LiveATC Discussion Forums
Air Traffic Monitoring => Listener Forum => Topic started by: Clement312 on August 31, 2005, 06:48:34 PM
-
Whats the best Antenna for a preety good price i live like 30 miles of KMIA
Will a CB antenna work with a scanner or not???
-
Do you plan on putting the antenna on a mast above the roof?
-
uhhhhhh.............yea Maybe
whats a good website to buy antennas????
-
I really doubt you'll pick up the majority of the MIA freqs. But you can look here for an antenna, I use the Diamond Discone. I find it to be great, very sturdy. But Im currently looking for something with more gain like a J-pole. http://www.grove-ent.com/scannerantennas.html
-
Have a look at this website - http://www.crypticide.com/users/alecm/radio/ar8k-dipole.html
I was going to make my own 'home made dipole' but I found on on Ebay (in the UK)
-
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is to get the antenna as high up as possible..even better off the roof and clear of sorrounding objects...remember all the ground atc stations can really work with a clear line of reception between the transmitting antenna and your receiving antenna Good Luck
-
I am assuming that you live in or around Philly, as I do, and was wondering if you ever tried using a radio shack antenna. They seem to have one for $25, and one for $69. I live just in South Jersey, about 11 miles from KPNE, and would like to listen to that tower to learn to talk-the-talk for my private pilot license. I can here the planes above, because they are line of site, but I am too far from the tower, I was wondering if buying the cheap antenna from radio shack would help. I also have a cheap handheld RS PRO-92, which may be a not so good thing to. :-). Thanks for any advice.
I really doubt you'll pick up the majority of the MIA freqs. But you can look here for an antenna, I use the Diamond Discone. I find it to be great, very sturdy. But Im currently looking for something with more gain like a J-pole. http://www.grove-ent.com/scannerantennas.html
-
well, I have experience with the cheap $25 one, it's not the best, but it works, however it was almost as bad as my stock antenna on aviation bands. My friend in Tahiti has the $69 one (listed in Ham Radio section on RadioShack.com) and he loves it (he lives about 15 miles away from teh airport .... on the OTHER side of the island, and he can receive the tower !!!
-
The radioshack "Deluxe" discone is good receiving antenna but it's built like crap. It's just not a good quality as they used to be when diamond manufactured them for RS.
Tip - Your gain comes from the Transmit side of the antenna. A discone is a wideband receiving antenna, which is very nice. I would get a J-pole if your gonna transmit, but if not wouldn't worry about it. The trick is to get whatever you get, as high as possible. I am looking at getting a discone and replacing my J-pole because of the horizontal and vertical multidirectional receiving capabilities.
You can get the one at RS for 69.99 and a good chance you will have to replace it in a couple of years, pay 99.99 from Diamond and have it for 20 years. I trust diamond and thats all i use on my ham radios.
http://www.aesham.com
in the search box type in D130J.
Diamond Direct link to see it:
http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/d130j.html
Pointer - never get an antenna with a type N connection. They are usually expensive and the connector is very fragile.
-
Great write-up Chris. I agree with both Chris and Ed--Discones are great, but the Radio Shack design is fair. The URL Ed inserted in his post is also a great discone antenna and should also be considered.
http://www.grove-ent.com/scannerantennas.html
-
My antenna was actually a CB antenna. It had long elements that were cut to proper size using the following equation (found at ARRL 2002 Amateur Radio Handbook):
l = 234 / f
l = elements size in feet
f = frequency in MHz
Since scanning is not a very common activity in Brazil, finding proper antennae can be frustrating. I am not sure wheter I did right, but it is working like a charm ! :D
Cheers,
Ricardo
SBFI
-
If it is a straight vertical, you hit it right. If it is a Vertical with radials, the radials require a different formula to calculate the length. i will look it up and see if i can find it if you need.
-
Ok bone head reply i just went back and looked at your new antenna. Forget i even said anything here.
-
if i may put inn my 2 cents here. My RS magnetic mound radio shack antenna which i have mounted on my outside a/c on the first floor and surrounded by numerous houses and trees can get all 3 nyc airports quite well if you want to save some cash. JFK IS 25 MILES FROM ME LGA IS 8 MILES AND EWR IS 10 MILES and I get both sides of ATC. Would love to get the discone but since we rent it is not feasible. I also have another RS mag mount on my car as I travel about the northeast and get great reception on the airbands unless im in the del water gap area of western jersey. I may one day ask my landlord to see if she would let me hoist an antenna up on the roof of the house and probably get a discone by then when funds are ok(may even set up a feed or 2)for you guy's other than that my magnetic mount RS work quie well as long as you dont have it inside your apt(house w/aluminum siding which in my opinion kills your reception on the air band) someone correct me if i am wrong in assuming this
-
is this the RS antenna you are talking about ?
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F008%5F009%5F010%5F001&product%5Fid=20%2D032
That is what I am temporarely using until I get my discone in, it's not that much better than my stock interior antenna :( but hey it was free and free is good :D
-
That is the antenna that i used for a while. After a while i got sick of it and modified it. You can get a cb replacement antenna and cut it to the lenght you need till you get a discone.
Check this out:
http://www.liveatc.net/forum/download.php?id=96
That is the antenna that you have, with a different whip cut to the length needed for 126.55 mounted on a pizza pan. You need to have it on somekind of pan/plate/vehicle/.... with a steel base, thats what the magnet mount base requires for anykind of reception at all.
If anybody needs an antenna calculator here is one. A 5/8 wave antenna will almost always give you the best reception, learned taht from reading and experience.
Link:
http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennaevcalc.html
-
that is the exact one beetle
-
I tried a pizza pan but for some reason it wouldnt stick to it, now it is sitting on a metallic file cabinet, it did improve reception, but not much. Apparently Dave will not add me to the website until reception gets better, I hope the Discone will make a big difference, let me know if you want the link to my scanner to listen and tell me what you think
-
it has to be a steel pan, not aluminum. You will like the discone, I just know it. they are such nice antennas.
-
Would this be good????
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F001%5F002%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D2152
-
Definatly not. TV Antennas and communications are not happy together. Due to the impediance difference, tv - 75 ohms and radio - 50 ohms, you will have all kinds of losses. Definatly avoid them. Comms "directionals" are a little pricey, but they are good. Ranging anywhere from $100 for a cheap one to the thousands for the good ones, i would look somewhere else unless you have extra money laying around.
-
Okay fellas, thanks for the adive....
How about this one, it's only $50.00.
http://www.grove-ent.com/ANT7.html
I don't need to transmit, just receive
-
That'll work. I know someone who has the scantenna, he loves it. Picks up alot of Socal/ZLA stuff.
-
If you feel like Tim the Toolman you could try building a J-Pole like I did.
http://www.sedan.org/JpoleCALC.htm
http://www.cratedriver.com/J-Pole1.jpg
So far it seems to work really well. :D It was super inexpensive. Just a quick visit to Radioshack and Building supplier.
David (CYXL Feed)
http://audio.liveatc.net:8012/cyxl.m3u
Live atc from 1115Z-0115Z
ATIS after hours