Mil Air Scanner

[eorange]

My 2 - 780XLTs were my go-to Mil Air radios for a long time. Then the 536 came out and blew them out of the water for Mil Air. They have been relegated to analog PD and FD now...

What differences did you notice after switching to the 536?

 

[Bmacs]

What differences did you notice after switching to the 536?

See post #59 - In the Mil Air band, the 536 hears things clearly that ALL my other scanners and receivers hear either unreadable or not at all. I was VERY surprised by this finding as the radio wasn't intended for that purpose (at least not that I am aware of). As I stated above, this comparison is done with a single Mil Air antenna (DPD Omni X Air) and an 8-port multicoupler, so all 8 radios are seeing the same signal level.

In case you are curious, the radios compared were: PRO-2006, 780XLT, 796D, 996XT, 996P2, R-8600 (with Preamp ON), and an SDS200 . I didn't bother with portables. The SDS200/100 series are different receiver types and, in my opinion, aren't optimized for analog Mil Air.

 

[GROL]

Yes - I love my 996XT and 996P2s as well... I live near a mountain with multiple transmitters and they handle the IMD very well. That said, my 536 HPs hear Mil Air fully readable that the 996XT and 996P2 won't even break squelch on. This is all on the the same DPD Productions Air Omni with a Stridsberg 8-port multicoupler.

Interesting. I made an antenna similar to the DPD Air Omni. The VHF elements really need to be at about 22 degrees off the UHF element instead of 45 degrees. Otherwise the VHF tends to be a good bit bidirectional instead of omnidirectional. I feed it into a low noise 4 port drop amp with 7bB gain each port. Does very well. I may add a 536 for Mil Air. Is the 536 display washed out like the 436? I really hate you can't get more bold lettering. Contrast adjustment does not help at all!

 

[Bmacs]

Interesting. I made an antenna similar to the DPD Air Omni. The VHF elements really need to be at about 22 degrees off the UHF element instead of 45 degrees. Otherwise the VHF tends to be a good bit bidirectional instead of omnidirectional. I feed it into a low noise 4 port drop amp with 7bB gain each port. Does very well. I may add a 536 for Mil Air. Is the 536 display washed out like the 436? I really hate you can't get more bold lettering. Contrast adjustment does not help at all!

I use Proscan for ALL of my radios - the displays are too tough to read all of the details - especially the 536. At least the SDS is fully customizable. The black background in Proscan makes all the difference in the world as far as viewing.

Which directions are the VHF lobes in for the Air Omni? I want to experiment with VHF coverage (even though I use UHF 90% of the time).

 

[GROL]

I use Proscan for ALL of my radios - the displays are too tough to read all of the details - especially the 536. At least the SDS is fully customizable. The black background in Proscan makes all the difference in the world as far as viewing.

Which directions are the VHF lobes in for the Air Omni? I want to experiment with VHF coverage (even though I use UHF 90% of the ti

I had noticed broad side to the VHF antenna elements, signal was not as good as the other side. I originaly tried 30 degrees and settled on about 22. Knowing there would be some loss due to polorization not being verticle, I experimented. Checking with my vector antenna analyzer things didn't change much in regard to impedance or SWR.

 

[jgorman21]

All of this has been very interesting. So at the end of the day for the “best” price and overall mil air listening, the ”best” hand held is the BC 125AT. Although it is missing 380-400! I’m not really interest in a “base” unit. A hand held is “best” for me!

Thank you all!

 

[NYAirOne]

If you want to get good Milair scanning results you have to get yourself a good outdoor antenna for starters. Get it up as high as possible and feed it with high quality coax. Im using a radio shack ST4 discone now mounted at about 30ft with LMR400 coax to a 8-port Stridesburg multicoupler with 3-4ft jumpers from that to the radios. I have over 250 mile range by air. I use a mix of radios, 780xlt,15X,996XT and 996P2s. Computer aided software is your best friend. Unless your home all day long and can sit in front of your radios. Have been using ProScan for well over 15yrs. You can set it to search a band and it will log the active freqs and will record the audio also. Great to let it run for awhile on a band segment and see what you get. It also runs and logs/records each days transmissions while im at work during the day. Alot of activity is during the day. Fighters/Bombers do train at night too but usually not regularly. You will get air refueling in the evenings with tankers and cargo planes. Once a month most units train on weekends or maybe on special missions. Bulk of the stuff is during the week days.

Start by finding out if there is a base in your area. Look on RR to find freqs that are used. Do some research online and see what aircraft Center you live in. Start out by putting in a bunch of the vhf center freqs and see what you can hear. Then look at the uhf freq that matches the vhf one. Fighters and Bombers will be on uhf, Tanker and Cargo planes will use vhf. Problem with the vhf side is every other plane will be using it also. There will be alot more traffic on the vhf freqs than uhf, but 99% will be civil air traffic. See if there is a Air Refueling area by where you are. Get those freqs and put them in. Find out if there are any MOAs or Ranges that you maybe able to pickup. If there is look around on RR postings and see what units operate in them. Then find out the air-air freqs or operating freqs that would be used. Lots of info to search for online and on RR now days. When i started 30+ years ago there wasnt any of that. I used to go to a local radio shop years ago to buy Pop Comm and MT magazines and got to talking with a guy that worked there. He was telling me all about the MilAir band and got me interested. Gave me some local freqs and when and how to try to hear them and i was off from there. I have a radio running Fighter/Bomber air-air, UHF center freqs, Tactical-Range freqs, Air Refueling, Huntress-Norad, Air-Air common freqs and usually a search radio. The MD MilAir forum on here is full of info and theres alot of good guys in there.