225-400 in 1.5 seconds. The best MilAir setup I've encountered yet.

mancow · Sep 23, 2015

This is the overall best setup for MilAir monitoring I've come up with yet.

It's a TACO 225-400 antenna with 225-400 filter then Angle Linear low noise preamp. This feeds an Airspy operated by SDR Sharp with the Frequency Scanner plugin
Сканер + поиск новых частот. by Vasili Beliakov.

Each installation will be unique but I have the Airspy set:
IF Gain 6
Mixer Gain 6
LNA Gain 9
10 MHz width

SDR#:

Mode is AM
Bandwidth is 10,000
Step is 25,000

Frequency Scanner:
Entry created for MilAir 225,000,000 - 400,000,000
SNR 20
Hysteresis 18
Next 2.0
Detect 50 ms

It takes a bit of time to lock out the offending carriers and various noise in the system and environment using the large red X button. Once the spectrum is normalized this setup will rocket across the 225-400 range literally in 1.5 seconds. It locks on, records and logs each transmission as it goes.

The amount of traffic I'm getting is ludicrous.

Here is a quick video of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkf6kv8yWdg

com501 · Sep 24, 2015

Better get your preamps while you can, Chip is retiring and the company is not going to continue.

bryan_herbert · Sep 24, 2015

Where can one get the preamps?

com501 · Sep 24, 2015

Read the original post. They are in your area.

N1XDS · Sep 24, 2015

Which pre amplifier would I need? He offers different kinds!

prcguy · Sep 24, 2015

His high level bipolar was originally designed for 225-400MHz and I have one. I believe he can make a high level PHEMT that will cover that range and will have a lower noise figure. These are the best preamps around but not cheap!

Check out my collection of Angle Linear amps at the bottom of page 3: http://forums.radioreference.com/mi...204-homemade-uhf-collinear-3.html#post1499867
prcguy

N4CYA said:
Which pre amplifier would I need? He offers different kinds!

K5MPH · Sep 24, 2015

prcguy said:
His high level bipolar was originally designed for 225-400MHz and I have one. I believe he can make a high level PHEMT that will cover that range and will have a lower noise figure. These are the best preamps around but not cheap!

Check out my collection of Angle Linear amps at the bottom of page 3: http://forums.radioreference.com/mi...204-homemade-uhf-collinear-3.html#post1499867
prcguy

Nice collection you have........

reconrider8 · Sep 24, 2015

What's the comp specs?

mancow · Sep 24, 2015

reconrider8 said:
What's the comp specs?

i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz
8 GB RAM
Windows 10 64 Bit
Samsung SSD 840

CqDx · Sep 24, 2015

Pretty neat,

I am assuming you using the latest Frequency Scanner Suite. I can't seem to figure out the audio recording part. Where are the recorded files located?

jslo · Sep 27, 2015

That's very impressive!

kb5udf · Sep 29, 2015

Amazing!

Running my new airspy with this plugin is astonishing. Thanks for the setup tip!

JB

mancow · Sep 29, 2015

kb5udf said:
Running my new airspy with this plugin is astonishing. Thanks for the setup tip!

JB

Also, you can link ranges by selecting them with shift or ctrl. I was searching VHF 118-136 and UHF 225-400 linked in less than 2 seconds. As you said, it's astonishing.

I really wish lowband would get active again. This would be great for searching that range.

mancow · Sep 29, 2015

CqDx said:
Pretty neat,

I am assuming you using the latest Frequency Scanner Suite. I can't seem to figure out the audio recording part. Where are the recorded files located?

I am running the frequency scanner made by the Russian guy, not the pre-packaged group of plugins (although I do have that installed as well). I lost track of who made the recorder plugin. This one has a button for configure and folder select so you can direct it where you want.

If I recall, the original recorder sends everything to whatever folder SDR# resides in.

CqDx · Sep 29, 2015

Good stuff, I will dig into the Russian sites

Thanks

mancow · Oct 14, 2015

After normalizing the spectrum a bit more I am able up to the full 225-400 range in just about .5 seconds.

That's the entire range TWICE a second!

brandon · Oct 17, 2015

mancow this is mindblowing awesome! Thank you for sharing this setup configuration and tips. Just tried it and once the birdies are locked out it worked really good. Also ran it on a federal search and was cool to see all of the signals automatically tuning.

Now just need a way to record each transmission with freq+filename, similiar to how ProScan does it

Any ideas on plugins that might do this?

kb5udf · Oct 17, 2015

Normalizing?

Mancow you mentioned speeding up the search. What does normalizing the spectrum mean?

THX

mancow · Oct 17, 2015

Normalizing- locking out persistent signals do you are left with a clean spectrum.

As for recording. There is a plugin at the same site that provides squelch controlled recording. It will write each new freq to a file if you want it to.

Francosis · Oct 21, 2015

WOW!!!!! JUST WOW!!!!!!!!

mancow you da man, What do I need to get that up & running for VHF low band like you touched on in your original post? I don't think I'll require preamps or any of those other add ons for low band, just the basic setup, awesome video, the speed.....INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!

225-400 in 1.5 seconds. The best MilAir setup I've encountered yet.

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