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Aviation antenna


onefastneonrt,
Just depends on what you want to do, or where you want to hear. There are some things that you should be aware of concerning aviation radio. It's AM, except for navigation stuff and some military communications. And, polarization is usually vertical. The biggy is that it's "line of sight" VHF/UHF, and antenna height makes much more difference than does antenna 'gain'. There are other peculiarities, but those are the ones to remember.
So, a sort of 'dirt' common 1/4w at the desired frequency (or at least in the band) would probably 'do' just fine. That depends on how far you are from the airport too (or the planes you want to hear). The size/length of a 1/4 wave at 108 - 136 Mhz is something on the order of 23 inches (for 122 Mhz +/-). Call it 2 feet. [234 / f{Mhz} = Feet]
This is for receiving only, not really suitable for transmitting, so don't. (For a lot of reasons.:))
That ought'a get you into the ball park. Antenna height is THE biggy!
If you're not too close to the airport, a directional antenna would be nice, if it's high enough.
- 'Doc

PS - Make that antenna about 4" longer and have a nice FM broadcast band antenna too! It'll still work for aviation stuff.
 
Thanks for the tips there W5LZ. I knew that the air band was AM but was not sure if there were anything special about antenna design. I am currently running a discone at 15Ft., which seems to work fine but I have difficulty hearing the air traffic control center. I am about 30 miles away the airport and 15 miles away from ATCC. I think my problem might be that the ATCC remotely transmits from another location. I am trying to listen to the Cleveland center (KZOB) but their signals seem to be very weak. I don't know but I'll try some different stuff out though, once again thanks.
 
onefastneonrt,
I would think that it's a pretty safe bet that KZOB has several remote antenna sites, most ATCs do, along with the Flight Service Centers now.
Your discone ought to handle the frequency spread just fine. Of course, having it at 150 feet instead of 15 feet would make it MUCH better (yeah, right). Oh well, if you had everything you wish you had there wouldn't be anything to look forward to, would there?
Not the same thing at all, but I had the chance to try a VHF antenna at 150 feet yesterday (as compared to my 'normal' one at about 15 feet)! The difference was amazing. 5 watt transmitters at over 100 miles heard very nicely. Wasn't even an antenna in the right band, but who cares, it worked.
- 'Doc

More of that doesn't matter stuff! I can honestly say I have about 4 minutes of 'left-hand seat' time in a 747! They drug me kicking and crying out of that seat, or I'd have had even more of that 'quality' time! They got worried cuz I kept asking where the ignition switch was...
 
I've had good luck with a 1/4 wave gp, but I can hear aircraft a lot better than some of the ATC transmitters, several of which are several miles from the airport. Even the airport transmitters are very low power and are sometimes marginal depending on background noise. (it's AM after all)

The higher the better, and if you want to go to the trouble, you could always phase the ground plane and a 3 element yagi pointed at the remote transmitters you want to hear. The resulting pattern would be keyhole shaped , better omni than just a beam. Get yourself an antenna book, your measurements making the cabling need to be close.
 

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