Discone vs. dedicated Airband antenna?

[GlynH]

Hi there,

I have a WinRadio G305e - great piece of kit!

This is connected to a Royal Discone mounted on a pole on my chimney and is fed by 10m Westflex 103.

The gain on the Discone is supposed to be 4.5dBi over a standard Discone - at whatever frequency that might be?

As I listen a lot on Civilian & Military airband I was wondering what sort of difference I could expect if I installed a dedicated Civ/Mil airband antenna such as the Moonraker AR30/AR50 or a Watson/Diamond D-777 (or the bigger brother I have seen in the shop at W&S but not on their website)?

I have seen claims of 3/6dBi for the AR30, 4.5/7dBi for the AR50, 3.5/5.5dBi for the D-777 which I would think are for 120MHz & 300MHz respectively.

Claims are all well & good but in real terms what difference, if any would there be between one of these and my existing Royal Discone at 120MHz/300MHz respectively?

Thanks & regards,
-=Glyn=-

[Keith D]

Hi

Dedicated antennas every time over a cop-out discone

these guys also make good antennas

http://www.ssejim.co.uk/28-vhfairbandant.htm

and

http://www.sandpiperaerials.co.uk/

there folded J antennas are also getable for airbandor atleast there where
with these you need the professional versions if you are putting outside
standard will not stand the strong winds

if you want to go foreign these guys make first class products

http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_vhf_air.html

i have there ADS_B antenna  its brilliant you will have to pay import duty on these from the states also


cheers

K/

[chrisg0wtz]

Hi Glyn

Hope you are well!
I have just put the comet up and have to say blown away with its performance
PM me your email adress and I will email a recording I made las week under lift conditions!
The other antenna I have used for getting longer range and particular airports is the LPM1300 log periodic (Not cheap when you add a rotator).
I live in Watford and with the Comet I am listening to East Midland (With noise) and on UHF getting the ground stuff at heathrow on 455.550.Also just heard some stuff at Brize Norton and RAF Halton so not Bad.
Hope that helps. The D-777 is good as well just we had more Comets than Diamond when I wanted to put up an antenna.

BTW what was your RB website adress? (PM will do if you dont want hundreds of hits)

Cheers

Chris

[GlynH]

Hey Chris,

I'm OK thanks...a little punch drunk from working too hard maybe.

Hows things with you?

I really should setup notification so I know when a post has been replied to so apologies for the late response.

I've just looked and notification is switched on already but I don't seem to get any...

I am interested in anything that will increase the signal for Civ/Mil Airband so might pop in and see you later this week if I get a minute?

Don't want to go down the rotator route any more - just looking for a good omni.

Oh and maybe another 1090MHz antenna also - do you have anything better than the Watson I am using at the moment?

I get Brize from here (being much closer than you) and recorded some exchanges between the tower and Vulcan the other week - Vulcan audio was over-modulated/distorted though which was a shame...

My RadarBox website address is;

http://www.glyn.me/radarbox

I've seen many familiar 'faces' here but can I really expect hundreds of hits? ;^)

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[GlynH]

Thanks for the reply Keith,

Cop-out Discone it may be but it works reasonably well over a wide bandwidth which is something that dedicated antennae would struggle to achieve...

The SSEJim stuff has always appealed - nearly bought their 1090MHz antenna but ended up with the Watson instead.

I wonder how the dedicated Airband antenna would compare to my Royal Discone though?

I emailed the dealer who I bough the Discone from who incidentally also sells dedicated airband antennas and he seemed to think I would not hear much difference at all...

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[chrisg0wtz]

Glyn

Pop in for a coffee and look at the antennas
I am spoilt here at 450 foot ASL but the shop is low down so a fairer test

I think the BS1105 is the best antenna but ask folk

See you soon

Chris

[Hamish McTorsk]

I think the BS1105 is the best antenna but ask folk

I have both the, Fixed Site Antenna and mobile version of the 1105, very good kit.

[GlynH]

Glyn

Pop in for a coffee and look at the antennas
I am spoilt here at 450 foot ASL but the shop is low down so a fairer test

I think the BS1105 is the best antenna but ask folk

See you soon

Chris

I would do but I'm not supposed to be taking sugar and without it your coffee is rubbish! ;^)

Only chance I might get this week is tomorrow depending on how things go...

Kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

[GlynH]

I think the BS1105 is the best antenna but ask folk

I have both the, Fixed Site Antenna and mobile version of the 1105, very good kit.

A friend of mine has the BS1105 that he bought for his SBS-1 and works just as well on his RadarBox.

He uses an Elad preamp with his and regularly sees 500-600 aircraft on screen in MyFlights.

We are both 450+ feet amsl on arguably the highest points around the outskirts of town and have always had excellent Radio/TV/CB/SSB/Mode-S reception etc. etc.

I tried the Kuhne here but MyFlights actually went down from 400-500 aircraft to 150 :-(

I usually see 2500-3000 unique Mode-S aircraft from my location every day based upon the usual 400-500 aircraft actively seen in MyFlights at any one time but the Kuhne would probably have killed that...

I thought that maybe the Kuhne in conjunction with the Watson was somehow overloading the front end or swamping the weaker signals...not sure if that is possible?

Seems odd that I can still pick up aircraft over France, Belgium & The Netherlands from my location in the Midlands with or without the Kuhne in-line which seems to negate the swamping weak signals theory.

Maybe a lower gain antenna might work better with the Kuhne?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-