High quality scanner for milair only with great sound...

[Bhawk27]

The BC125AT is quite adequate although missing coverage. I wouldn't want to be without 380-400 Mhz. The only thing the BR330T would have over the 125 I think is the missing 380-400 Mhz coverage. The European UBC-125XLT and Australian UBC126AT versions of the BC125AT has the missing 380-400 Mhz coverage, but you can only buy those from sources in Europe and Australia and they cost $200 or more. Plus you would not have a US warranty.

Excellent point. it does miss that slice of the milair band. Hasn’t been enough of an issue for me, but a fair point for consideration.

 

[natedawg1604]

The BC125AT is quite adequate although missing coverage. I wouldn't want to be without 380-400 Mhz. The only thing the BR330T would have over the 125 I think is the missing 380-400 Mhz coverage. The European UBC-125XLT and Australian UBC126AT versions of the BC125AT has the missing 380-400 Mhz coverage, but you can only buy those from sources in Europe and Australia and they cost $200 or more. Plus you would not have a US warranty.

Isn't 380-400 all P25 trunked systems?

 

[fredva]

Isn't 380-400 all P25 trunked systems?

380-400 Mhz is still used for MilAir. If there is an open frequency not assigned to a trunked system it may be assigned for aviation. I monitored P3s out of NAS JAX as recently as May 2021 on 383.4. The US military does it's own spectrum management in coordination with NTIA.

 

[RichardKramer]

The Harrisburg, Pa C130's CP is 395.100.

 

[David628]

I live a click or less from the USAFA. BC125AT as the most economical. My next go to is the Yaesu Pro X transceiver.

 

[trap5858]

I have had a number of air band scanners and receivers over my monitoring career including a Yupiteru7100, Regency MX 5000, Icom R20, Icom R30, AOR 8200 Mk3. The 7100 was the best portable despite it was a ***** to program, the 8200 also had good quality sound as well as sensitivity but required 3 hands and constant reference to the manual for use. Currently I am using the good old MX5000 ( slow scan speed, limited number of channels and hand programming only) but a good scanning receiver. For handheld operation I am using the R30. I find it meets my needs and is intuitive to operate. As with any receiver, the antenna and feed line are often the limiting factors. A dedicated airband antenna will help.

 

[GROL]

The Harrisburg, Pa C130's CP is 395.100.

Interesting. I don't get up that way to have monitored Harrisburg ANG . Someone at Uniden made a wrong assumption. 380-400 MHz is not a band carved out for a specific purpose. Neither is the rest of 225-400. 240-270 is where a lot of SATCOM is with lots of Aircraft frequencies in there too.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I have yet to get my hands on a BC125AT but my Icom IC-R20 is a solid performer on airband

 

[iMONITOR]

I brought up the R30 as an example of a more expensive and supposedly more sensitive receiver. The original poster had asked about the best radios and it is supposed to be one of them. And that's not needed in my opinion. The audio level out of the 300 mw speaker also sounds horrible on mine ever since I got it a little over a year ago. I just brought it up as the upper end comparison to something like the 125AT that is on the lower price scale but works perfectly fine and great. I had bought the R30 expecting a lot more out of it only to be disappointed I spent so much on it and was not happy with it. I could have bought a number of 125AT radios for what I paid for the R30

Brian
COMMSCAN

I too was totally disappointed in Icom's IC-R30. Highly overrated and highly overpriced! That might explain why Icom discontinued it.

 

[letarotor]

I too was totally disappointed in Icom's IC-R30. Highly overrated and highly overpriced! That might explain why Icom discontinued it.

I did not realize they had discontinued the R30 but I'm not surprised either. I had to send my first R30 back due to problems with it as soon as I got it. And the second one had the same issues. But one thing I didn't realize is that any Icom vendor has to get approval from Icom to be able to accept a return. And Icom wouldn't approve the second one. I can't believe a vendor has to get permission for a return from the manufacturer. And I did confirm this is the truth. Numerous vendors as well as Icom all told me the same thing.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[KB2GOM]

I've had good luck with the BC125AT. I don't know where you plan to monitor, but if it's in a place where you can hang an antenna, you might consider building one of these: Homebrewed Off-Center Fed Dipole - The RadioReference Wiki I built the wire version, and it works pretty darn well for a modest investment of time and money.

 

[SigIntel8600]

My AOR 8200D is a fantastic, portable civilian and military air receiver. Same goes for the 8200MKIII. I can run rechargeable AA batteries and carry alkaline backups. Also great for HF air receive (i.e. NY AIR on 3455 or 6577) These radios used to be plentiful on Ebay but are getting tough to find.

 

[GROL]

Especially for the price, I would suggest the BC125AT since it is highly rated by owners. I personally am concerned about the missing 380-400 MHz. I would suggest checking what you intend to monitor to see if there is anything in 380-400 important to you that you could be missing. When I deployed to the Wilmington NC airport for Hurricane Floyd, we communicated with inbound C-130s from Charlotte on the Charlotte Command Post frequency of 292.25 which is not above 380, but the point is the Harrisburg PA Air National Guard Command Post frequency is 395.1 MHz and most likely would be used in a similar manner, as it is already assigned to that unit. You never can tell, but for the price I think the BC125AT could be a good option. I seriously considered one for Air Shows due to its low price, size and reviews, but now that I have the BCD325P2, I really don't need it. If it covered the missing 380-400 it may be considered the best air band scanner available for the price. If it's audio is the same as the BCD325P2 I have, then it is quite good. If you are on a tight budget it may be one of the best options.

 

[spacellamaman]

I'll probably be keeping it as a backup, but not 100% sure yet. I'll let you know.

on further consideration, since i need another 330, or any scanner, like a hole in the head (dirt cheap bargins excluded of course), allow me to upsale it back to you:

-the 380-400mhz coverage gap is a consideration with the 125, and for some places critical(not for me tho), but the gap that is most distressing to me is 54-87mhz, which is partly why i went nuts buying BR330Ts for a while.

since they were going for $200 at the time, and 125's for about $125, the unique freq coverage advantages of the BR330T, higher number of channels you could store, the all important search and store/close call and store options etc were totally worth it for me.

I realize milair is generally not thought of including low-band FM but my first BR330T was for the sole purpose of experimenting, with the lowest cost scanner i could find (hence why the 436 wasn't considered at the time) , with 54-87mhz. there is lots of helo low-band FM activity in my area, and when doing operations, A2A and A2G, its most often low-band FM, and there were many times where I knew i was missing something RF-wise. It has now become clear, that in my particular area, it is just as likely that 50-87mhz, more specifically 60-76mhz, will be used as 30-50mhz is used.

So if I was you, I would def keep it just for the times where helo traffic is heavy. But if I were you, and I were to disregard my advice, I, being you, would offer it to me for $20.

that totally makes sense the 4th time you read it. promise.

 

[mlfd612]

Sorry, keep looking on Ebay, Llama man!

 

[spacellamaman]

Sorry, keep looking on Ebay, Llama man!

WHEW! THANK GOODNESS!

 

[737mech]

It would have been better if Uniden offered the specs from the UBC126AT even if it was more $$.

 

[GROL]

It would have been better if Uniden offered the specs from the UBC126AT even if it was more $$.

Agreed. I would buy one if it covered 25-88, 108-174 and 225-512 MHz. Don't need anything 800 MHz since it is not a trunk tracker. If it was a bit more expensive it would be worth it, but it would not cost more in materials and production for Uniden to add the 380-400 and 54-88 MHZ coverage. I can't imagine the BC125AT could not cover the extra without hardware changes if it was allowed to tune up 25 -88 MHz and 225-512 MHz.

 

[Ravenfalls]

Currently using BCD536 as base with outside antenna. Mobile is HP2. Both do very well receiving mil air. I test it by how well I pickup distant ATIS.

 

[BabaDude77]

At the risk of sounding like a total noob I was looking for advice or input on possibly getting this radio for HF broadcast EAMs , Milair monitoring ECT. I figured it was a decent price for someone just getting started. Since it’s handheld and I will only be using the extendable antenna how much will I actually hear in the mil HF and is it worth it? I live in the northeast about 3 miles from the coast. Thanks

https://www.amazon.com/Tecsun-Digital-PL368-Worldband-Receiver/dp/B08ZY9GTJV/ref=pd_aw_ic_dpcp_m_3_m_4?pd_rd_w=iiemB&pf_rd_p=e43036e5-627d-4464-8e7f-33b4c4cb06c8&pf_rd_r=1QD9ZAJ1QZQ8NN2EBRB9&pd_rd_r=7ffe4934-48e4-4a4a-b08f-68a55e8576d0&pd_rd_wg=lsiFo&pd_rd_i=B08ZY9GTJV