I would start with a base antenna, for aircraft. 108~138MHz. Most anything
available is very expensive, commercial grade, products. They treat the
aircraft band like it's a black art, or something...and in fact, it's very
simple.

I'd make it out of stainless steel, heavy enough to stand the worst of
storms. Start with an omni-directional, because you never know where the
airplanes are. Then possibly offer a directional high-gain yagi (beam)
design, for those wishing to pull in distant airports. If they're targeting
only one specific airport, they wouldn't even need a rotor.

It's unfortunate the amateur radio people are discouraging you. That's what
the hobby used to be all about...home brew. Not just antennas, but radios
too!

Bill Crocker


wrote in message
oups.com...

Thanks for you postive words. I am by no means an expert, but have been
studying alot about them.

As far as single band goes, what band do you guys use the most? What
would you like to have, something portable? something with very high
gain? I can build high gain yagi's too but they are only good generally
in one direction unless you have a rotor.

I really appreciate your guy's advice. Several other groups including
some of those in the ham group told me it would not work. I started
getting interested in all this by wanting to build my own ham antenna.

Bill Crocker wrote:
I would start with a base antenna, for aircraft. 108~138MHz. Most
anything
available is very expensive, commercial grade, products. They treat
the
aircraft band like it's a black art, or something...and in fact, it's
very
simple.

I'd make it out of stainless steel, heavy enough to stand the worst
of
storms. Start with an omni-directional, because you never know where
the
airplanes are. Then possibly offer a directional high-gain yagi
(beam)
design, for those wishing to pull in distant airports. If they're
targeting
only one specific airport, they wouldn't even need a rotor.

It's unfortunate the amateur radio people are discouraging you.
That's what
the hobby used to be all about...home brew. Not just antennas, but
radios
too!

Bill Crocker


wrote in message
oups.com...

Thanks for you postive words. I am by no means an expert, but have
been
studying alot about them.

As far as single band goes, what band do you guys use the most?
What
would you like to have, something portable? something with very
high
gain? I can build high gain yagi's too but they are only good
generally
in one direction unless you have a rotor.

I really appreciate your guy's advice. Several other groups
including
some of those in the ham group told me it would not work. I started
getting interested in all this by wanting to build my own ham
antenna.

So maybe build a ground plane cut for the center of the aircraft band?
I could build an antenna strong enough to stop a tank if I wanted to.
The problem become weight and shipping the thing.

Do you know of some examples of antennas out there? Would someone want
one tuned to the tower frequency only?