My Listening Post

[jmp883]

This is my listening post.

2 BC-780's
2 BC-895's
1 BC-890
1 TRC-495 CB Base Station
1 Sony WaveHawk Handheld
1 JD-100 Airband Handheld (purchased from Sporty's Pilot Shop)

Just out of the bottom of the picture is a Motorola HT-1000 portable and a Yaesu FT-60R handheld 2M/70cm amateur handheld. In my vehicle I use a Yaesu FT-7800R which also has VHF-Hi/UHF scan capability (so does the FT-60R).

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Looks very nice,how do you like your GRE"Super Amp"? I bought one 5 years and liked the performance so much that I bought 3 more the following year...........

 

[jmp883]

The Super Amp was probably the best piece of equipment I ever bought for my listening post.

I live in northern NJ, about 40 miles northwest of NYC and about 10 miles south of the Orange County, NY border. I'm also in a valley. I have an omni-directional antenna mounted on my old TV antenna mast about 10-12 feet above the roofline. With the amp off-line I only receive the immediate surrounding areas. With it on-line I recieve most of the northern 1/3 of the state. I also recieve several southern NY counties and FDNY.

Living in a valley like I do line-of-sight propagation means I'm not going to hear very much, even with that roof-mounted antenna. The amp definitely helped me. However a buddy of mine bought the same amp and it made very little, if any, difference for him. He lives just a couple of miles away from me, but his house is on the side of the mountain that creates the valley I live in. He got much better results when he installed a taller antenna on his roof.

 

[tbharper]

where can you get a gre super amp at

 

[tonsoffun]

Hey Joe,
Shack looks great!. How do you like the JD-100 Airband Handheld?.
Take care
Ron

 

[jmp883]

Thanks tonsoffun,

The JD-100 is a great radio. Obviously it only scans airband, but it does have both the civil and military airbands in it. Speaker puts out good audio and battery life is decent.

The few gripes are that if you want to monitor more than just the aviation part of an airshow you'll need to carry another radio. It also has a slightly quirky keystroke sequence during programming. Those are minor issues though.

Does Sporty's still offer this radio anymore? I haven't gotten one of their catalogs for a few years now. The last catalog I received had both the JD-100 scanner and the JD-200 transceiver/nav. radio.

 

[kyguy]

Very nice setup!! Does the cb create any interferance to the scanners when xmitting?
73 to ya

 

[jmp883]

Actually I must confess...the CB hasn't worked in years. It's just used to evenly stack the scanners. I was an avid CB user in my vehicle but never really got into using a CB at home. Since I got my amateur license the CB will come out so that a amateur transceiver can go in. Then I might have some interference problems!

 

[jmp883]

Should've posted this at the same time I posted the home shack. This is my mobile setup. A Yaesu FT-7800 dual-band ham transceiver with VHF-Hi/UHF scan capability as well. Since I'm an emergency services dispatcher, volunteer firefighter, and ham this radio fits the bill perfectly for me. 99% of the towns in my area are either already on VHF-Hi or UHF or are in the process of switching over. There are a few trunk systems and APCO-25 systems but I wouldn't monitor them anyway even if they were conventional. I don't scan a whole lot of emergency frequencies, just the 2 towns I dispatch for. It's nice to know what's going on as I'm driving to work.

It's an excellent radio with excellent audio and a horrendously written owner's manual!

 

[FireMan16]

looks great

 

[jmp883]

Updated Mobile Installation

Updated my mobile installation...thought I'd pass the new picture along. Yaesu FT-7800R mobile radio, FT-60R HT, and an MFJ-281 speaker. I highly recommend this speaker. I've only had it hooked up to the 7800 for less than 24 hours and I'm already very impressed with it's audio over the stock 7800 speaker.

73!

 

[IW_RADIO]

Very nice set-ups... I have the Yaesu FT-8800 in my mobile!

 

[jmp883]

Proof that radio/scanning is a never-ending hobby. My buddy upgraded his mobile rig last week. Due to his living situation it wasn't practical for him to use his Yaesu FT-7800R as a base station so he sold it to me. I already have a 7800 in my truck so the purchase of a power supply allowed me my first base station.

It took a little bit of rearranging equipment until I got the set-up I like. The next addition may just be the Yaseu 8-pin microphone adapter and a Yaseu desk mic. The hand-mic is fine when driving but it can get awkward using it as a base mic.

 

[Colin9690]

where can you get a gre super amp at

http://www.greamerica.com/scanner.html

They only have the handheld model, the base was discontinued.

 

[kb9tyc]

Where did you get the hanger or bracket that the FT-7800 mic is on?

 

[jmp883]

That was the mic hanger that was supplied with the radio. RS or any ham/scanner/cb store will also sell them.

 

[cschmit]

Proof that radio/scanning is a never-ending hobby. My buddy upgraded his mobile rig last week. Due to his living situation it wasn't practical for him to use his Yaesu FT-7800R as a base station so he sold it to me. I already have a 7800 in my truck so the purchase of a power supply allowed me my first base station.

It took a little bit of rearranging equipment until I got the set-up I like. The next addition may just be the Yaseu 8-pin microphone adapter and a Yaseu desk mic. The hand-mic is fine when driving but it can get awkward using it as a base mic.

Good to see I am not the only one that has a 7800 in the truck and one in the shack. It is a great radio!!

 

[mass-man]

Question for you 7800 guys? How would you rate the rig as a scanner? I have been thinking about one for a long time, but only want one radio in my small SUV. I am not all that active on any local repeater, so if the thing was off scanning, it would not be a big deal...

For me it would be a conventional UHF system and ATC most of the time...TX DPS is migrating to P25 so to keep hearing them I will have to add a scanner...

TNX

 

[jmp883]

Cschmit wrote:

Good to see I am not the only one that has a 7800 in the truck and one in the shack. It is a great radio!!

I agree, the Yaesu 7800 is a good radio. However my buddy upgraded from the 7800 to a Kenwood TM-V708A dual-bander. After hanging out with him this past weekend and watching him set it up and program it I see a V708A on the horizon for my truck. The Kenwood offers a few features that the 7800 doesn't.

The one that hooked me was the dual-channel receive capability. It's nice being able to monitor two frequencies at once. I'm an emergency services dispatcher and I like listening to my agency on my 15 mile drive to work. However I also like to monitor the local ham repeaters. The dual-receive feature will also come in handy because I regularly operate/monitor 2 different repeaters. On the Yaesu the only way to do it is via the dual-watch function, but that is not true dual-channel monitoring. The display is also a vast improvement over that of the Yaesu. The only negatives I've been able to come up with about the Kenwood is that there is no programming software for the radio and I far prefer the Yaesu mic to the Kenwood mic.

So now that I've played with the Kenwood I think it'll be just a matter of time before there's one in my truck. I am planning to upgrade my ham license to General but I plan on keeping only a 2m/70cm radio in my truck. I'd rather work HF from my home without the distractions of driving. I'm a member of both ARES and RACES so once the Kenwood arrives I guess that the Yaesu in my truck, along with a power supply, will join the Yaesu FT-60R handheld in my ARES/RACES field kit.

Of course if I had done better investigation before I bought the Yaesu maybe I would have had bought the Kenwood right off the bat..............

 

[mass-man]

Then how would you rate the KENWOOD as a scanner?