Rover
Member
I was wondering has anyone used a Kenwood F6a for UHF mil-com listening? I was wondering how it performed in this range. Any comments?...Thanks Ray KB4OMO
Kenwood F6a
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K2GOG
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I have used the F6a on the UHF mil band and it receives fairly well. You woudl be better served with a better antenna than the one it comes with, but even so the stock OEM antenna seemed to work good for me.
270-320 seem to work pretty good for me where I know the listening target was about 15-20 miles out from me (20k ASL). It was reading full scale on the S-meter with the stock rubber duck if that helps give an idea as to the sensititvity
270-320 seem to work pretty good for me where I know the listening target was about 15-20 miles out from me (20k ASL). It was reading full scale on the S-meter with the stock rubber duck if that helps give an idea as to the sensititvity
BenJJ
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TH-F6A for Scanning
I have a TH-F6A and have used it scanning at airshows. It does an okay job, however the scan speed is not as fast as, say a Uniden BCD396T, but it is adequate...my casual observations are that it scans about 10 memory locations/second. I use the TH-F6A with a RH-77CA instead of the stock rubber duckie.
The features the TH-F6A has that seem to be ideal for scanning airshows are the dual receive capability, alpha numeric readout, and the ability to scan specific memory banks. With the alpha numeric readout one can instantly know what frequency is being received. With the ability to scan specific memory banks, it is easy to assign different airshow performers to separate memory banks and include/exclude them as needed.
With the dual receive I thought I could camp one receiver on the airshow boss/ announcer freq, and the other receiver on the airshow performers, but I realized that receiver A only receives (and transmits) on the amateur bands, so airband frequencies cannot be scanned...oh well. I had to transfer all scanning to receiver B. Scanning memories on receiver B works decently.
Another feature that I like about the TH-F6A is the ability to input a frequency on the fly because it has a full numeric keypad. Entering freqs on the fly with my ICOM IC-R2 is impossible to do (even though it is the same size as TH-F6A).
If one had to bring only one radio for scanning and for transmitting the TH-F6A doesn't do so poorly...it is a pretty good radio considering size and features.
In comparison to my Icom IC-R2, I believe the R2 is very slightly more sensitive than the TH-F6A. I'd say the TH-F6A receives 9 out of the 10 hits that the R2 receives.
All in all the TH-F6A does an adequate job for scanning, and it allows you to transmit, however it pales in comparison to the new, dedicated scanners like the BCD396T.
I have a TH-F6A and have used it scanning at airshows. It does an okay job, however the scan speed is not as fast as, say a Uniden BCD396T, but it is adequate...my casual observations are that it scans about 10 memory locations/second. I use the TH-F6A with a RH-77CA instead of the stock rubber duckie.
The features the TH-F6A has that seem to be ideal for scanning airshows are the dual receive capability, alpha numeric readout, and the ability to scan specific memory banks. With the alpha numeric readout one can instantly know what frequency is being received. With the ability to scan specific memory banks, it is easy to assign different airshow performers to separate memory banks and include/exclude them as needed.
With the dual receive I thought I could camp one receiver on the airshow boss/ announcer freq, and the other receiver on the airshow performers, but I realized that receiver A only receives (and transmits) on the amateur bands, so airband frequencies cannot be scanned...oh well. I had to transfer all scanning to receiver B. Scanning memories on receiver B works decently.
Another feature that I like about the TH-F6A is the ability to input a frequency on the fly because it has a full numeric keypad. Entering freqs on the fly with my ICOM IC-R2 is impossible to do (even though it is the same size as TH-F6A).
If one had to bring only one radio for scanning and for transmitting the TH-F6A doesn't do so poorly...it is a pretty good radio considering size and features.
In comparison to my Icom IC-R2, I believe the R2 is very slightly more sensitive than the TH-F6A. I'd say the TH-F6A receives 9 out of the 10 hits that the R2 receives.
All in all the TH-F6A does an adequate job for scanning, and it allows you to transmit, however it pales in comparison to the new, dedicated scanners like the BCD396T.
I'll second what the last post said about the scanning speed. The scanning speed of the th-f6a is considerably slower than the 396t. If you plan to cover large parts of the frequency spectrum the TH-F6A is not your most efficient choice. It will take a long time to go through all the frequencies. If you aren't doing any transmitting, I'd suggest using a dedicated scanner that can scan much faster. As far as setting banks go, you could do this with systems in the 396 and just turn on and off the ones you want easily. Also as far as monitoring two things at once, you could use a priority for some things. however the announcer wouldn't really work since that would always be on and you wouldn't hear anything else. Also you can directly enter frequencies in the 396 as well. I'd say if you're not transmitting, a scanner would be the best bet. Just my thoughts.
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