Airport ground comm antennas are not specifically aimed up and aircraft
antennas are not pointed down, they concentrate the signal toward the
horizon. The tower can easily communicate with a high altitude aircraft
to 250mi or more with just a few watts. Your local airport may have
their antenna fairly low and you may have obstructions between you and
the airport and raising your antenna may make the difference. I can pick
up all my local airport ground comms at about 20mi fine with a Discone
at 35ft and there are serious hills between the airport and me.

Al Klein wrote:
On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 17:27:53 -0500, "Robert11"
wrote:


Live about 20 miles due west of Logan Airport (Boston)


I can hear the planes calling Logan just fine, but never, never any comms

from the

Tower, or the facility that hands off the planes to the Tower.


Isn't the transmitted cone of the signal originating from the Tower, or the
other facility, wide enough to encompass
the 20 miles ?


It is, but it's aimed upward (which is where you find airplanes).
Since you're on the ground, you're under the pattern, so you don't
hear anything.


How come I can hear the planes so well ?


Line of sight, and their antennas are aimed downward.