I'm hoping to use this to scan aviation frequencies. How is the range of the included antenna? If I were at an airshow, would I be able to pick up everything going on from the jets to the air boss? If I were near an airport, would I be able to pick up tower, ground, departure, and center? Or would I need a better antenna? And if so, does anybody have antenna recommedations?
BC125AT: How is the antenna
- Thread starter Ual8658
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If I'm standing outside the airport fence for example, will I receive tower well? Is there a general range the stock antenna might work. And what is the range of the Diamond antenna?
wtp
Member
at the fence
it would be fine.
it would be fine.
K5MPH
Member
I own this very scanner and the stock antenna will do just fine for what you want to do with it.....
On airport grounds, pretty much anything better than a paper clip stuck in the antenna jack will work.
The tower is the difficult part to receive because their antennas are angled to the sky. You will only hear it a few miles from the airport with the stock antenna, and the Diamond antenna will give you reception a few extra miles. But you will hear the planes 40-50 miles away because they are up high and the signal has unobstructed line of sight in most cases.
Depends on the air-show envronment
The standard Uniden duck is resonant at 155 mhz or so. That makes it really inefficient if you are trying to monitor military air centered around 300 mhz - even if you are pretty much close to the aircraft.
Type of airshow? Low key general aviation, or fully-blown military base show?
One problem you may face at a show is desense. I'd invest in a ** smaller ** antenna like a Comet CHA-32 miracle-baby (bnc or sma).
Example: The air boss at a low-key show is only a few hundred feet away from you in your fold-out chair. He is on VHF. Yet you are trying to tune in the military aircraft directly, and as soon as the air-boss transmits, your scanner is desensed by having too MUCH antenna, and you never hear the military planes - at least the ones he's not talking to directly.
Naval airshow on the coast, during inclement weather? You may also be facing radar noise - even though it is not in the range our scanners can hear. Ever see a shipboard video cam plagued by radar noise? Same effect. Using a smaller antenna when you are so close to the action is usually recommended.
This is why some "racing scanners" also include a very small duck. Nearby racing infrastructure radios can desense the scanner. It isn't just a matter of smaller convenience. Same thing with airshows.
Low key general aviation airshows can be less demanding. But still, surrounding infrastructure radios can sometimes desense the scanner too.
In a VHF only environment, you may want to bring an inline airband bandpass filter, like the AOR ABF128 to between the scanner and the duck - whatever you bring.
Too much info I guess.
Try the oem duck - use attenuation on a nearby airboss if you have to, bring along a smaller duck too - and for vhf only, maybe bring along the inline filter.
EARBUDS - don't drive your audio into distortion. Use in-ear buds that fit nicely into the ear canal. Forget trying to listen to the scanner speaker at the fence with ANY handheld scanner for any length of time - too low powered, hissy nasal fidelity (from ALL manufacturers) and such make you drive it into distortion. You either get tired of listening to it quickly, or have moved so far from the action to hear it that the show is less fun.
Don't skimp on getting *quality* buds. Get those designed for communications, NOT high-end music fidelity! The hi-fidelity buds with their high-frequency response also accentuate the generally poor scanner audio that is hissy and high-frequency. You don't need much beyond 3khz for radio comms. More than this and listener-fatigue sets in.
Again, sorry about the info overload, but sounds like you may want to get a good jump into airshows from the start!
The standard Uniden duck is resonant at 155 mhz or so. That makes it really inefficient if you are trying to monitor military air centered around 300 mhz - even if you are pretty much close to the aircraft.
Type of airshow? Low key general aviation, or fully-blown military base show?
One problem you may face at a show is desense. I'd invest in a ** smaller ** antenna like a Comet CHA-32 miracle-baby (bnc or sma).
Example: The air boss at a low-key show is only a few hundred feet away from you in your fold-out chair. He is on VHF. Yet you are trying to tune in the military aircraft directly, and as soon as the air-boss transmits, your scanner is desensed by having too MUCH antenna, and you never hear the military planes - at least the ones he's not talking to directly.
Naval airshow on the coast, during inclement weather? You may also be facing radar noise - even though it is not in the range our scanners can hear. Ever see a shipboard video cam plagued by radar noise? Same effect. Using a smaller antenna when you are so close to the action is usually recommended.
This is why some "racing scanners" also include a very small duck. Nearby racing infrastructure radios can desense the scanner. It isn't just a matter of smaller convenience. Same thing with airshows.
Low key general aviation airshows can be less demanding. But still, surrounding infrastructure radios can sometimes desense the scanner too.
In a VHF only environment, you may want to bring an inline airband bandpass filter, like the AOR ABF128 to between the scanner and the duck - whatever you bring.
Too much info I guess.
Try the oem duck - use attenuation on a nearby airboss if you have to, bring along a smaller duck too - and for vhf only, maybe bring along the inline filter.EARBUDS - don't drive your audio into distortion. Use in-ear buds that fit nicely into the ear canal. Forget trying to listen to the scanner speaker at the fence with ANY handheld scanner for any length of time - too low powered, hissy nasal fidelity (from ALL manufacturers) and such make you drive it into distortion. You either get tired of listening to it quickly, or have moved so far from the action to hear it that the show is less fun.
Don't skimp on getting *quality* buds. Get those designed for communications, NOT high-end music fidelity! The hi-fidelity buds with their high-frequency response also accentuate the generally poor scanner audio that is hissy and high-frequency. You don't need much beyond 3khz for radio comms. More than this and listener-fatigue sets in.
Again, sorry about the info overload, but sounds like you may want to get a good jump into airshows from the start!
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Too much info is right. What you are recommending (using a crappy antenna on purpose to avoid overload) is bad advice in most cases, especially when using scanners that aren't particularly prone to the problem. Uniden scanners are better than Whistler in that regard.
+1 Works great for me!
bigcam406
Member
mine works fine for me as well. I swap a Watson 801 antenna on occasion and there isn't a difference at my location.
KC4RAF
Member
Agree with posts #8 and #9.
Too much info, and some of which isn't correct.
There will not be any case of "desense". The transmitter is too far, and the power isn't all that great. I think some where in the neighborhood of 40 watts or so. Desense just ain't gonna happen.
Too much info, and some of which isn't correct.
There will not be any case of "desense". The transmitter is too far, and the power isn't all that great. I think some where in the neighborhood of 40 watts or so. Desense just ain't gonna happen.
I agree with virtually all the responses you've received regarding the standard antenna and the slightly better results you'd probably experience with the Diamond RH77CA. The only problem with the Diamond antenna is that it's fairly long and a little awkward to handle if you're mobile (walking, sitting, driving, etc).
Chris516
Member
I personally got the Watson W-901. Because, When I was looking to buy the Diamiond RH77CA. It was out of stock on Amazon. I am still thinking of getting the Diamond RH77CA.
Chris516
Member
Moderators please remove this post. I accidentally double-posted the previous post.
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For those looking to sample/try different antenna options then my Scan125 Control Program *may* be of assistance.
Scan125 receives and decodes the scanner's raw signal strength (not the scanners screen version). Details here: http://nick-bailey.co.uk/scan125/Manual/Scan125-Manual.html#63.1
To profile different antennas then one needs to choose a stable fixed location signal in the frequency band/range you are interested in e.g. Airport Control Tower, Dock Port Master, you own CB or other source. Scan125 has the ability to adjust the scaling/sensitivity and display of the scanner's raw signal strength so for any given signal one can set/choose your own reference level for comparing different antennas.
I put this function in after a user requested it.
Scan125 receives and decodes the scanner's raw signal strength (not the scanners screen version). Details here: http://nick-bailey.co.uk/scan125/Manual/Scan125-Manual.html#63.1
To profile different antennas then one needs to choose a stable fixed location signal in the frequency band/range you are interested in e.g. Airport Control Tower, Dock Port Master, you own CB or other source. Scan125 has the ability to adjust the scaling/sensitivity and display of the scanner's raw signal strength so for any given signal one can set/choose your own reference level for comparing different antennas.
I put this function in after a user requested it.
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