Most sensitive hh radios for individual bands

[aprilexe]

Of the various handheld scanners and wideband receivers (and ham ht’s) what are your favorites for individual bands (as opposed to the best for all bands)

The well known for mil and civ air being the MVT-7100 and PRO-43 with the Maldol AL-500.

Most other bands it seems to be a mixed bag of peoples various favorites and antenna combinations.

 

[theoldcop]

Great question! Here in ILM almost all of the trunked stuff is encrypted so I've been concentrating on V/Uhf. I was wondering which scanner would be most sensitive for those bands. I have number of radios and so far my old BC9000 seems best on VHF. My Icom R30 also does a good job, but I always wonder if there is a scanner out there known for its sensitivity.

 

[Listener1440]

This is a good question for thought. I find for local vhf/uhf the 125AT does really well. I have been trying several of my ham HTs and am fairly well impressed. They clearly pick up transmissions from three countries over. Our local public service has gone to the “quiet “ side so started experimenting with different frequencies and radios. Bought RTSystems software that pulls data from RRDB. Good stuff.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

but I always wonder if there is a scanner out there known for its sensitivity.

Not all bands and RF environments are created equal. Hobbyist 1 may claim "X" scanner is the most sensitive but hobbyist #2 in an entirely different environment may totally dispute their claim and favor "Y" scanner. Also it majorly depends on what specific band(s) the antenna connected to said scanner is resonant on, height of said antenna, quality of coax used if applicable, among other factors. With that said my Icom IC-R20 blows my 436HP & SDS100 out of the water on analog VHF & UHF with same antenna connected. I accept the fact that someone else who owns these radios may dispute my claim. It's the nature of our hobby

 

[bob550]

They clearly pick up transmissions from three countries over.

We'll just assume you mean "counties".

 

[Listener1440]

Thanks for the correction bob550. Spell check is so dependable. Yes, three counties.

 

[IC-R20]

The PSR-500 and derivatives is very hot receiver and one need only select the desired antenna.

 

[Ubbe]

Single band $100 MD380's are super sensitive and keep its sensitivity even when big signals tries to interfere. It's only doing analog and DMR signals. The dual band versions are not as good as it is another receiver design.

You notice the difference when there are signals at adjacent channels and high signal strengths in the air.

/Ubbe

 

[aprilexe]

There was a good bit of skip from 33-34 mhz this morning and The TRX-1, R20 and RX7 seemed to do the best with the THF6a being the weakest. All were each using a RS center loaded whip.

 

[RichardKramer]

I have 2 BCD396XT HH scanners; small/light weight/nice audio, receives analog very well along with P25. Because I use a speaker shoulder unit and the Uniden scanners knock down the audio out on the speaker jack; I mounted an extra speaker jack along side the bnc connector which is wired to the internal speaker for full audio out to use with my shoulder speaker/mobile speaker in the car.