For some reason I just got messages from the board and apologize for my late reply.
Adding a FM trap for desense? Umm... no. A FM trap keeps you from receiving an image. Desense is when the FM broadcast station is so close that it swamps your receiver.
Sensitivity and antenna aren't a problem. I have a 5/8 wave vertical for the aircraft band as well as a Diamond discone. They both work but the 5/8 wave is better. At 6,250 feet ASL I can hear the aircraft but the BC780/785 have low audio recovery. As an amateur (AF6D) I have numerous VHF radios that have normal audio recovery. I don't need an amplified speaker because I stream the BC780/785 and have custom software for remote control. I run each radio into a 16-channel mixer. Although I can increase the channel gain it also increases noise and hum that the wall warts are notorious for even if converting to XLR. For that reason I use a converted computer power supply. (They are easy to convert!)
As a private pilot I am familiar with aircraft communications. I am listening to local approach on a Yaesu FT8900 with great receive and audio. But I cannot remote control it. I am using an inverted mag mount scanner antenna in my radio room and I hear 'em just fine. Th 8900's have a 0.20uV sensitivity.
I would be willing to purchase a used Icom A120. I live in forest fire country and we will likely have a bad season this year. Thus the need for a solid receiver. We have a helitac base 1.2 miles from my mountain home. We have rotary and fixed wing. I run an amateur radio repeater and can hear a mouse fart 200 miles in most directions. But aircraft are using at most 25 watts. On the ground I can hear a FM mobile in San Diego 110 miles to my south, so I've got the altitude for long range receive. But most scanners have a 2uV sensitivity and piss poor audio recovery. The ClearSpeach DSP's are great and kill damn near all noise but they aren't cheap.
The Icom A120's are going for $730 new on eBay. eBay sucks. Its supposed to be an auction site, not Amazon.
A120 VHF Air Band Transceiver - Specifications - Icom America 1uV sensitivity sucks and a RX preamp would be nice and then a FM trap would be needed.
I think I'll have better luck with an amateur radio because they do AM and FM. Our fixed wing are always on 150.xxx FM and helicopters on 118 or 119 AM. If I use an expensive FT8900 one can split the dual receive to a separate jack and do the 150mHz+ on the right side. You can only do aviation on the left side Do I have any other options? I can't remote control an A120 either. So...
Do I have any other options?