Radarspotting

I've had my SBS-3 for a few weeks but needed an antenna to get ACARS messages so I built my own based on the design at:
http://chrusion.com/BJ7/InvVeeAntenna4ULs.pdf (http://chrusion.com/BJ7/InvVeeAntenna4ULs.pdf)
I modified the design to be centered around 131MHz using MMANA-GAL (http://hamsoft.ca/pages/mmana-gal.php) software for ACARS reception. Knowing little about RF and nothing about this software... it was an excellent learning experience. Here  (http://bocafallsweather.com/images/MikesV_AsBuilt_mod)v2.zip)is the file for MMANA-Gal and here are a couple of pics:

(http://bocafallsweather.com/images/ant1.jpg)

(http://bocafallsweather.com/images/ant2.jpg)

I made a 50ohm cable with a Balun and also used 75ohm RG-6 and did not see much of a difference. Antenna specs are:
R=60.4 Ohms, Ga: 1.97, SWR=1.2 (50ohm)

Te atenna is n the office on the first floor of a two story house and I am getting data continuous messages.   plan on putting it up in the attic this weekend to see what I get. Will post more info as I update.

Software
Base Station
Planeplotter  (http://www.coaa.co.uk/planeplotter.htm)
acarsd  (http://www.acarsd.org/)
Peak Level Meter 1.76 (http://bocafallsweather.com/GMavplot/)
Home Grown Google Maps Server (http://bocafallsweather.com/GMavplot/)

Hardware
Lenovo IdeaCentre K330B 77472BU (8G Ram)
OS: VMWare ESXi 5 Server
Virtual Machine: Windows XP, 60G HD, 1G mem
USB Sound Card (needed for ACARS decoding since ESXi does not recognize internal sound card)
SBS-3
_________________________
Composed/Posted with WYSIWYG BBCode Editor (http://www.shajul.net/)