LiveATC Discussion Forums
Air Traffic Monitoring => Feed Setup Pictures => Topic started by: zla_ad on July 25, 2007, 06:27:41 AM
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Hello, I got my new hand held scanner today, its a radioshack pro. I live about 13 air miles from the airport, at this point, I can only hear the pilots most of the time, rarely i heard scratches from atc. What kind of antenna can i get for my scanner that will reach to the airport to pickup at least TWR? I do live kindda surrounded by some trees, so may need something that will get above it. I was looking at the RadioShack Outdoor Scanner/Ham Discone Antenna??? Thanks
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-outdoor-scanner-ham-discone-antenna--pi-2103160.html
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I was looking at the RadioShack Outdoor Scanner/Ham Discone Antenna???
If you can mount that antenna outside and towards the upper part of your house and you use a low-loss cable (RG-8) to connect the antenna to the scanner, there is a good possibility you will pick up tower pretty well.
I currently use a similar (older model) Radio Shack discone antenna now and live about the same distance with same obstructions for the Syracuse, NY, feed. This feed pulls in all but the ground-based smaller GA aircraft very well.
The one caveat is that I am about to upgrade to a J-pole antenna that was built for the frequencies scanned for this feed in the hopes that the feed gets even better reception (not my house pictured):
Example of a J-pole antenna:
(http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/2380/roofantennafw1.jpg)
However, without having it up and experiencing it, I cannot yet recommend it. When the upgrade is complete I will be reporting back in the Feeder's Forum. Read more about that antenna here (http://www.kb9vbr.com/jpole.php).
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Get the Jpole.
you can find some pics of my setup here: http://www.liveatc.net/forums/index.php/topic,1817.0.html (http://www.liveatc.net/forums/index.php/topic,1817.0.html)