Need more radios

[Zombiel3]

The USAF F16 demo team was reported to be using 384.55. I have not monitored the Thunderbirds in a few years so I cannot confirm their frequencies. Try using this as reference. Air Shows (United States) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

From experience they have always used frequencies in the 140 and 141 range and UHF during the same show. I have never monitored them in the 380 to 400 range.

Even if they don't use it I would still program it in just in case. It will be interesting to see if I pick anything up on it at the air show.
Thank you for that link!

 

[AirScan]

Unfortunately Uniden screwed up on the BC125AT milair coverage. I wish they hadn't. When they were first introduced, I wanted one. Uniden assumed that 380-400 Mhz had been devoted to P25 trunking. This is not the case.

Another thing I find annoying about the BC125AT is you can't seem to change the step size when searching the milair band. It's set at 12.5 kHz when it should be at 25 kHz. So it takes twice as long to search the band. Unless I'm missing something and you can change it somehow ?

MIL Air is a must for me. I live super close to CFB Trenton which is Canada's biggest military air base so I scan mostly MIL Air.

I'm up in Ottawa and while there is not much milair in the immediate vicinity there is a lot to the south in the Fort Drum/Adirondack Airspace Complex (Viper) that I can receive okay above around 10000 feet. Do you monitor this area ? If you are interested in exchanging frequency notes send me a PM. Adirondack Airspace Complex Thread

 

[10-43]

Regarding the PRO-164. They pop up on eBay fairly often for less than $100. It is an analog trunk tracker. It happens to have good reception for VHF and UHF air bands. It is PC programmable, but easy to manually program. It has alpha tagging. PC programming requires the Radio Shack cable that was designated for their scanners whether made by GRE or Uniden.
The step size of the PRO-164 is 25khz from 225-380 but 12.5khz 380-400. It cannot be changed. Although the step size is 8.33 khz 118-137 and cannot be changed it searches quite fast. Also the Signal Stalker of the 164 beats Close Call on Uniden. Works very well at air shows. You can setup signal stalker by band. 3 bands of interst are 108-137, 225-300 and 300-406. There is 137-174 you can use to catch 137-144 and 148-150.8, but it also could give hits all the way up to 174.


At air shows. You do not want or need a high gain antenna or a very sensitive radio. Better to have less. Just the stock antenna is more than enough. Headphones are also very helpful. The noise at a military air show is quite loud.

 

[10-43]

Another thing I find annoying about the BC125AT is you can't seem to change the step size when searching the milair band. It's set at 12.5 kHz when it should be at 25 kHz. So it takes twice as long to search the band. Unless I'm missing something and you can change it somehow ?



I'm up in Ottawa and while there is not much milair in the immediate vicinity there is a lot to the south in the Fort Drum/Adirondack Airspace Complex (Viper) that I can receive okay above around 10000 feet. Do you monitor this area ? If you are interested in exchanging frequency notes send me a PM. Adirondack Airspace Complex Thread

I seem to recall you could change the step size on either the European or Australian versions. I had forgotten about the step size issue. That would also have been frustrating.

 

[Zombiel3]

I'm up in Ottawa and while there is not much milair in the immediate vicinity there is a lot to the south in the Fort Drum/Adirondack Airspace Complex (Viper) that I can receive okay above around 7000 feet. Do you monitor this area ? If you are interested in exchanging frequency notes send me a PM. Adirondack Airspace Complex Thread

I didn't know I could hear stuff that far with just a stock antenna but I'd love to exchange frequency notes.

 

[10-43]

I didn't know I could hear stuff that far with just a stock antenna but I'd love to exchange frequency notes.

Keep in mind that aircraft are at altitude. Distance on earth is limited to objects on the ground and the earth itself due to the horizon at line of site frequencies such as what we are talking about. Line of sight to aircraft can by quite far depending on their altitude.

 

[Zombiel3]

Regarding the PRO-164. They pop up on eBay fairly often for less than $100. It is an analog trunk tracker. It happens to have good reception for VHF and UHF air bands. It is PC programmable, but easy to manually program. It has alpha tagging. PC programming requires the Radio Shack cable that was designated for their scanners whether made by GRE or Uniden.
The step size of the PRO-164 is 25khz from 225-380 but 12.5khz 380-400. It cannot be changed. Although the step size is 8.33 khz 118-137 and cannot be changed it searches quite fast. Also the Signal Stalker of the 164 beats Close Call on Uniden. Works very well at air shows. You can setup signal stalker by band. 3 bands of interst are 108-137, 225-300 and 300-406. There is 137-174 you can use to catch 137-144 and 148-150.8, but it also could give hits all the way up to 174.


At air shows. You do not want or need a high gain antenna or a very sensitive radio. Better to have less. Just the stock antenna is more than enough. Headphones are also very helpful. The noise at a military air show is quite loud.

I found the one on eBay you were talking about. It's $79.00 CAD plus shipping so I think I'm going to buy it.
Thanks for the tips!

 

[AirScan]

I didn't know I could hear stuff that far with just a stock antenna

If you have a clear shot in that direction, no terrain or buildings in the way, you should be able to hear traffic that far. I'm using a BC125AT with a Diamond RH77CA antenna, which seems a bit better than the stock antenna it came with.

 

[Zombiel3]

Keep in mind that aircraft are at altitude. Distance on earth is limited to objects on the ground and the earth itself due to the horizon at line of site frequencies such as what we are talking about. Line of sight to aircraft can by quite far depending on their altitude.

This is good to know! I'm going to try and pick up Fort Drum.

 

[10-43]

The Thunderbirds perform over the water just off Daytona Beach Florida every few years. I have seen them twice there. One visit my wife recorded the very entertaing audio you will hear during their performance. Keep in mind this is a very fast performance with varying G forces on the pilots. It makes for some unusual sounding commands over the Radio.

Attached for your entertainment. This BCT15X was sitting on a table just inside our condo while we watched them over the beach from the balcony.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Zombiel3]

If you have a clear shot in that direction, no terrain or buildings in the way, you should be able to hear traffic that far. I'm using a BC125AT with a Diamond RH77CA antenna, which seems a bit better than the stock antenna it came with.

I'm right on Lake Ontario so Fort Drum and Niagara Falls are my best bets I think.

 

[Zombiel3]

The Thunderbirds perform over the water just off Daytona Beach Florida every few years. I have seen them twice there. One visit my wife recorded the very entertaing audio you will hear during their performance. Keep in mind this is a very fast performance with varying G forces on the pilots. It makes for some unusual sounding commands over the Radio.

Attached for your entertainment. This BCT15X was sitting on a table just inside our condo while we watched them over the beach from the balcony.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

That was really cool. Thanks for that! Was that "Mace" Curran in that audio?

 

[10-43]

That was really cool. Thanks for that! Was that "Mace" Curran in that audio?

I have no idea. It's hard to sometimes understand what they are saying. Lots of inside jargon.

I just added one more video. A better one I think.

 

[10-43]

This is good to know! I'm going to try and pick up Fort Drum.

If you are more than a few miles away from an airport, you will not hear the ground stations unless you are near a remote transmitter. You will hear aircraft several miles away once they are at some altitude above the airfield.

Don't just listen for the airport frequencies. Oh, and military airfields are referred to as airports. Listen for ARTCC frequencies which are the comms between airport air spaces. ARTCC IN US and Air Control Centre's in Canada.

 

[Zombiel3]

I have no idea. It's hard to sometimes understand what they are saying. Lots of inside jargon.

I just added one more video. A better one I think.

Ya that definitely sounded like her!

 

[prcguy]

Thanks! I just did an eBay search for it. This is a very expensive scanner but maybe something I consider in the future since I do think of myself as a bit of a plane chaser. They are going for $250 to almost $400 pre-owned. Yikes! I’m

They show up on eBay in the $125 range, just keep looking.

 

[Zombiel3]

If you are more than a few miles away from an airport, you will not hear the ground stations unless you are near a remote transmitter. You will hear aircraft several miles away once they are at some altitude above the airfield.

Don't just listen for the airport frequencies. Oh, and military airfields are referred to as airports. Listen for ARTCC frequencies which are the comes between airport air spaces.

Ya I was just going to scan some of the Air to Air frequencies I found. How do I find the ARTCC codes?

 

[Zombiel3]

They show up on eBay in the $125 range, just keep looking.

$125 US is over $170 Canadian.

 

[10-43]

Ya I was just going to scan some of the Air to Air frequencies I found. How do I find the ARTCC codes?

Air to Air frequencies are just that. Plane to plane. ARTCC is the Air Route Traffic Control Centers that take over comms once the aircraft exist the airport control space and then hand them off to the destination airport

You will find ARTCC frequencies listed in the RR database for each US state. I don't know where to find the Air Control Centre frequencies in Canada.

You can listen for aircraft callsigns and track them with Flightradar 24 app on your phone.

 

[10-43]

I found the one on eBay you were talking about. It's $79.00 CAD plus shipping so I think I'm going to buy it.
Thanks for the tips!

That one seems to be in good shape. The seller does disclose an issue with the battery holder. It looks like a bad rechargeable battery overheated and melted it a little bit, but it seems to look like it still is usable. The yellow battery holders allow for charging in the scanner. The black ones do not. You do not want to put alkaline batteries in the yellow battery holder and connect the scanner to external power. Maybe that's what melted the yellow battery holder. You can buy the battery holders on eBay, but they are charging big bucks for them. If the yellow holder works, you don't need the black one if you don't use non rechargeable batteries in it while connected to external power.