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Cheap Homemade DIY AIS 162mhz SDR Antenna

Homemade AIS VHF 162mHz antenna. Getting 20nm + range ship tracking. Two wire coat hangers, some cheap CATV coax, and a Costco margarita mix bottle

I am getting 20+ nautical mile coverage with this simple cheap antenna.

Using a $10 ebay RTL SDR dongle, SDR#, AISMON and OpenCPN

Here are your references:
http://rtlsdr4everyone.blogspot.com/p/ais-antennas.html

RTL-SDR Tutorial: Cheap AIS Ship Tracking


http://www.rtl-sdr.com/tag/monopole/
https://rtlsdr4everyone.blogspot.com/p/beginner-antennas.html?showComment=1465796100895
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/stations/3232/_:b80b43127e4da02634b88fc6ac141bc7

AIS Antenna SDR Cheap Easy Homemade
SDR#, AISMON, OpenCPN
AIS SDR Antenna

UPDATE:
I don’t know how, but somehow I picked up a ship over 117nm away. I’m pretty sure this is over the horizon, so I do not know how this is possible unless its a reflection of the signal, or this homemade AIS antenna just got a lot of gain somehow…
ais117nm

Somehow, I am getting like 120 nautical mile range with this antenna, I cannot figure out why I am getting such good range in one direction.
AIS120

now getting over 400 nautical mile range AIS with this homemade monopole, how is that possible?
AIS432

So it seems that when the antenna fell down, it broke the solder on my horizontal radials that are connected to the ground/braid of the coax cable feeding the antenna. So, it looks like the minor adjustment of just a few millimeters, really improved or ‘super tuned’ this antenna. It seems to be slightly directional in the direction of the radials (North and South in my case), however it certainly improved or doubled my ‘straight out’ reception as well. Over all this is like a 200% improvement in range. So the leason here is, if you are getting poor 20nm reception, try extending the length or distance of those two 46mm radials. Either that or my SDR RTL dongle just got a whole lot more sensitive or clean signal…
AIS400close

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LIVE RADIO Laguna Beach/Orange County Countywide Emergency LBFD-Accidents-CHP-Heli-Major Incidents

Play LIVE RADIO CLICK HERE

Orange County California Countywide Coordinated Communications System (CCCS) Live Radio

System Name: Countywide Coordinated Communications System (CCCS)
Location: Orange County, CA
County: Orange
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone
System Voice: Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface
Last Updated: May 2, 2016, 3:18 pm (Updated Function Tag assignments for 5 talkgroups)
System ID Connect Tone
6C3F 90.0

EMS (Field-to-Hospital) Talkgroups 

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
3920 0f5 A 4G FLD/ER N 4G ALS-No Contact (North) Hospital
4272 10b A 5K FLD/ER S 5K ALS-No Contact (South) Hospital
6896 1af A MED-CALL 6A Assignment (“OCC”) Hospital
6928 1b1 A MED-N1 6B North 1 Hospital
6960 1b3 A MED-N2 6C North 2 Hospital
6992 1b5 A MED-NW 6D Northwest Hospital
7024 1b7 A MED-S1 6E South 1 Hospital
7056 1b9 A MED-S2 6F South 2 Hospital
7088 1bb A MED-SW 6G Southwest Hospital
7120 1bd A MED-CO1 6H Countywide 1 Hospital
7152 1bf A MED-CO2 6I Countywide 2 Hospital
7184 1c1 A MED-CO3 6J Countywide 3 Hospital
7216 1c3 A MED-LAB 6K Laguna Beach Hospital

Hospital-to-OCC Talkgroups 

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
27360 6ae D HOC-HOC All Base Hospitals (Broadcast) Hospital
27520 6b8 D HMHP Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian Hospital
27680 6c2 D HBH Huntington Beach Hospital Hospital
27840 6cc D MHRMC Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center Hospital
28000 6d6 D SJMC St Jude Medical Center Hospital
28160 6e0 D UCI MC UC Irvine Medical Center Hospital
28320 6ea D OCGMC Orange County Global Medical Center – Santa Ana Hospital

Additional Fire/EMS/EOC Talkgroups 

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
4432 115 A SIL-TAC 7D Silverado Canyon Tactical Fire-Tac
4464 117 A CRB-TAC 7E Carbon Canyon Tactical Fire-Tac
4496 119 A TRAVEL 7A TravelNet Fire-Tac
4528 11b A EBY-TAC 7F Emerald Bay Tactical Fire-Tac
6800 1a9 A EOC 7B EOC to EOC Operations Fire-Tac
20960 51e E ARSON 7C Arson Investigators Fire-Tac

Dispatch/Coordination Talkgroups 

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
6736 1a5 A AIRCALL Aircraft Dispatching/Hailing Interop
20800 514 E PIO-PIO Public Information Officer Coordination Interop
27200 6a4 D DSP-DSP Dispatch Center Coordination Interop

Public Works Shared (BROWN) Talkgroups 

For shared use by any public works or city service departments.

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
36000 8ca D BROWN-N Public Works Shared – North Interop
36032 8cc D BROWN-S Public Works Shared – South Interop
36064 8ce D BROWN-1 Public Works Shared Tac – North Cell Interop
36096 8d0 D BROWN-2 Public Works Shared Tac – Northwest Cell Interop
36128 8d2 D BROWN-3 Public Works Shared Tac – South Cell Interop
36160 8d4 D BROWN-4 Public Works Shared Tac – Southwest Cell Interop
36192 8d6 D BROWN-5 Public Works Shared Tac – Laguna Cell Interop
36224 8d8 D BROWN-6 Public Works Shared Tac – Countywide Cell Interop

Countywide Interoperability (TAN) Talkgroups 

For interop between police, fire, lifeguard and public works countywide.

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
6256 187 A TAN-CALL Countywide Calling (Any Unit to Control 1) (9A) Interop
6288 189 A TAN-N Countywide Interop – North (9B) Interop
6320 18b A TAN-S Countywide Interop – South (9C) Interop
6352 18d A TAN-1 Countywide Interop Tac – North Cell (9D) Interop
6384 18f A TAN-2 Countywide Interop Tac – Northwest Cell (9E) Interop
6416 191 A TAN-3 Countywide Interop Tac – South Cell (9F) Interop
6448 193 A TAN-4 Countywide Interop Tac – Southwest Cell (9G) Interop
6480 195 A TAN-5 Countywide Interop Tac – Laguna Cell (9H) Interop
6512 197 A TAN-6 Countywide Interop Tac – Countywide Cell (9I) Interop
30688 77e E TAN-7 Countywide Interop Tac Interop
30720 780 E TAN-8 9K Joint Hazmat Assessment Team Interop