Bearcat UBC 220 XLT

[david_lexicon]

I bought the Bearcat UBC 220 XLT in 2001. I bought it mainly to listen to aircraft dialog as my father used to be a Air Traffic Controller but now retired.

I would like to listen to more interactions and tried to listen by scanning all bands but hear nothing.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[david_lexicon]

Can someone answer my question?

 

[rvictor]

I'm uncertain as to what you mean by "more interactions". Do you mean more ATC or do you mean other services? What have you done so far?

If ATC, have you programmed in the frequencies for ATC for the airports in your area? If not, you can obtain them from

AirNav

If you've done that and still aren't hearing anything, please give us a bit more info about location relative to the airport, antenna, etc.

If you're interested in listening to other services, give us some idea what you've done so far in regard to entering frequencies, location, antenna, etc.

Dick

 

[david_lexicon]

I'm uncertain as to what you mean by "more interactions". Do you mean more ATC or do you mean other services? What have you done so far?

If ATC, have you programmed in the frequencies for ATC for the airports in your area? If not, you can obtain them from

AirNav

If you've done that and still aren't hearing anything, please give us a bit more info about location relative to the airport, antenna, etc.

If you're interested in listening to other services, give us some idea what you've done so far in regard to entering frequencies, location, antenna, etc.

Dick

I am more interested in listening to other frequencies other than ATC. I have not entered specific frequencies form 2 to 10 bands. I though that by scanning the frequencies I might listen to something.

 

[rvictor]

OK, then what you will need to do is find out what frequencies are in use in your area for the things that you'd like to listen to. Unfortunately, there isn't any data in the RR database for your location. You should, however, post in the Europe forum and see if anyone there can provide such information for your area.

Another approach is to use service searches. I wasn't able to find the manual for your scanner to see what frequencies are preprogrammed. However, most scanners come with service searches preprogrammed. If that's the case for your scanner, you would select a service such as "Police" or "Fire" and the scanner would go through some of the more common frequencies used for that service. You would keep track of any frequencies that you find that way so that you can program them into the scanner directly.

You can also search a range of frequencies. You determine the range of frequencies assigned to various services in your country and program those ranges into the scanner and see what you hear. Again, you should keep track of those that you find.

If you know of any local radio clubs or Amateur Radio operators, they might be able to provide the info that you need.

Once you have some frequencies that are in use in your area, you should program those into one or more of the banks so that you can choose what you want to listen to.

All of that said, there is a possibility that some or all of the services in your area use some type of trunked system which you won't be able to monitor on your scanner at all. They may also use encryption which would also shut you out even if you had the latest model scanner.

Dick

 

[UPMan]

The service searches are specific to the FCC frequency allocations and won't "translate" to other countries.

 

[rvictor]

The service searches are specific to the FCC frequency allocations and won't "translate" to other countries.

I thought that the UBC models were for Europe. What gets programmed into those models?

Dick