and UHF TV, and 70 Cm.


(not at the same time of course).

Account Suspended

Thanks
Joel

 

[nd5y]

I have to wonder if for the same frequency coverage, something like this might be workable for FRS/GMRS and UHF TV, and 70 Cm.

If you built it according to the link it would be horizontally polarized and basically useless for anything but UHF TV. It wouldn't be 50 ohms. The elements would be too short to work on 420-470 MHz. It's bi-directional unless you put a reflector behind it.

 

[prcguy]

A Biconical can be made for any frequency range and there are many commercial versions to choose from. I see narrow VHF/UHF band versions covering roughly 90 to 470MHz and broader band versions covering 30-1000MHz and more but no real gain to speak of. Problem is a properly designed and tested unit can be quite expensive and the ham radio/scanner types are not properly designed and have no broad band matching.