Author Topic: Scanner Antenna  (Read 12056 times)

Offline zla_ad

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Scanner Antenna
« on: July 25, 2007, 06:27:41 AM »
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
« Last Edit: July 25, 2007, 06:35:34 AM by zla_ad »



Offline KSYR-pjr

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Re: Scanner Antenna
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2007, 08:27:12 AM »
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:


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.



Offline Lezam

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Re: Scanner Antenna
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2007, 02:04:09 AM »
Get the Jpole.

you can find some pics of my setup here: http://www.liveatc.net/forums/index.php/topic,1817.0.html