MilTenna Antenna Product Review
An antenna designed for the UHF MilAir band (225-400 MHz) in which the
designer himself says its impossible to receive MilAir sigs from 100
miles away unless you're up 2,500'.....

Do Not Waste Your $62.95 Before Reading This!

Get the full review at http://www.MilAirComms.com

George Daytona Beach, FL
http://www.MilAirComms.com

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 20:25:16 GMT, GeorgeF
wrote:

MilTenna Antenna Product Review
An antenna designed for the UHF MilAir band (225-400 MHz) in which the
designer himself says its impossible to receive MilAir sigs from 100
miles away unless you're up 2,500'.....

Do Not Waste Your $62.95 Before Reading This!

Get the full review at http://www.MilAirComms.com


Nothing surprising there.

Just search Google for antennas with a high angle of radiation, then
use one of the many online calculators to center in on Milair band.

You can make one for less than $30 in Home Depot parts.

Even the Radio Shack 1/4 wave works fine on Milair when cut properly.

Why would you want a mil air antenna with a high angle of radiation? At
an extreme distance you would want the pattern at the horizon.
Mike



Nothing surprising there.

Just search Google for antennas with a high angle of radiation, then
use one of the many online calculators to center in on Milair band.

You can make one for less than $30 in Home Depot parts.

Even the Radio Shack 1/4 wave works fine on Milair when cut properly.

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:26:44 GMT, Mike
wrote:

Why would you want a mil air antenna with a high angle of radiation? At
an extreme distance you would want the pattern at the horizon.
Mike

Depends on what you are listening to.

For distance, yes. You would want a 5/8 wave to maximize the horizon.

For local use, I'd want the high angle of radiation to capture more of
the sky.

Given that aircraft or satellite at a "high angle"
are nearly overhead, you can use a 5/8 wave
to catch those on the horizon and those overhead.
I used a 5/8 cut for the 136.n weather satellites
with very good coverage. On passes that went
diredctly (withn 2 or 3 degrees, I had to use a
horizontal dipole. There were a lot more like
maybe 30:1) high angle, but not directly overhead
passes then driectly overhead. Then I went to a QDH
and it receives overhead and on the horizon. Check
out QST, or do a web search, for construction details.
I have made one for milair, but ahven;t had a chance
to test it. I am in the middle of a maojor shack redesign
and rebuild. so it is going to be a while.
Shucks, even a ~20 years old radio shack discone
does a good job on milair, ad a not so bad job for
wX sats.
Terry

More of the sky? An aircraft could never get high enough, even directly
overhead not to be heard with a low angle antenna. I have communicated
with aircraft on VHF out to 200mi runing a 5w transceiver and a 1/4
wavelength antenna right on the transceiver. Signals were perfect copy
and virtually unchanged until the last few minutes of travel as the
aircraft headed away from me. GPS was used to determine distance. On
another occasion, the exact same radio was used with a large (11dBD
gain) yagi antenna and the distance obtained was about 250mi. Signals
held in a little longer but the ultimate distance was not much more. The
yagi pointed away from the aircraft at close distance and directly below
picked them up just fine. Bottom line is, if your antenna is in the
clear of obstructions, you should pick up aircraft from very high
altitude overhead and out to the horizon + a little more with no
problem. Unless something is broken...
Mike


Right Rev. Ronnie wrote:
On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 19:26:44 GMT, Mike
wrote:


Why would you want a mil air antenna with a high angle of radiation? At
an extreme distance you would want the pattern at the horizon.
Mike


Depends on what you are listening to.

For distance, yes. You would want a 5/8 wave to maximize the horizon.

For local use, I'd want the high angle of radiation to capture more of
the sky.