KB9VBR Airband J-Pole (Click image to enlarge)
The airband J-Pole antenna is tuned for the 118 – 128 MHz aircraft aviation band. Aviation fans prefer this antenna as it works well picking up both land based and airborne transmitters. Many Live-ATC sites are using this antenna to stream aviation transmissions to the Internet. This antenna will give you about 2.5 db of gain more than what you would get with a discone antenna. The antenna has a two piece design with a screw connector in the middle for easy transport and storage. Overall length of the antenna is about 80 inches with the 11 inch mounting section on the bottom.
A couple of advantages to using the J-Pole for aviation work is that it has a very low noise floor and has a RF receive/transmit radiation pattern that is sort of donut shaped. It does an excellent job at picking up signals at and above the horizon line. That means you should have no problem receiving tower transmissions from miles away as well as the aircraft transmissions from 100 miles or more.
KB9VBR Airband J-Pole disassembled (Click to enlarge)
I normally tune this antenna to about 125MHz, which gives it enough bandwidth to cover the entire aircraft band. But if you wish to have the antenna centered on a specific frequency, like your local airport’s UNICOM freq, please let me know when you order it and I’ll build one to suit.
The (airband) J-pole works fantastically great. I’m receiving crystal clear transmissions that I couldn’t before. I’m 10 miles from the airport on a hill, but the airport is on a hill as well with the Seattle skyscrapers between us. Reception is stellar. – Garrett
Michael I have hooked this antenna up using the RG-8 cable and have went from picking up maybe 10 air traffic channels to 148 air traffic channels. I love this antenna even if it just mounted on the beam in front of my one story house. It picks up almost too much. My scanner is working overtime right now. – Scott B.
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