In article , Michael Melland
wrote:

Looking for opinions..... seems conventional wisdom indicates a discone.
There are active antennas covering this range too. Any opinions or
recommendations ?

Mike

Depends on what you're listning to--

You can get a log-periodic to cover that range (Create makes one). You
can go the discone route.

The LP has gain, and needs to be pointed.

The discone doesn't exhibit gain (over isotropic), and the radiation
pattern changes with frequency. In particular, the take-off angle
increases with frequency. If you have 25 MHz as your low point, by the
time you get to 440, the main lobe is going to be around 50 degrees.
Oh, and the discone, along with ground-plane antennas, has a pretty
good null directly vertical from the antenna. Makes it kind of a pain
for satellite work, when your antenna has a sharp null when the bird is
directly overhead!

For info on discones, see for example, the RSGB VHF/UHF manual.
Discones are covered in section 8.37, and log periodics are in section
8.21. The RSGB book gives a lucid explanation of construction if you
want to roll your own, and for 440 MHz and up, that's pretty easy and
pretty small.

I use a pair of discones, one for the lower end of things (50-250 MHz
or so), and a second for the higher end (440-1300 MHz). I also have an
eggbeater (from m2) for 137 and 144 MHz birds.

And don't skimp on the feedline -- LM400 is a good starting point.

--
Namaste-