I went to assess the site tonight on airband. I am already pretty familiar with the site's capabilities from past ham radio activities.
Using an existing 146 MHz antenna (too short to be resonant on airband) at about 70 feet in the air, and a very low loss feedline (hardline), I was able to pick up the following interesting things:
- All the Boston Center transmitters in Woodstock, CT (133.425, 127.825, 124.85) - ~52 air miles
- Boston Center transmitters from Gardner, MA (123.75, 134.7) - 25 air miles
- All Boston Tower and Approach facilities (a/c on the ground at Boston barely audible) - 27 air miles
- Everything at KBED (including all a/c on the ground, and loud); KBED virtually line of sight and 12 miles away
- Worcester Tower and Bradley Approach 119.0 - 20 miles away
- Providence Approach 135.4 - almost 50 miles away
I didn't have time to check much else...some of the Center frequencies I wanted to check were too quiet at that time of day (e.g., 128.75). There is a reasonable chance of picking that up when I put a real airband antenna on the tower.
I will install a scanner beam (pointed southwest toward CT) and a plain aviation band vertical at the 75-80 foot level on the tower in the next two weeks. I plan to power-split them initially but eventually may just have them feed two separate banks of scanners. The tower already has spare hardline (very low-loss coaxial cable) installed.
This will be an excellent receive site with many feeds coming from here in the next two months.
-Dave