Monitoring Military Air
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ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Sometimes they don't, KevPro. I can think of many instances - particularly with the recent CAP we had here in the DC area - where things got a little loose and weren't exactly military standards.
The list you posted this morning looks like Flight restrictions - nothing to do with freqs.
In any case, you still haven't said what kind of antenna you are using. You can't expect to hear much with a little back of the set indoor antenna - you will need to get something nice and high - outdoors is preferable, in the attic is the next best. A Diamond Discone, NilJon, ScanTenna, that new Miltenna dipole - all of those are possibilities. You could even build a simple ground plane just to get you off the ground. Feed it with good quality coax (no, I don't mean that rg58 or 59 you get from RS) and you should be good to go. Our Antennas wiki has a whole page that is devoted to scanner antennas. You can find that - along with homebrew projects as well- here...
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Scanner_Antennas
Now where to find active stuff - I checked Airnav for KBOS, and as I suspected, not much milcom listed there. As I wrote previously, the Mass.forum here at RR is a good starting point. Another place to check - as I'm quite certain I've seen folks from Mass. making reports on it - is the Milcom list on QTH.net As it's a national net, I have no doubt a few folks can point you in the right direction;
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milcom
is where you can sign up (free); you can also search the archives here.
There's also several Yahoo groups for your area, including:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scan-Mass-East/
And, there's the famous Scan Cape Cod/Scan Mass. site - with their area-dedicated forums, there's almost surely someone there that can point you in the right direction...
http://www.scancapecod.us/xoops/
and finally, if all else fails (it shouldn't, but it pays to be ready...) there's the Flight Information files at (Warning: very large downloads...)
https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/index.cfm#flip
Hearing Milcoms sometimes takes a little digging and patience (they may not fly your way every day...) Be sure to contribute what you hear - particulalry for Logan, as the RRDB is very weak there - to the database team so the db can be updated.
73s Mike
The list you posted this morning looks like Flight restrictions - nothing to do with freqs.
In any case, you still haven't said what kind of antenna you are using. You can't expect to hear much with a little back of the set indoor antenna - you will need to get something nice and high - outdoors is preferable, in the attic is the next best. A Diamond Discone, NilJon, ScanTenna, that new Miltenna dipole - all of those are possibilities. You could even build a simple ground plane just to get you off the ground. Feed it with good quality coax (no, I don't mean that rg58 or 59 you get from RS) and you should be good to go. Our Antennas wiki has a whole page that is devoted to scanner antennas. You can find that - along with homebrew projects as well- here...
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Scanner_Antennas
Now where to find active stuff - I checked Airnav for KBOS, and as I suspected, not much milcom listed there. As I wrote previously, the Mass.forum here at RR is a good starting point. Another place to check - as I'm quite certain I've seen folks from Mass. making reports on it - is the Milcom list on QTH.net As it's a national net, I have no doubt a few folks can point you in the right direction;
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milcom
is where you can sign up (free); you can also search the archives here.
There's also several Yahoo groups for your area, including:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Scan-Mass-East/
And, there's the famous Scan Cape Cod/Scan Mass. site - with their area-dedicated forums, there's almost surely someone there that can point you in the right direction...
http://www.scancapecod.us/xoops/
and finally, if all else fails (it shouldn't, but it pays to be ready...) there's the Flight Information files at (Warning: very large downloads...)
https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/index.cfm#flip
Hearing Milcoms sometimes takes a little digging and patience (they may not fly your way every day...) Be sure to contribute what you hear - particulalry for Logan, as the RRDB is very weak there - to the database team so the db can be updated.
73s Mike
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TinEar
Member
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
I just saw Bill Jasset's name on the Milcom list turn up - he's in the Boston area. When you go to the Milcom page on the link above, simply search by author, and you'll easily find it. More than enough to get you going. 73s Mike
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
I'm assuming here that you have a milair capable scanner and antenna...
Go back to the index for this forum and read the 'First Time Listeners' sticky thread - there you'll find some places to get you started (see the last message).
In addition to the Arizona forum here on RR, there are 2 very active Yahoo groups in your area - often this is one of the best places to find such information...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArizonaScanner/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SEARM-GROUP/
73s and good hunting....Mike
Go back to the index for this forum and read the 'First Time Listeners' sticky thread - there you'll find some places to get you started (see the last message).
In addition to the Arizona forum here on RR, there are 2 very active Yahoo groups in your area - often this is one of the best places to find such information...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArizonaScanner/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SEARM-GROUP/
73s and good hunting....Mike
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ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
The Scan New England wiki, along with the associated milcom forum on that site, would be where I would start for New England Mil stuff...
Mike
Mike
prcguy
Member
The R/S "Sputnik" is not tuned anywhere near the VHF or UHF mil air bands and if you were to use a simple Discone in its place you would probably pick up more stuff.
prcguy
prcguy
You might check you math for a half-wave antenna. At 300 MHz the radials would be 1/2 meter which is exactly the size of the radials for the Radio Shack antenna. Performance speaks for itself; I have excellent performance with this antenna on UHF air. It's actually very good on VHF air as well.
prcguy
Member
Exactly, math one of the many reasons the Sputnik is not a good performer on milair. At 300MHz the main element is around 1/2 wavelenghth and a very high impedance, which will not match to your 50 or 75ohm coax at all and will incur major loss. At other freqs in the mil air range the antenna will have lobes that are not where you want them, plus the added mismatch loss and so on.
I've used a Sputnik and compared it to Discones and I can tell you from experience that if you are seemingly happy with the Sputnik on milair you don't know what your missing compared to a more appropriate antenna for that band.
prcguy
I've used a Sputnik and compared it to Discones and I can tell you from experience that if you are seemingly happy with the Sputnik on milair you don't know what your missing compared to a more appropriate antenna for that band.
prcguy
For transmitting you are correct but receiving is very forgiving of impedance mis-matches. I don't think it's a coincidence that the military low band is exactly a quarter-wave of the high band half-wave! For the money it's very hard to beat the economy of the "Sputnik" and you can put it just about anywhere without taking up a lot of real estate. I take my on trips and hang it up with little effort. Not so convenient with a discone. I totally happy picking up flights 120 miles from base!
prcguy
Member
Transmitting and receiving are reciprocal when dealing with antennas, whatever loss there is on transmit is identical on receive. Have you ever measured the difference between a Sputnik and a Discone or are you making assumptions?
I've measured and compared plenty of scanner and other antennas on receive and found antennas like the Sputnik work fine within their design range, or around 155 and 465MHz but outside that range they can have substantial loss othe order of 20dB or more compared to their sweet spot(s). In this case a modest Discone can give you a lot more useable signal and especially over most of the UHF milair band.
prcguy
I've measured and compared plenty of scanner and other antennas on receive and found antennas like the Sputnik work fine within their design range, or around 155 and 465MHz but outside that range they can have substantial loss othe order of 20dB or more compared to their sweet spot(s). In this case a modest Discone can give you a lot more useable signal and especially over most of the UHF milair band.
prcguy
moonbounce
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I am in London Ontario my Pro 2006 scanner will pickup milair over Youngstown Oh ( as per the pilot). to Bay City Mi, to Niagara Falls NY and that is just on my telescoping antenna. I don't know if atmospheric conditions played a part in that reception or not, but I thought it was pretty good using just the collapsible antenna. I don't think I can do any better than that,
Moonbounce
Moonbounce
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