Aviation Band Receiver

[Dovebar1]

Hi, Could anyone suggest a radio either handheld or homebase receiver that has a high sensitivity on the 108 Mhz to 136 Mhz aviation band.

Any info on this would be highly appreciated.

Thank you, Jim.

 

[UTE-GE]

BC125AT - handheld add Smiley antenna and it's great
BCT15X - base

Done....

Unless of course you want to talk older units and thats a long list

 

[N9JCQ]

Going older, the Uniden 780XLT table top or a Yupiteru 7100 hand held .

 

[UTE-GE]

Going older, the Uniden 780XLT table top or a Yupiteru 7100 hand held .

Bingo.....

 

[dlwtrunked]

Hi, Could anyone suggest a radio either handheld or homebase receiver that has a high sensitivity on the 108 Mhz to 136 Mhz aviation band.

Any info on this would be highly appreciated.

Thank you, Jim.

Since I do not know your experience or skills, this answer is not directed specifically to you. The ground transmitters for the aviation band are not generally on high antennas. That limits their range and adding receiver sensitivity at at your receiver is not going too help much assuming you start with something reasonable good. Your antenna height (assuming a good antenna) is likely to be where you should place emphasis. You have not stated your expectations and doing that may help others comment on whether they are realistic. For example, do not expect *in general* to hear a ground station 20 miles away. But do expect to hear an aircraft 100 miles away or more.

 

[n7maq-1]

The best scanner I have had for aviation was a RS Pro 2035 or 2042. It had great audio quality, BUT with that said I would not recommend buying one used unless it is well under $100.00 as it is a 25 + year old scanner. I use a Yaesu FTA-450 as a portable for day to day monitoring.

 

[MiCon]

The best scanner I have had for aviation was a RS Pro 2035 or 2042. It had great audio quality, BUT with that said I would not recommend buying one used unless it is well under $100.00 as it is a 25 + year old scanner. I use a Yaesu FTA-450 as a portable for day to day monitoring.

I still use a Pro-2035 and four Pro-2042's almost exclusively for aviation scanning, G/A and Milcom. Still working great but some of the buttons are starting to stick. Just dropped one off at the local repair shop for a tune-up. Great radios, I'll never get rid of them.

 

[rk911]

My go-to handheldscanner for aviation airshows, etc. was a Radio Shack Pro-43. Out of production for years but you might find one on eBay. Also check classified on Radio Reference and other ham radio sites.

 

[gtaman]

Uniden BCT-15 or 15x.

 

[bearcatrp]

The newer 160DN is a good aviation handheld. It’s a non trunking radio that comes with DMR and NXDN. Have compared mine to most of my radios and it’s even close to my R30.

 

[devicelab]

Uniden BCT-15 or 15x.

All of the older Uniden scanners use the same circuitry (more or less) and have really good VHF AIR. The 325P2 is amazing. Its brother, the 996P2, is also very good for a base version. The cheaper Unidens seem to work quite well too.

 

[EAFrizzle]

The scanner that gets most of my airband use, VHF and UHF, is my BC365CRS desktop. If you don't mind manual frequency entry (it's just like running a tape on a 10-key), it's the best bang for your buck in a Uniden base for airband. The BC125AT is the best bang for your buck in a handheld for air, and it's computer programmable.

For the price of a BCD325P2, you can have both the 125 and 365, with around $150 left for antennas. If you're not going to listen to anything but aviation, this gives you a very capable pair of scanners.

 

[devicelab]

For the price of a BCD325P2, you can have both the 125 and 365, with around $150 left for antennas. If you're not going to listen to anything but aviation, this gives you a very capable pair of scanners.

For $150 more though you get everything... DMR, NDXN and P25 Phase 2 in a small package. Granted, you have to buy the two extra modes but still...

 

[pb_lonny]

The BC125AT is the best I have used. Icom R6 is also good.

 

[EAFrizzle]

For $150 more though you get everything... DMR, NDXN and P25 Phase 2 in a small package. Granted, you have to buy the two extra modes but still...

But why pay for something if you're not going to use it?

 

[Solidjake]

+1 for the BC125AT

 

[K9KLC]

But why pay for something if you're not going to use it?

Ya and it's at least 100 more than what he posted if you add DMR and NXDN. For air band, I'd not spend the extra money.

 

[K9KLC]

Granted, you have to buy the two extra modes but still...

So, that's got it at what then, at least $250 more?

 

[EAFrizzle]

Yeah, I've got to admit, it seems kinda weird not recommending a more full-featured scanner, as many of us wind up getting interested in other services and agencies, but I know a lot of pilots and aircraft people that just like to listen to the planes and such.

I'm a "more is better" kind of guy usually, but as in jazz and cooking, sometimes less is more. I could have got another 325 to cover airband stuff, but the 365 and 125 together let me cover more frequencies at a time, even though they don't have the memory capacity of the 325.

There are good reasons the 125 is recommended in every thread about airband receivers. Great price, great ears, and fast to program for travel. My only real complaint is that it needs a little more weight in it, near the bottom. I have a great telescopic whip for it, but it's so long that it's unstable just sitting on a table. The 365 can be tedious if you're used to CPS, but there's an old satisfaction to the button mashing for me. It's only 500 channels, but I can keep plenty of active channels in it and still have some slots left for search hits.

I have a ton of civil and MilAir stuff loaded into my BCD325P2, just because it has the capacity, but I rarely use it for that. It's great on those, and nice to have an extra scanner if something big pops off. The 125 and 365 cover all the air comms I can handle, and between DFW civil stuff, NASFW JRB, Tinker, and Barksdale, I've got plenty to scan!

Whatever OP gets, I hope he comes to enjoy scanning as much as we do.

 

[K9KLC]

While I do not own the 125 if I were to take air band more seriously and need it portable, it's likely the one I would get. Frankly at least for now, my main interest is in PS monitoring but if I'm in the mood I fire up my old Relm I have a bunch of stuff in and listen there, it vastly outperforms my BCD 536 on air band. I have a couple of friends that all use older stuff for listening to the aircraft stuff, so maybe something to be said there. I know several have been mentioned in this thread that had some fond memories to me.