which antenna best for air band civil and military

A place to discuss airband listening, frequencies and anything related to this area of the hobby.
User avatar
tomed
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 339
Joined: 09 Mar 2009, 14:53
Location: North Wales

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by tomed »

grafter wrote:I'd be very interested in the performance of the 777, can you take some signal readings before you replace your existing antenna, maybe on a beacon, Volmet and something on UHF if you can find anything and compare them when the 777 is up.

Another vote here for W103, I use it on everything, the only pain are the N plugs, either splash out on the correct diameter pin variety or get filing on the inner core to make it fit regular plugs.
Will do. The D-777 antenna just arrived and i have to say i'm very impressed by the build quality! Not a cheap antenna but it looks like you get what you pay for! I will try and get it up along with the Westflex 103 in the next couple of days (Weather permitting) and let you know how it preforms. I'll be using a Uniden 3500 so we'll see how that preforms aswell although i've had some good catches with it whilst it's been connected to the scan stick! so it can only improve?
Uniden UBC 9000XLT
User avatar
tomed
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 339
Joined: 09 Mar 2009, 14:53
Location: North Wales

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by tomed »

grafter wrote:I'd be very interested in the performance of the 777, can you take some signal readings before you replace your existing antenna, maybe on a beacon, Volmet and something on UHF if you can find anything and compare them when the 777 is up.

Another vote here for W103, I use it on everything, the only pain are the N plugs, either splash out on the correct diameter pin variety or get filing on the inner core to make it fit regular plugs.
Morning grafter. I managed to put up the D-777 and i'm very impressed. I never realized that the Westflex 103 coax would be so thick! Anyway the D-777 is a big improvement on my last antenna! I made a few comparisions such as.....

Scan Stick...London Control....135-5750 (2 Bars)
D-777....London Control....135-5750 (5 Bars)

Scan Stick....Manchester Centre..118-7750 (2 Bars)
D-777....Manchester Centre..118-7750 (5 Bars)

Scan Stick...London Control...118-8250 (No Bars)
D-777...London Control....118-8250 (3 Bars)

As you can see i've used the signal strength bars on my scanner as an indication of the improvement the antenna made. I could go on as every signal is stronger plus i'm picking up transmissions that were not heard before! Mil air is also more active now! I'm more than happy with the D-777 and of course the Westflex 103 is also a big improvemnet.
Uniden UBC 9000XLT
grafter
Radio Addict
Radio Addict
Posts: 804
Joined: 05 Oct 2007, 06:31

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by grafter »

Glad it's all working well and thanks for the reports, any particularly busy milair frequencies that are worth programming up? Down here in the SE activity is very low so not much of interest to store.
my friend grafter, seems like you are using a very offensive tone in the reply.
User avatar
tomed
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 339
Joined: 09 Mar 2009, 14:53
Location: North Wales

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by tomed »

grafter wrote:Glad it's all working well and thanks for the reports, any particularly busy milair frequencies that are worth programming up? Down here in the SE activity is very low so not much of interest to store.
I live approx 30 miles from Shawbury so pick up quite a bit from there! The mil frequencies i have heard since pting up the D-777 are listed below plus the usual London mil air frequencies.

363-1000
376-6750
369-1250
389-4500
296-7000
241-1000
Uniden UBC 9000XLT
Skirge
Regular
Regular
Posts: 18
Joined: 09 Mar 2014, 11:58

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by Skirge »

Could anyone recomend a duplexer for a Diamond D-777 & a Watson W-50? Prefer a duplexer I could fit at base of aerials.
Many Thanks
paulears
Top Poster
Top Poster
Posts: 1089
Joined: 10 Jun 2007, 22:41
Call Sign: G4RMT
Location: North East Suffolk
Contact:

Re: which antenna best for air band civil and military

Post by paulears »

Never seen a duplexer with these bands sold commercially - it would be a tricky design and probably quite lossy - the usual duplexers just pick a frequency and then split the signals - but your idea needs multiple splits - but, each 'chunk' is also very wideband. Perhaps a combiner? The trouble would be that both these antennas have some output outside their design - so the airband does receive something at ham band frequencies and the ham one does produces some output in the two air bona segments.
Post Reply