Best scanner for aircraft only

[W8WCA]

Best scanner I have ever had to listen to distance air comms, tower and aircraft for long distances is my SDS100. I'm talking from Hamilton Ontario to close to Detroit, up to Wiarton, anywhere from 150-250 miles with a Larson quarter wave antenna on my balcony.

In my 45 years of monitoring I have never heard comms this far this distance.

I have trouble hearing ATC work with local (15-50 miles) with any other scanner now and in the past

I was just wondering/puzzeled about my Scanners: I just got an old PRO2006 to use for MilAir. I have it and my SDS200 both chasing MilAir. For test they each have the Old Radio Shack Telescopic antenna attached. So far my SDS200 catches signals better than the old PRO 2006 which misses a number that the SDS200 hears.
(I was pretty dissapointed in one way as I might not have ended up with a good PRO2006 OR the SDS200 does better than most seem to say at least for me).

 

[p1879]

There is a 10 db attenuate switch on the back of the Radio Shack; you probably know that already, but worth a mention for troubleshooting.

 

[HappilyRetired]

Best scanner I have ever had to listen to distance air comms, tower and aircraft for long distances is my SDS100. I'm talking from Hamilton Ontario to close to Detroit, up to Wiarton, anywhere from 150-250 miles with a Larson quarter wave antenna on my balcony.

In my 45 years of monitoring I have never heard comms this far this distance.

I have trouble hearing ATC work with local (15-50 miles) with any other scanner now and in the past

As a pilot I find that incredible. It defies physics. Those kind of ranges are not generally possible from a general aviation aircraft. Are you talking about ATC or a plane at 10,000 ft? If I'm over Parker Dam on the Arizona California border I can't even hear LAX. High altitude communications are achieved using high altitude receive sites using sectors and gain antennas. A quarter wave antenna on your balcony? Everyday? Are you on a hill? According to Pythagoras Theorem that range is not possible on a daily basis. If I am flying at 6,000 ft and trying to talk to a station 100 ft above sea level my maximum range on a good day is only 107 mi. Even if I'm flying it 10,000 ft that's only 135 mi. Atmospheric as well as engine noise cut that down. Did you maybe mean kilometers in which case that would stretch out to 176 km. ATC transmits at usually no more than 20 watts using I'm told a no or low gain antennas. Not to mention the front end of the SD100 I've read here is terrible for some users. I think there's something unique about your situation. There's a post on this site that talks about the poor front end of the SD100. I appreciate your input but I don't know what to say.

Thread 'Desense or Overload Issues' SDS100: - Desense or Overload Issues

 

[Bob1955]

If you're looking for a base station scanner that receives both civilian and military aircraft, I bigly recommend the Uniden BC365CRS.

KK2DOG, Sorry but I have had that model and the aircraft sensitivity is very poor. The BCT15X is "clearly" the winner here for just aircraft monitoring.
Stay safe.

 

[dlwtrunked]

EJB must be looking at higher aircraft. His numbers are reasonable for such. Monitoring ground sites is a very different problem as they are usually terrain or obstruction limited.

 

[RidingDownUnder]

As a pilot I find that incredible. It defies physics. Those kind of ranges are not generally possible from a general aviation aircraft. Are you talking about ATC or a plane at 10,000 ft? If I'm over Parker Dam on the Arizona California border I can't even hear LAX. High altitude communications are achieved using high altitude receive sites using sectors and gain antennas. A quarter wave antenna on your balcony? Everyday? Are you on a hill? According to Pythagoras Theorem that range is not possible on a daily basis. If I am flying at 6,000 ft and trying to talk to a station 100 ft above sea level my maximum range on a good day is only 107 mi. Even if I'm flying it 10,000 ft that's only 135 mi. Atmospheric as well as engine noise cut that down. Did you maybe mean kilometers in which case that would stretch out to 176 km. ATC transmits at usually no more than 20 watts using I'm told a no or low gain antennas. Not to mention the front end of the SD100 I've read here is terrible for some users. I think there's something unique about your situation. There's a post on this site that talks about the poor front end of the SD100. I appreciate your input but I don't know what to say.

Thread 'Desense or Overload Issues' SDS100: - Desense or Overload Issues

I’m in Sydney Australia and I hear aircraft’s and control centers over 400 miles away on VHF. Aircraft’s departing YSSY or Sydney’s International Airport heading north and NTH/EST (Pacific Ocean, LAX and SFO) a little while after departure have to contact Brisbane center which is a State about 400 miles north of Sydney because Brisbane center controls airspace NTH & NTH/EST (Pacific Ocean). After contacting Brisbane center, the aircraft is given a HF primary and secondary frequency to contact San Francisco center which I hear perfectly on a HF receiver.
Why am I able to hear aircraft‘s and Brisbane center, because it’s patched. I suspect the op is hearing patched or linked audio. I suspected the same thing when I started listening to aircraft communications, like am I hearing plus 400 miles on my receiver from my location on VHF. Truth is it may happen during summer when Sporadic E’s are active every once and awhile, but not all the time.
I remember years ago I had a 2m contact Sydney to Melbourne on our local repeater witch is a out of state repeater about 400 miles away in summertime when E’s were very active.

 

[wtp]

similar, but not the same.
i get the space station at 250 miles up and up to the Carolinas from the west coast of Florida.
on a uniden 396T (2005) with a radio shack 800 Mhz antenna (6 inches long) on their voice freq, (so i know it is them)
with no hills/mountains, trees, buildings, etc. you get great reception.
i have not tried to measure the planes i hear, but i might start so as to be able to answer questions like this.
so with just a decent antenna and radio, you should be fine.
discone helps as it is not directional.

 

[Edelweiss]

It's all a matter of taste of course and what you're trying to achieve. Budget surely also matters. And old school scanner has served me well for nearly 35 years on the 25 kHz system. I have mix of base station scanners and have now settled on two BCT15Xs as my primary scanners. I found the user interface a pain to get used to, that is I why I wrote my book on them, primarily to remind myself initially but it is changed into a larger project...
They do the job well and as they are very flexible ref programming you can do a lot with them if you know what you are doing and haven't forgotten how. And when I'd messed something up with my half-knowledge up it has frustrated the hell out of me. That's why I call it "The Beast". So for a long time I used it on two cylinders.
What I really like about them is the display of channel details and alert sounds for unusual freqs. Surely all modern scanners offer that. They also scan quite fast, so with two of them you'll likely miss very little. Make sure you don't get a deaf one.
Mike

 

[alcahuete]

As a pilot I find that incredible. It defies physics. Those kind of ranges are not generally possible from a general aviation aircraft. Are you talking about ATC or a plane at 10,000 ft?

He is likely talking about commercial airplanes. No, a Cessna at 10,000 feet will not be able to communicate a couple hundred miles. But commercial aircraft at altitude can and do on a daily basis. Not something you are ever going to experience in a Cessna (unless it's a Citation )

High altitude communications are achieved using high altitude receive sites using sectors and gain antennas.

That just isn't the case at all. The reason the sites here in California are high in the mountains is because if they were at ground level, the mountains would block the signal. You have to get the signal above the terrain. But most RCAG sites are on low towers, less than 50' AGL. The RCAG sites at ZLA are certified to 90 miles, but easily work in the 200 mile range. There are high altitude sectors that are 180 miles wide, and a radio site at one end will easily cover to the other. The ARSR radar are certified to 250 miles and work well beyond that range.


In Murrieta, you aren't really going to hear any ATC, so IMO, the scanner isn't going to make much of a difference on the aviation side. You're likely going to hear the aircraft one way or another, regardless of what scanner you use, so you really need to decide on what else you want to listen to also. That would likely be the deciding factor in which scanner you decide to use.

 

[HappilyRetired]

In Murrieta, you aren't really going to hear any ATC, so IMO, the scanner isn't going to make much of a difference on the aviation side. You're likely going to hear the aircraft one way or another, regardless of what scanner you use, so you really need to decide on what else you want to listen to also. That would likely be the deciding factor in which scanner you decide to use.

My desire for the best aircraft band scanner is not to listen to routine general aviation or commercial traffic. It's to have the ability to hear air-to-ground and helicopter operations. Where I am actually located I am on a hill which gives me good coverage horizontally but not so much below the horizon. It was recommended that I use just a Discone or spend big dollars and get a commercial antenna made for the aviation band that has low gain. My wife isn't going to go for that second option.

I started to respond to your comments in detail regarding high altitude sites but figured they're really not the topic. As a pilot I understand what their uses are for. Let me double back to the purpose of a good performing airband scanner. I want to be able to listen to wildland firefighting efforts using helitack and air-to-ground.

 

[HappilyRetired]

EJB must be looking at higher aircraft. His numbers are reasonable for such. Monitoring ground sites is a very different problem as they are usually terrain or obstruction limited.

That is my belief as well. As a pilot I know he's probably listening to arrival or departures from aircraft that are hitting the sectored mountain top relay sites.

With that in mind he very easily could be hearing for 250 mi. But he's not listening to ATC directly I don't believe. My knowledge as a Private Pilot, combined with comments that I have read here on the site that the SD100 has a poor front end, which I'm not quite sure what that entails just yet since I'm new with this, engine noise that can get into even our very expensive transceivers in the aircraft at longer distances, I don't see that as possible. I've read in my ham study guides about something like a trough where signals can travel within it like a tube and then pop out hundreds of miles away. Maybe that?

I am using a discone with a cable TV splitter to feed a 996P2 and a BCT15X. The BCT15X out does the 996P2 on aircraft receive. Out here in Menifee we've had a lot of fires burning around us that I can now hear the helicopters quite well. I can also hear firefighters on the ground on unrepeated radio channels.

 

[Edelweiss]

For local stuff and when you're on a hill you don't need the "best scanner". Assuming your antenna system is in good order what you have should do fine. Not sure how many frequencies and what scanning strategies you want to use, that's where the fancy functions come in. But I suppose there will only be a few that are active for fire fighting. Any old scanner from ebay will likely do that (I still like my Realistic Pros). Not sure if they use digital modes or repeaters from airborne units in your area, in which case you'd need to consider that so you can listen to that stuff on top of airband. In any case your gear is almost too fancy for what you need IMHO.
Do you need to hear the ground station? That is normally the tricky bit. There are 3 element yagis which may help a bit with that that are not too unsightly or suspicious looking. And a discone is ugly as well. Should be lasting a bit longer in a dry area where you live.

 

[HappilyRetired]

For local stuff and when you're on a hill you don't need the "best scanner". Assuming your antenna system is in good order what you have should do fine. Not sure how many frequencies and what scanning strategies you want to use, that's where the fancy functions come in. But I suppose there will only be a few that are active for fire fighting. Any old scanner from ebay will likely do that (I still like my Realistic Pros). Not sure if they use digital modes or repeaters from airborne units in your area, in which case you'd need to consider that so you can listen to that stuff on top of airband. In any case your gear is almost too fancy for what you need IMHO.
Do you need to hear the ground station? That is normally the tricky bit. There are 3 element yagis which may help a bit with that that are not too unsightly or suspicious looking. And a discone is ugly as well. Should be lasting a bit longer in a dry area where you live.

Thank you for your help. My equipment may be too fancy for what I need but I didn't know what I needed until after I bought it. I do have fancier antennas also. I have a 6db gain VHF antenna as well as a 3db gain VHF low so that I can hear CHP. I am up on a hill at over 2100 ft which definitely makes a difference.

Most of the purposes I have are for monitoring the fire department and they're simplex frequenc5ies. We have a fire burning about 3 miles or so from my home and the initial attack was quite exciting to watch even as the next cop. I never really paid attention to firefighters. Now that I live in an area that's prone to fire I'm really paying attention. It really is watching the air tankers come in to drop their retardant while listening to them on the radio. The frequencies of interest are the helicopter frequencies, the Cal Fire dispatch frequencies along with the command channels. Both are repeaters. And then the tac channels. As far as aircraft, I have multiple international airports near me And as a pilot I'm familiar with approach, departures and I will put 121.5 on a guard channel that the scanner will test on whatever time interval it uses. That's pretty much it. One more thing. I purchased a mini transmitter online- really small - and tuned it to a channel used on FRS and it is a voice activated. I plugged the scanner into the unit so that whenever anything comes over it repeats it on my FRS walkie-talkie. That way I can be out in the yard pulling weeds.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I don't want to break any rules and cross post. I hope it's okay to start in this group. If this would be better in an equipment group I'd appreciate it if the moderator would guide me.

Due to the large number of fires down here in Riverside County with Cal Fire and Forest Service, I would like to choose a dedicated scanner that does well on the aircraft band but of course also does well on VHF High. A ham I know told me that an older scanner might be good except for the Bearcat 780 that he said has "low audio recovery?" Is there an older radio that excels on the aircraft band or is there a current scanner like the BCT 15X? I like the Unidens. I've noticed these older scanners are kind of pricey on eBay for used ones like the owners are trying to get what they paid for them. I'm not going to spend $300 on an older technology radio when I can spend $50 more and get a 996.

I was further told that a discone antenna would be good for this but I don't know one antenna from another. Well that's not completely true but I don't know about a discone. I am especially interested in hearing the attack helicopters.

I'm dealing with the wife factor now and she may leave me for the Milkman if I don't watch it. I don't want to pop for another 996P2 if a $150 radio will do what I'd like.

I did not see where in the posts in the thread that you say how high up the antenna is. That will often be the most critical factor (more than the scanner and antenna models._.

 

[Edelweiss]

Thank you for your help. My equipment may be too fancy for what I need but I didn't know what I needed until after I bought it. I do have fancier antennas also. I have a 6db gain VHF antenna as well as a 3db gain VHF low so that I can hear CHP. I am up on a hill at over 2100 ft which definitely makes a difference.

Most of the purposes I have are for monitoring the fire department and they're simplex frequenc5ies. We have a fire burning about 3 miles or so from my home and the initial attack was quite exciting to watch even as the next cop. I never really paid attention to firefighters. Now that I live in an area that's prone to fire I'm really paying attention. It really is watching the air tankers come in to drop their retardant while listening to them on the radio. The frequencies of interest are the helicopter frequencies, the Cal Fire dispatch frequencies along with the command channels. Both are repeaters. And then the tac channels. As far as aircraft, I have multiple international airports near me And as a pilot I'm familiar with approach, departures and I will put 121.5 on a guard channel that the scanner will test on whatever time interval it uses. That's pretty much it. One more thing. I purchased a mini transmitter online- really small - and tuned it to a channel used on FRS and it is a voice activated. I plugged the scanner into the unit so that whenever anything comes over it repeats it on my FRS walkie-talkie. That way I can be out in the yard pulling weeds.

That is cool, I at times do the same thing with my BCT using Proscan in server mode. Then I can log in on my phone and listen in a web-browser. Sadly not too much action around here perhaps I should be thankful for that.

 

[StoliRaz]

Uniden BCT15X hands down. Blows everything else out of the water IMO. No matter what scanner you use, equally as important is the antenna you're hooking up to. Make sure it's a good one for airband.

That said, anyone running a Sirio GPA0836? Not that I want to hijack your thread but it looks like a neat little airband antenna

 

[HappilyRetired]

I did not see where in the posts in the thread that you say how high up the antenna is. That will often be the most critical factor (more than the scanner and antenna models._.

All of my antennas are mounted at least 20 ft above my roof and I use new LMR 400 cable.

That is cool, I at times do the same thing with my BCT using Proscan in server mode. Then I can log in on my phone and listen in a web-browser. Sadly not too much action around here perhaps I should be thankful for that.

So sorry that my speech to text butchered part of my reply. Hopefully you got the gist of it. As a retired cop I'm actually surprised I've taken an interest in the fire department. I sure don't want to listen to police dispatches. 🤣 CHP is the exception.

I have a ham operator that's been helping me which is probably why I got more equipment than I need. But he taught me that the heart of a system is the antenna and I didn't mind spending the money on that. My wife did but we agreed that she could go to Michael's and buy craft stuff all she wants. I promised not to put up any more antennas. Lol. In the end it works out.

I am still working on getting my technician license for ham radio. I'm a bit behind on that and I've been saying that for too long. I need to git 'er done.

Thank you for all the suggestions. The BCT 15 seems to be the winner. Once I get everything worked out I'll be plugging it in here so that everyone can listen. The constant fires around me every summer are great to listen to during initial attack. I'm sad that people end up losing their homes over this though.

 

[HappilyRetired]

That said, anyone running a Sirio GPA0836? Not that I want to hijack your thread but it looks like a neat little airband antenna...

I looked up this antenna and I can't see how it's worth $70 or how it is any better than a discone. Is telling me that for aircraft band because it will concentrate the signal on the horizon and of course aircraft are up in the air. He pointed out a 3db gain fiberglass antenna but it's a little bit pricey. The discone is working for now. I am very close to where all the fires are this year and I pick up the air tankers and helicopters equally well. The air tankers and other fixed wing are up at about 160. Thereabouts.

 

[HappilyRetired]

That said, anyone running a Sirio GPA0836? Not that I want to hijack your thread but it looks like a neat little airband antenna

I looked up this Sirio antenna and it is nothing more than a quarter wave ground plane. According to reviews, that makes it operative for the air band only with no gain. It is selling at Amazon for $69.99.

 

[norcalscan]

Just ran into this thread, the 15X is SOLID scanner for CalFire scanning. You won't find better. It's fed my live fire scanner that pulls in Air Tactics FM, Air Ground, and Rotor victor AM freqs like a champ, day in and day out, for maybe 15years, after it replaced an 895xlt. Throw some decent ears on it (or even an unfolded coat hanger) and you'll be set.