Simple 1/2 Wave Dipole for VHF Airband

[@jasonfromAZ]

Thank you for a great video. This is a very effective airband antenna even in rural areas. I'm an Arizona desert dweller living in the hottest section of the Mojave Desert, about three hours from the nearest major city. Right now, I'm using this antenna to hear airband signals coming in clearly over 100 miles away out of the Los Angeles flight area. It didn't work well for me indoors so I turned it into an outdoor antenna by placing surplus tubing from a defunct sprinkler system over the legs, sealing the ends up with a silicone-based caulk and spraying several coats of polyurethane over the entire unit for additional waterproofing. This should help it survive our hot summers.

[@abundantYOUniverse]

Great post!

[@jasonfromAZ]

UPDATE: This antenna is the receiving antenna for the western Arizona aviation scanner feed on Broadcastify @ Lake Havasu City Municipal Airport.

[@robertmortimore3024]

Brilliant yet simple many thanks Andrew from over the Pond.............

[@Theoobovril]

Simple, straightforward and highly effective.

[@Andrewausfa]

And most importantly..cheap! Thanks Theo.

[@nickrolfe367]

Hi I'm in North Wales, if I made one of these should it cover most of the UK? I can only pick up Wirral London control and Liverpool airports right now using a standard RTL SDR antenna that came with the dongle. I do have another antenna a Eightwood 4G LTE Antenna but still just Liverpool and London control. Thanks

[@Andrewausfa]

Hi, not sure if this would work with SDR efficiently across all bands as it's air band specific. It should be OK for normal 'Air' but not for scanning MW through UHF. Does that make sense? I do have an SDR dongle but found it absolutely rubbish so I stick with my 3500XLT. I'm in Cambridgeshire and can pick up Manchester control no issues.

[@nickrolfe367]

@@Andrewausfa Hi okay thanks I'll see what else can be used, thanks.

[@69mercurycyclone44]

Thank you for that simple trick for an antenna! Great video!

[@abundantYOUniverse]

This is exactly what I was looking for thanks a bunch!

[@gonz33-]

Hello, which antenna is better to receive the air band, a Dipole type or a ground plane whip? I want to have the most powerful one to receive 118.0 to 136.0 Mhz. I want the better.

[@MrJimbotz]

Hi fella I know this is an old video but I thought I would ask anyway. Is there a way that I could connect this to my shortwave receiver which has fm airband mode, I bought a sangean indoor retractable long wire but it only just works better than the telescopic antenna on the radio. Thanks for this vid, it’s so simple I would like to give it a go. I’m only three miles from London Luton airport. Thanks.

[@Andrewausfa]

Hi, yes it would be perfect for that, it's the frequency region it's designed for. You should have a very good signal from LTN, may even get ground comms if you're in Harpenden or nearby.

[@RajithaPrabath]

Thank you very much for the video

[@HKey_Root]

Satellite cable is 75ohms - you need 50ohm coax such as RG58 as stated in the vid.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

Wow that’s really busy. I am on the flight path for Manchester airport and hardly get any traffic. Absolutely great project thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I don’t have a loft so no place for an indoor vertical. I have a long wire outside with a fancy remote auto tuner. Unfortunate it’s for HF not VHF. I’m a big fan of the Jpole fore vhf.

[@Andrewausfa]

Hi Chris, similarly I can't keep a long wire up permanently for HF. I have a GR5V 1/2 size which takes ages to string up so I mainly just throw a Clansman long wire (one of those Racal things with the coloured zip ties) up in the conifers, pass it around the bedroom window handle and back down to the FRG-7. When the missus is out! Other than that I just have a second Clansman long wire just going twice around the loft space. Seems to work but I bet would benefit from an ATU. Considering I'm not that far above sea level, I must be in a special place for airband, I regularly hear Scottish Radar or Liverpool ATC. It's busy in the video but that was Heathrow Control on 'Hold' on New Years Day. On weekdays set to scan it's continuous between LHR and STN approach for hours on end.

[@allthegearnoidea6752]

Andrewausfa I wonder if the wife would notice a really thin wire. I had one at the old house that was practically invisible.

[@thehappylittlefoxakabenji8154]

cool I have made something similar when I made a TV antenna with just a ruler and a bit of coax !

[@kentxx12]

Good tip, but WT"F"....do you connect that to a scanner?

[@Andrewausfa]

Ooops sorry for the late reply. Yes, connect to a scanner

[@Theoobovril]

There's a Heathkit R-C Bridge model C-3U up for grabs on eBay, UK seller, has the spring loaded leakage switch control.

[@Andrewausfa]

I'll see how much it goes for and sell one of mine :)

[@nicksmith557]

Great what length for civil/military?

[@Andrewausfa]

Hi I give the lengths in the video

[@SweeneyTTodd]

Excellent , and easy

[@Radiocruncher]

Hi Andrew and thanks for putting this video out there. I put the scanner antenna that I’m using on my antenna analyser in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYmnkJmng6agZtE it proved that it’s resonant on the airband frequencies. As it’s on a mag mount attached to my filing cabinet it’s not ideal. I will have to make time this year to get my discone and triband vertical up. Regards Graham

[@sulochanasatyan7228]

have a diamond ham radio ground plane around 60 feet up connected to my Yaesu ft817nd which pulls in communication from aircrafts flying 200 nautical miles out of VOMM, Chennai fir. I can locate the aircrafts in my flightradar24 app very easily. 73 de vu3mes Satyan