> Yes dumping the squelch obviously allows lots of noise
through but the
> required signal can mostly be heard excepting my Home Base
Wickenby on
> 122.45 but I believe that may be somewhat due to them
using a hand held
Bob,
Everything you have been describing says there is not enough
RF microvolts arriving at the back of the box -- by a wide
margin. How far do you have to go to get within 80-100
miles of Heathrow or Manchester or similar? Be at a few
thousand AGL, dump your squelch if necessary; listen to
aircraft on tower/approach/departure. Keep the field off
the nose, cause that's where your huge null is, caused by
antenna interference. Maybe aggravated by poor coax or BNC
connector. I suspect you'll hear nothing, but you should,
with autosquelch even.
An Archer will fix nothing, and autosquelch is not your
issue, clearly because you're receiving such abysmally low
signal levels. Consider giving the suggested flight a try.
As to hearing handhelds, there's a 5-plane banner towing
operation here where everybody uses a handheld, like ground
crew. The boss uses one. The guys in the planes use them.
Skip the reasons they must use them, but it's a necessary
situation which by default puts them 5-6 miles out at 1,000
AGL. If they couldn't be heard, and they're typically 2W
carrier, the company owner wouldn't buy everybody handhelds.
I live adjacent to the field and can hear them also at home
on my airband scanner.
Reg,
Fred F.
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