BCT15X vs AOR AR mini

[eorange]

The BCT15X is my main mil air scanner. The AOR is permanently parked on 260.900 MHz. This morning there's a fair amount of traffic on that freq, so I paused the BCT15X also on 260.900 MHz. The BCT15X missed well over 70% of the traffic that the AOR heard. And the radios have similar squelch settings, are about 2 feet apart, and both using the same exact antenna in the same location.

This is not the first time I've noticed this when compared to other receivers (like the Icom IC-R2). The BCT15X is good, but certainly not the best ever.

I continue to be convinced that older scanners are better for mil air!

 

[wtp]

is ATT showing on the 15X display ?

 

[ka3jjz]

Do you have a FM trap on the 15X?

 

[eorange]

No ATT ever, and yes HI Mike I have the ZBSF-95-N+ FM trap. Ironically, the trap allows me to hear MORE since I added it to the 15X a few years ago, once I realized I had an FM broadcast problem.

 

[737mech]

You could try the 225-400 bandpass filter to help the BCT15X. Scanner Bandpass Filters | PAR Electronics | Filters for the commercial 2 way market, MATV, FM broadcast, laboratory, marine industry, amateur radio, scanner and short wave listening enthusiasts

 

[KevinC]

You could try the 225-400 bandpass filter to help the BCT15X. Scanner Bandpass Filters | PAR Electronics | Filters for the commercial 2 way market, MATV, FM broadcast, laboratory, marine industry, amateur radio, scanner and short wave listening enthusiasts

My Unidens suffer overload from TV channels 8, 11 and 13, so this may be good choice (assuming it has enough attenuation on the low side) if the OP is close enough to any of those channels.

 

[eorange]

The big three channels here are 3, 5, and 8. I'll look into it.

If I were to use both filters, would this ordering make sense?

Ant -> FM band stop -> 225 bandpass -> 15X

 

[KevinC]

The big three channels here are 3, 5, and 8. I'll look into it.

If I were to use both filters, would this ordering make sense?

Ant -> FM band stop -> 225 bandpass -> 15X

Looks like 3 and 5 are virtual now and actually on UHF, 8 is still on 8.

 

[eorange]

Looks like I need to start paying attention to TV channels I otherwise don't care about!

 

[737mech]

The other thing you can do for free is set all your Milair items to AM not auto modulation. We have learned digital scanners seek digital signals first and that is a built in delay. The 15X not a p25 digital but Edacs and Moto 800 back before P25 and LTR may seek those before analog AM. No need if you already know analog AM. So set that.

 

[eorange]

Yes, thanks, I learned that a long while ago. I never use the Auto setting for any channel.

 

[wtp]

225-379.975

25​

AM​

UHF Air

At 'Set Modulation' scroll to AM, NFM, FM, WFM, or FMB
there is no auto for modulation.

 

[vagrant]

I have used that PAR Mil Air filter for around 10 years. I even swept it and was fine with the result. If Dale posts a sweep for it, my sweep must’ve matched.

 

[eorange]

225-379.975

25​

AM​

UHF Air

At 'Set Modulation' scroll to AM, NFM, FM, WFM, or FMB
there is no auto for modulation.

My bad, I was thinking of my digital BCD396XT, where I do set the modulation to analog as opposed to auto where it wastes time trying to figure it out. The 15X is analog only and therefore no auto.

 

[Ubbe]

The other thing you can do for free is set all your Milair items to AM not auto modulation.

For Uniden scanners Auto means that it picks the modulation type from the bandplan setting so you don't need to set it yourself. For other brand scanners it could mean that it tries to first decode if its an analog or digital signal and mute the audio until the selection are done. Uniden have the All setting for that and also a setting how long it should mute, if at all.

/Ubbe

 

[KI4VBR]

My Unidens suffer overload from TV channels 8, 11 and 13, so this may be good choice (assuming it has enough attenuation on the low side) if the OP is close enough to any of those channels.

How did you determine that you had an overload issue with those channels?

 

[KevinC]

How did you determine that you had an overload issue with those channels?

My first clue was while mobile. When I got close to the antenna farm where every freaking TV station in the area is my reception died. A few open-stub filters proved it was the TV stations. Custom filters from PAR Electronics and problem solved.

 

[eorange]

Thinking about filters a little more here: so right now the AOR is singing away on 260.900 MHz AM, hearing a decent amount of mil air traffic. Meanwhile the BCT15X is silent and just keeps on scanning past the 260.900 MHz channel.

• The AOR uses no filters.
• The BCT15X only has a Mini Circuits FMB band stop filter.

It was suggested that a mil air passband filter be utilized on the BCT15X. But what factors are at play in the AOR which seemingly makes it unnecessary for such a filter (or, clearly, any filters) ?

 

[vagrant]

Compare and contrast the selectivity and sensitivity of both devices.

Monitoring Mil Air is my fun so spending $50, or whatever it now costs, on a 225-400 filter was an easy decision for me. To address your other question about filters, I have five or six various filters inline before the Mil Air filter. I have crazy RFI and those filters handle things. I then port off from those filters into the Mil Air filter that then feeds dedicated Mil Air scanners and receivers.

* There is 10 dB of amplification in there after the initial chain of filters to handle losses and provide a slight boost.

 

[eorange]

You could try the 225-400 bandpass filter to help the BCT15X. Scanner Bandpass Filters | PAR Electronics | Filters for the commercial 2 way market, MATV, FM broadcast, laboratory, marine industry, amateur radio, scanner and short wave listening enthusiasts

I ordered this filter and should have it in ~2 weeks. Looking forward to seeing how it can help.