As many of you not doubt do, we here in Southern California have a group of pilots who do missing man fly-bys at private and national cemeteries. Rather than flying over at a preset time we have a guy on the ground who coordinates the timing of the fly-by with the honor guard so the flight is overhead on the last note of "Taps"...well, that is what we are always shooting for. Communication from ground to air is therefore very important.

I have a Vertex Standard Pro V handheld radio that I use to communicate with the flight. My job as the "ground guy" is to figure out when to give them the cue such that they fly-over at the end of "Taps". Holding for the flight is about 2nm away but due to the size of the orbit can put the aircraft as far as 3 or 4nm away. Very often I have found they cannot hear me which makes me think I need a more powerful radio, but then it occurred to me: Do I need a different radio or is the range of my handheld radio a function of the small "rubber ducky" antenna that came with it. If I get a bigger antenna, elevate it a few feet, and connect it to the post on the radio where the antenna screws in, would that be all I need?

I have done a little reading and found the following which talks about placement of a marine VHF radio antenna placement:

Square Root of Height Above Water (in feet) times 1.42 equals Range in Miles. Example: Highest point of your boat is 6 feet above water. You attach your 3-foot antenna at that point. The antenna is now 9 feet above water. The square root of 9 (which is 3) times 1.42 equals 4.26 miles.

So it sounds like a suitable antenna and coaxial cable on a pole connected to my handheld radio sounds would do wonders for helping with ground to air communications.

Have any of you already figured this out? Is there a particular antenna and cable you recommend?