what should i get need help quik

hi ive been into hf for ten years and its over i dont own a computer but have a fast smartphone that can easily run acars decoder if needbe. ive bought some resourses ie. flight code refrence airplane information and a realtime location map . i have a r20 sport on hold till the end of the week.ive heard the dj-7 alinco is just as good on air and cheaper ,or mabey an r-6 i have no plans of using hf again. these are issuis i cant resolve. i thought a wideband reciever would be better than a generic scanner or am i wrong. i also looked into a rtlsdr they can be used with a phone (dut not if you need decoding) but i want somthing thats gonna last a while.also i have no intrest in public service the police in west michigan use cellphones for communication. after disbatch calls out
so you can only hear state boy traffic stops.
so i need some help quik
please

hfflunki said:

i have a r20 sport on hold till the end of the week.ive heard the dj-7 alinco is just as good on air and cheaper ,or mabey an r-6 i have no plans of using hf again. these are issuis i cant resolve. i thought a wideband reciever would be better than a generic scanner or am i wrong.

Click to expand...

You aren't wrong - the handhelds (I have the R20 and R6), while convenient, don't deal with the typical large outside antennas well. Attenuating a nice antenna setup to avoid overload is a drag. In other words, for what you want to do, I'd probably recommend a receiver rather than a scanner. I'm not sure you'd actually be scanning much anyway!

My .02c for what that's worth.

I'd pick a cheap AM scanner over a receiver any time. If you are near an airport or under a major flight path you can scan many frequencies sequentially and receive many conversations or you can follow one particular aircraft has it gets handed off from one frequency to another. A single frequency tuned receiver means you only get one station at a time and you may be missing out on all the excitement on the other nearby frequencies - even the emergency services on the airport! Get a decent outside antenna for best range. I use the Aussie version of BCT8's - they work well with an audio tap to a better amplifier.

Like you, I find HF Aero rather boring for the close by stuff,but it's very interesting trying for transmissions over the other side of the globe!

i forgot about this post i ended up buying a wistler 1010 .and then i bought an old radioshack extendeble the guy had at the shop hadand they work horibly for home considering im at least 30 miles from the tower .so i built a 1/2 wave dipole. being a old shortwave guy i have a big junk drawer. and ive been getting some hits. so anyway im at it
thanks
Dan
purchesed it today took a while 6/20/15 started air band hobby

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hfflunki said:

i forgot about this post i ended up buying a wistler 1010 .and then i bought an old radioshack extendeble the guy had at the shop hadand they work horibly for home considering im at least 30 miles from the tower .so i built a 1/2 wave dipole. being a old shortwave guy i have a big junk drawer. and ive been getting some hits. so anyway im at it
thanks
Dan
purchesed it today took a while 6/20/15 started air band hobby

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Thirty miles is way to far to hear tower frequencies. Your best bet is to listen to arrival and departure frequencies for action on the VHF air band
You'll have to be almost under the tower to hear them. They use about ten watts to talk to the planes. Remember, they're in the air
Larry

Ya i figured that out found both frequency's the homemade antenna works really good I get quite a few hits consider my location and today's Sunday and I wasn't listening but for only a couple hours .but what do you guys think stick with the terminal block or get a 80-160metter amueter bulen
I can't see much loss my lead out is 50ohm shielded rca so there's some
Mismatch but,it be 80 bucks to fix
I could buy a factory job but everyone is sold out. Including scanner massters of all people. Last question what kind of amps do you guys suggest I've seen a few some look no better than a regulated 20 dollar drop amp others are super nice.

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