I went ahead and did it...

[ur20v]

After my recent exposure to some milair traffic thanks to the Close Call feature of my BC125AT, I read up a little on it and decided to jump in. I bought a nice used BC780XLT on Saturday, and it will be here in a matter of minutes. I think this new-to-me aspect of the hobby will pair up nicely with my ADS-B monitoring, especially with all the federal helicopter activity we get around here.

 

[spacellamaman]

boy are you in trouble

After my recent exposure to some milair traffic thanks to the Close Call feature of my BC125AT, I read up a little on it and decided to jump in. I bought a nice used BC780XLT on Saturday, and it will be here in a matter of minutes. I think this new-to-me aspect of the hobby will pair up nicely with my ADS-B monitoring, especially with all the federal helicopter activity we get around here.

i hate to tell ya, if that one exposure got you this far....you'll look back on your "plunge" one day, as you sit tangled in wires etc and think to yourself "how quaint". i know thats what i thought one day very early on. and i live out in the sticks with basically nothing going on relatively speaking compared to you based your stated location.

i hope your not into photography too. the synergistic effects can cripple an otherwise well adjusted individual. so ive been told.

 

[freqhopping]

Have a good, high antenna?


You should look through the milair sticky threads in the MD forum to see what's active in the area. Look for mdmonitor's posts like these and compile frequencies to program.
http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...-sticky-thread-milair-2016-a.html#post2511287

 

[ur20v]

Have a good, high antenna?


You should look through the milair sticky threads in the MD forum to see what's active in the area. Look for mdmonitor's posts like these and compile frequencies to program.
http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...-sticky-thread-milair-2016-a.html#post2511287

Well, it's not a terrible antenna - it's a Radio Shack 20-170 "sputnik" that's about 7 feet above the peak of the roof of my shop building (which is about 20 feet high). The plan is to build an antenna support structure on the side of the shop in the spring where I can mount all the antennas I need along a 24 foot cross boom that's 3-4 feet above the peak. I have a big discone with a low band whip that needs to go up for my 436 and 536, a Diamond X-700 waiting for my 2m/70cm rigs, my ADS-B antenna is in a window, and a neat weather station my wife gave me for Christmas in 2016 is gathering dust on a shelf. For ****s and giggles I have an LED obstruction light made by Dialight that I'm going to put up as well.

Thank you, I'll look for the stickies you mentioned in the MD forum, and in VA and WV as well. The most consistent thing I am hearing so far this afternoon with the new 780 is ZDC in Leesburg on 379.3, but 225-400 is a pretty wide chunk to search through - I'm sure I'll hear more when I can program in channels and scan instead of search.

 

[freqhopping]

379.3 is transmitting from a site two miles east of Kearneysville, WV. Covers the area over Patuxent NAS and the bay.


285.45 transmits from Leesburg

 

[ur20v]

Off of Ridge Rd?

 

[vocoder]

DPD Productions makes fantastic milair antennas. I have 2 of them, they are the best of all the others I have tried. They are built well too.

 

[zz0468]

i hate to tell ya, if that one exposure got you this far....you'll look back on your "plunge" one day, as you sit tangled in wires etc and think to yourself "how quaint"...

He speaks the truth.

I started out modestly years ago with a Regency MX7000. Remember those?

Now there's dedicated milair antennas, preamps, filters, multicouplers, IC-R7k's and Watkins Johnson receivers, pan adapters, and surplus FAA rack mount receivers parked on single frequencies.

But it's worth it. The best captures are the U2's above 60,000 feet, and whatever the hell it was that was cleared direct to "pyramid" (PYD) the old NDB off the end of the runway at Groom Lake.

Good luck with your new addiction.

 

[spacellamaman]

Well, it's not a terrible antenna - it's a Radio Shack 20-170 "sputnik" that's about 7 feet above the peak of the roof of my shop building (which is about 20 feet high). The plan is to build an antenna support structure on the side of the shop in the spring where I can mount all the antennas I need along a 24 foot cross boom that's 3-4 feet above the peak. I have a big discone with a low band whip that needs to go up for my 436 and 536, a Diamond X-700 waiting for my 2m/70cm rigs, my ADS-B antenna is in a window, and a neat weather station my wife gave me for Christmas in 2016 is gathering dust on a shelf. For ****s and giggles I have an LED obstruction light made by Dialight that I'm going to put up as well.

Thank you, I'll look for the stickies you mentioned in the MD forum, and in VA and WV as well. The most consistent thing I am hearing so far this afternoon with the new 780 is ZDC in Leesburg on 379.3, but 225-400 is a pretty wide chunk to search through - I'm sure I'll hear more when I can program in channels and scan instead of search.

those Sputniks are certainly worth what was the price. nearly portable. i have a camera lighting tripod (tall spindly thing meant only to hold an external light source) that i rigged one up to extended up through a skylight hole at my place and darned if it doesn't work as well inside as a properly-ish tuned portable whip outside the house.

surplus FAA rack mount receivers parked on single frequencies.

a-ha ha UNCLE UNCLE you WIN!!!

i only laugh out of sheepish envy...