Broadsword Slim Jim VHF Air Band Antenna Review

This antenna has been designed primarily for VHF Air Band reception, and my tests showed it to perform well. I would be happy using this as a VHF Air only antenna, although I noted that it outperformed my reference antenna up to around 164 MHz.
I DO NOT recommend using this antenna for UHF Mil Air reception. Although it will receive strong local signals, it will miss a lot of transmissions because it is not designed for the UHF air band band.
You may also be interested in a previous video I made, testing the D1000 VHF air band portable antenna (see • Broadsword D1000 Civ M... ).
Darren from Broadsword offers multiple Slim Jims for sale, and you can specify the frequency you want it to work best on. He also makes transmit capable 2m & 70cm versions.
You can view his selection of handmade antennas on his Facebook shop ( / broadsword-antennas-94... ) or eBay ( www.ebay.co.uk...)
The antenna was tested with RTL-SDR v3 dongles which US viewers can order from amzn.to/2NIGGGZ (SDR only) / amzn.to/2Zn9vhs (SDR + antenna kit) and worldwide viewers can get from www.rtl-sdr.co...
Thanks for watching the Frugal Radio (FR) channel!

[@darrenshiels2820]

Cheers for doing the testing and the video. Just so people are aware the Mil aspect of this antenna is secondary and is on the 2nd harmonic of the antenna. Broadsword do a mil air version which is smaller and centred around 290mhz and so works better on uhf/mil air.

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for the clarification.

[@enavitalia]

I have bought several airband orientated antenna's, base and mobile, from Broadsword and the last one I purchased, a 1 meter vertical, with decent receive only cable has superb reception.

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for the report!

[@jtc51]

Keep the reviews coming their great to see.

[@FrugalRadio]

Thanks for the feedback John.

[@bdmvy]

I just finished building an airband Slim Jim out of an old FM Wide Band 300 ohm twin lead. The tuner to dipole section of twin lead was just long enough for the 164.4 cm piece of twin required for the airband centered on 125 MHz. I used some scrap RG58 and an old bnc connector scavenged from my ham radio parts box. I travel extensively and always carry a scanner, handy talky, ADSB receiver and a dedicated tablet loaded with aviation software. I hold a US and South African PPL but not current. I do like to know where I am and how I'm getting there. My BC 125 was unable to pick up the TUS ATIS from my back yard, a distance of 15 miles. I have tried all the very best scanner wide band ham/scanner rubber duckies and even a recently acquired Abree tactical for 2M /440 and doesn't break the squelch. Even a couple of 2M mobile Larsen antennas ..zip. I hung the Slim Jim up on a closeline 5 feet off the ground and I immediately picked up ATIS full quieting. I was very impressed and wondered if anyone had done the same and did a search and found your video. I have been looking for an antenna I can surreptitiously pack in my carry on back pack and use while at the gate so I can monitor all the airport frequencies and be alert of any issue which may affect my travel. I have had a number of instances where I have been able to book an alternative flight before the flight I was booked on was canceled for a weather or a mechanical, before it was announced. At one airport on a tropical Island, while waiting for a homebound flight, I discovered that a commuter had crash landed on the runway and my inbound plane was being diverted to an airport that I new would result in a cancellation. I was rebooked back at my hotel before they announced the cancellation at the airport. I am trying to figure out where you are based and I am guessing possibly Ulster... Thanks for a very interesting channel. Bob

[@imalebowski]

Disappointed at the cable choice for the slim jim but a solid review. Thanks for the heads up. I bought a D881 after seeing your D1000 review, quite glad I did. Performance is similar to my moonraker scantenna but obviously much more portable. I'm very happy with it.

[@FrugalRadio]

That's great to hear. I'm glad the D881 has been working out. I expect if you were to message Darren, he would make you up a Slim Jim with better coax :-)

[@darrenshiels2820]

have made and tested the slim jims with a variety of different coax's including mini 8, rg 8, westflex etc and in my testing I found no evidence to suggest any of these gave any better performance than rg174. The main purpose and reason behind the slims are that they are versatile and can be rolled up and placed in a pocket/bag for day trips or simply put away at home when not in use. To do this with westflex 100 rg8 etc would be more difficult and so you are going from a roll up and go antenna that weighs very little to a antenna that is going to take up more space and weight in you rucksack. I do make a number of base station antennas on which I use rg8 etc

[@FabioSpelta]

Thanks for the video mate, well done. Now I think a lot of people would know how to make your DIY antenna 📶 😉

[@FrugalRadio]

I am planning a short video on that sometime!

[@SteveMasonCanada]

@@FrugalRadio Would love to see it. It appears to be a pretty good performer.

[@robertburns202]

Did you make vid of your own antenna looking for one or guide to one that will cover civil air band either in loft or can do with pvc pipe to put out in a fence cheers. Only for a hand held uniden 125 tia

[@chris_dixon]

Thanks for the video. As a newer radio user I was wondering what is the best practice for using a number of different antenna. I recall in another video you had a box that was switching or combining the antenna?

[@FrugalRadio]

Hi Chris. I have a device known as an active multicoupler. It takes the incoming signal from 1 antenna, and splits it to multiple receivers without any signal loss. In my case I can feed 8 scanners / SDRs with 1 aerial. It is very useful if running multiple devices. But if you are wanting to listen to specific bands, dedicated antennas are better as they have more gain. In that case you could use an antenna switch.

[@hughblemings7227]

Frugal Radio thanks for the review, would be interested to hear more about the multicoupler, is there a particular one you use/recommend ? 73

[@FrugalRadio]

@@hughblemings7227 Hi. I'm using the Stridsberg MCA 208. Not a very frugal device at over $330, but it does a superb job in replicating the antenna to 8 receivers at a time. I also use a multicoupler designed for TV which uses F connectors. This was a very frugal option at under $20, and has 12 ports. It adds a little noise to the signal, but that is forgivable given it's price!

[@hughblemings7227]

Frugal Radio nice one, thank you for the pointers, much appreciated!

[@TaroIkai]

Thanks for this review. Is your N9TAX slim jim customized for airband? If so, how does this Broadsword Slim Jim to compare to the N9TAX version?

[@FrugalRadio]

Good question! The N9TAX I had was set up for 2m / 70cm. I'm not sure I ever used it for airband, but I have since lost that antenna and can't do a direct side-by-side comparison.

[@timdbl7804]

HI, thanks for the interesting video. Do you have a balun (choke-balun?) at the feedpoint of the bow-tie?

[@FrugalRadio]

No, just connected straight through.

[@davinhunt7558]

Cool stuff!

[@FrugalRadio]

Yep!

[@ruidelgado5294]

Which one works best? The Slim Jim or the D1000?

[@FrugalRadio]

I haven't actually tried a direct comparison between them, as they are designed to be used differently.