Hi all,
I'm thinking of getting the following antenna for listening to the airbands on my scanner.
http://dpdproductions.com/page_miltenna.html#mtuvomniI'm just wondering though.. If they have it tuned for two bands eg. UHF 225-400 MHz and 118-137 MHz Air, does that decrease it's signal quality for one or the other?
I live about 12nm away from the airport but i'm not line of sight. Currently I'm using a Mag Mount Air band antenna (118-137 MHz) but my ground plane isn't good and I doubt I'm getting the signal I would normally get had I been using a proper ground plane. I'm also using it indoors. The result is that I'm unable to hear ground operations and the control tower. I'm able to hear the ATIS pretty well, and the Director operations etc but I also get a lot of static, and it's pretty directional. Even if I place the mag mount on the ground on the veranda, it's not much improvement. I've been using a biscuit tin lid as the ground plane but I understand to be affective it needs to be at least one wave length in size which I believe is about 2 metres in diameter. This isn't feasible for me hence my wanting to get a proper outdoor antenna that doesn't need a ground plane.
I'll be mounting this on my veranda.
Basically, I want to maximize my listening quality. I want to hear ground operations, the tower, and aircraft, and I want it to be really clear.
Is this possible if they've tuned the antenna to two different frequency bands? I only have about 1.5 metres of clearance so I can't get a proper VHF antenna.
What do you think my success will be with this antenna?