airtraffic

Author Topic: antennas  (Read 6273 times)

Offline smithmi

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 17
antennas
« on: December 29, 2005, 09:34:18 AM »
I have two antenna things to ask about:

1: I am looking in to buying a Radio Shack "Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna" is that a good buy?

I live about 20 miles away form KABE, but it is hilly I am higher then the airport and I would like to get the aircraft on the ground. Right now I  get :

ground(no aircraft), tower(aircraft) and the Approach(aircraft)

sorry but I have one more thing to ask:

I already have one antenna but I saw some people have 2 I would like to keep both working at the same time but I have only 1 scanner can I hook 2 antennas in to one scanner?

Thank you for your help.



Offline Jason

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1260
  • CFI/CFII
Re: antennas
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2005, 11:28:58 AM »
Quote from: smithmi
I have two antenna things to ask about:

1: I am looking in to buying a Radio Shack "Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna" is that a good buy?


It is alright, but a discone might be a better way to go.  I also have an extra one of the antenna you asked about if you'd like me to send it, I'll ship it to you free of cost if it's going towards a new feed.

Quote from: smithmi
I live about 20 miles away form KABE, but it is hilly I am higher then the airport and I would like to get the aircraft on the ground. Right now I  get :

ground(no aircraft), tower(aircraft) and the Approach(aircraft)

sorry but I have one more thing to ask:

I already have one antenna but I saw some people have 2 I would like to keep both working at the same time but I have only 1 scanner can I hook 2 antennas in to one scanner?

Thank you for your help.


Any adapter/power splitter you use will cause loss in the signal.  Most if not all of our feeds receive controllers and pilots.  To receive aircraft, is only a matter of having line-of-site (VHF) with that aircraft.

Thanks,
Jason

Offline bcrosby

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 333
    • Fly With Blake
antennas
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2005, 01:32:10 PM »
Im thinking of building this one:

http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=9731

Cheap and not a big deal if it doesn't work out.

BMT

  • Guest
Antennas
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2005, 02:13:08 PM »
I have an antenna like described by BCrosby, it's cut for 225-400. One of my best antennas.

BMT

Offline dave

  • Site Founder
  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4597
    • LiveATC.net
antennas
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2005, 02:58:17 PM »
A groundplane is a relatively narrowband antenna...it can not cover 225-400 MHz.  Not that it won't work, but it won't work optimally across that frequency range.  For a receiving application like this, though, it may not matter.  YMMV.

Offline bcrosby

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 333
    • Fly With Blake
antennas
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2005, 09:19:43 PM »
yeah, the idea being that you cut the antenna for the SPECIFIC frequency you want, not a range.

The freqs that I am hoping to be able to pick up are within 0.5Mhz to 1Mhz apart, so it should work fine.