I've got an Icom IC-R2 and my goal is to hear military air/air
conversation
which seems vey difficult. I even have some difficulties listening to
civil
ATC.


I usually only hear commercial pilots, flying close to my position, and i
don't get the replies from the ATC (they're on ground level).

It depends on how high the antennas are. The planes at 30,000 feet will
have a range of 200 or so miles. The towers and planes on the ground will
only have a range of a few miles. This is assuming your antenna is only a
few feet off the ground. If it is 20 feet up you may hear the towers at 10
miles or so.

Robert wrote:
"GeorgeF"


An excellent non-directional
antenna for everything 30 MHz and above is the Antennawarehouse.com
ScanTenna.


For you and Burr (if he sees this): How do those things hold up?
Since I got a 2-meter rig, I'm considering either: getting a dedicated
2-meter antenna and keeping the discone on the 780, or B: using the discone
with the 2-meter and getting a Scantenna. The only criticism I've seen of
the Scantenna is they seem to be a bit flimsy - what say ya'all?


Yes they seem a bid flimsy as they are made from the same "rolled
aluminum" which TV antenna elements are made from. However I've had one
up at 20' for 2 1/2 years here in Florida (along the coast no less)
which has seen several tropical storms. No bent elements yet.

Personally for the price I don't mind they are a bit more flimsy than
most discones simply because the outpreform a discone at least 2 to 1.

George
http://www.MilAirComms.com

"GeorgeF" wrote in message
news:3F0C1BFF.1070907@licensed4funREMOVEBEFOREFLIG HT.com...


Robert wrote:
"GeorgeF"


An excellent non-directional
antenna for everything 30 MHz and above is the Antennawarehouse.com
ScanTenna.


For you and Burr (if he sees this): How do those things hold up?
Since I got a 2-meter rig, I'm considering either: getting a dedicated
2-meter antenna and keeping the discone on the 780, or B: using the
discone
with the 2-meter and getting a Scantenna. The only criticism I've seen
of
the Scantenna is they seem to be a bit flimsy - what say ya'all?


Yes they seem a bid flimsy as they are made from the same "rolled
aluminum" which TV antenna elements are made from. However I've had one
up at 20' for 2 1/2 years here in Florida (along the coast no less)
which has seen several tropical storms. No bent elements yet.

Sounds good - my discone is up 30' and has survived a brush with a
tornado; what's the sq. footage of the Scantenna, if you know?

Personally for the price I don't mind they are a bit more flimsy than
most discones simply because the outpreform a discone at least 2 to 1.

I'm convinced there are two different RS discones out there; I don't
see how I could get any better performance from mine. If the Scantenna does
perform better, I'll be pleasantly surprised.



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Robert wrote:
Yes they seem a bid flimsy as they are made from the same "rolled
aluminum" which TV antenna elements are made from. However I've had one
up at 20' for 2 1/2 years here in Florida (along the coast no less)
which has seen several tropical storms. No bent elements yet.


Sounds good - my discone is up 30' and has survived a brush with a
tornado; what's the sq. footage of the Scantenna, if you know?


That I don't know, sorry.



Personally for the price I don't mind they are a bit more flimsy than
most discones simply because the outpreform a discone at least 2 to 1.


I'm convinced there are two different RS discones out there; I don't
see how I could get any better performance from mine. If the Scantenna does
perform better, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

You'll be more than pleasantly surprised. You'll find many others on
this groups have also had both Discones and ScanTannas and nearly
everyone perfers the ScanTenna after trying it.

When I first got into Milair listening I bought Discones thinking they
were the best. After all that was what most scanner people were buying.
And the Military uses a lot of discones. Also back in the 70's the
FAA use to use a lot of discones at towers and approach control
facilities. So if the Gov't used them my thought is they must be the
best.... However you need to remember. The reason they are used by the
Military is because of their flat SWR response over a wide range for
freqs. Discones also receive signals which are located High in the Sky
such as aircraft. However for reaching out over teh horizon they're not
as good which means for even long distant signals they aren't as good.

George
http://www.MilAirComms.com