Mil Air Scanner

[bearcatrp]

Posting this hear since my interests are toward mil air. Looking for a scanner that is proscan capable and required steps for the mil air band. Whats the best out there? The 996P2 am considering. BCT15X is another. Want a base model. Currently in the building stage for my future shack. Will be getting a miltenna Omni antenna next month along with coax. My sig shows my current radios. From what I have heard, the SDS series isnt the greatest on aviation. Thought about a 536. Comments appreciated.

 

[evilbrad]

Bct15s I've had have worked great. I even had two 9000s and they worked well. For a short time when I listened to milair all I used was a dual band 2mt 70cm magmount in a garage. The generic discone on the roof works well for milair with the plane traffic in my part of Wisconsin

 

[737mech]

Plus one for the bct-15x they are great for mil air. I own three 15x and one 15. All monitor the ranges north of Las Vegas. Nellis AFB is very busy for Mil Air.

 

[eorange]

I know this has been asked before, but do you notice any difference in sensitivity between the 15 and the 15x on mil air? Someday my 780 bought new 20 years ago is gonna die and so planning ahead.

 

[aprswatcher]

I have 2 BCT-15X scanners for mil-air, they are great for mil-air. I use Proscan to program them and use Proscan for logging the mil-air spectrum. You will not be disappointed with them or with Proscan!
73, Rex

 

[737mech]

I know this has been asked before, but do you notice any difference in sensitivity between the 15 and the 15x on mil air? Someday my 780 bought new 20 years ago is gonna die and so planning ahead.

Not really, the 15x is the same unit with more memory space for channels and a few other features like band scope. They behave the same side by side in my setup.

 

[bearcatrp]

Does the 15X have pre programmed air band for both civ and mil or do you have to set it up manually?

 

[737mech]

Does the 15X have pre programmed air band for both civ and mil or do you have to set it up manually?

It has band search for air and mil air but setting up with freescan program is better, that way you can add alpha tags to the channels.

 

[gtaman]

I have a BCT15 and it does well but it’s aging. I use a BCD996P2 now as it’s a little more sensitive than the 15. Someone posted the specs of all the BC/BCD radios at some time.

 

[bearcatrp]

Cant believe the current cost of the BCD996P2. Am leaning toward this one.

 

[737mech]

I see a BCT-15X on ebay for $80. Are you also needing trunking P1 P2 and DMR? That's why the 996p2 is so much more than the bct15x. I think you also have to buy the DMR key for the 996P2? This conversation started about Air band and Milair monitoring but if you want a digital scanner to fill in many other areas of scanning then you will get a hundred opinions going down many different rabbit holes about many different scanners.

 

[bearcatrp]

Whatever I go with, will be used for air exclusively using proscan hooked up to a mil Omni X antenna when complete setup is done. Ordering the antenna and coax next month, the decide on scanner for February.

 

[wtp]

for the 15 and 15X
from the manual

Search and Store

​

Lets you search and store frequencies from enabled custom search ranges or a service search range into a conventional system, or new talk group IDs into a trunked system. To store frequencies or talk group IDs you find during Search and Store, you must first select a system where the frequencies or talk group IDs will be stored. You will not hear any audio in this mode. See Max Auto Store first to set the maximum number of hits the scanner will store. Tip: Before you start Search and Store, run the custom search(es) or service search first to lock out the birdies, data, noise, etc. This will prevent the scanner from stopping on them and doing a memory check each time it passes. i used to set up my 396T for nighttime searching. sure a lot is missed but it is better than nothing

if you really want a faster search look on RR for mancow, he had a dongle setup that scanned the 225 to 380 in like 4 seconds.
and since some of the comms are "mako 4 to lightning ops, RTB" you have to be really fast.

 

[jaymatt1978]

I'm late to the party but if it's exclusively for air then I would get a BCT-15 or a BCT-15X. I have a BCT-15 and use it for some of my military air stuff and it's great!! I also have 2 BCD996''s and they all are good but I would still get a 15 for military air

Whatever I go with, will be used for air exclusively using proscan hooked up to a mil Omni X antenna when complete setup is done. Ordering the antenna and coax next month, the decide on scanner for February.

 

[bearcatrp]

Just purchased the new Icom 52A so no more scanners for awhile. Hoping it picks up air as good as I hear it does. Comes in Monday. The discone Will have to do for now.