Scanner Ariel

[ukdean]

HELP

I need a good scanner areil. The scanner i have is a psr 282. I recently got a new areil which is absolutely rubbish. It extends to about 4ft so i thought it would have a good reception. The fact is i struggle to hear the tower at lhr when im located at the viewing area next to 27r.

My previous areil broke and could pick lhr tower up from over 10 miles away.

Any ideas. its going to be sunny this week and i need a good areil....

PLEASE HELP, THANKS IN ADVANCE

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Four feet sounds wrong. Is it vertical or horizontal? A simple quarter-wave vertical antenna would be about 2 feet long. If you use a longer aerial which is not properly matched the receiver will not unction correctly.

The PSR-282 is a very basic wideband receiver which is probably designed to work just with the "rubber duck" aerial provided. If you use a larger aerial at a place which is full of RF (eg Heathrow) the receiver will almost certainly be blocked by all the transmissions.

Lastly, keep in mind the legal aspects of your activities.

[ukdean]

THANKS HD,

Can you recommend a good areil, not to sure if its vertical or horizontal i spose i purchased it because of its size.....

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

The various dealers should be able to help you. I make my radio aerials myself - far cheaper! Horizontal aerials will not work too well as airband transmissions are vertically polarised so all aerials should be vertical.

[ukdean]

Vertical it is then. How can i boost its range.You seem to be the master of aviation.

[goldox]

I have bought various aerials from Maplins, all seem to do a reasonable job - and depending on the scanner being used of course. I have a Yupi MVT7100 and Uniden Bearcat 3500XLT. Both work very well for reasonable priced sets. Yupi also picks up HF from Shanwick Oceanic etc. using a simple long wire aerial in garage roof.

One aerial has 4 x varying length aerials combined in one unit, works very well mounted high up inside my garage. Another is telescopic, and for airband works best extended to about 18-24 inches.

Heathrow Director:

From a 2nd floor flat in West London I can pick up Heathrow Ground controllers only on AM, but switching to VHF around 455 mhz I clearly hear both controller and aircraft taxying around, stand info, takeoff clearance etc. Any idea why this shoud be? Do they actually transmit on 455mhz ... or is it some sort of signal "echo" from the AM frequncy?

( - and keeping in mind the legal aspects of all this as usual).

[ukdean]

GOLDOX,

What areil would you suggest from maplin.

Cheers for your help

[goldox]

I feel I shouldn't "suggest" as such but refer to the one I bought! Works very well, but remembering of course such factors as line of sight to transmission, capabilities of receiver/scanner etc. all affect performance.

Sky Scan Mobile Scanner Antenna : Scanner Accessories : Maplin (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29733)

My wife's uncle (RIP) was a great radio ham and as HD mentions, made his own aerials which were customised to the job and out-performed anything to be bought ready made, and cheaper.

You pays yer money and takes yer choice ...... as they say.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Goldox. At many major airfields, vehicles operating on the manouevring area, e.g. aircraft tugs, safety service vehicles, lawn mowers, etc., use UHF. The UHF frequency is linked to the appropriate VHF frequency such that whenever anyone transmits on either frequency they will be heard on the other. The reason for this is lost (to me) in the mists of time but it maybe because the drivers of those vehicles are not licenced to operate in the airband. The man sitting on GMC hears all the stations, apparently on one frequency, but in the case of severe interference he can deselect the cross-coupling system so he does not hear on the UHF channel.

ukdean... Just make sure you get an aerial to cover the frequencies you are interested in. VHF and UHF are far more "aerial critical" than HF. For HF you can throw up any fairly long wire and get results but if you have a wrongly matched aerial on VHF it can seriously degrade signal reception.

Lastly, we are currently just into this year's Sporadic E season. During the next couple of months some VHF transmissions maybe heard over very considerable distances instead of just line of sight.