Primarily for airshows but ......

[danpass]

... perhaps general listening as well.

What other comparable/better options are there to the Icom IC-R6 scanner?

 

[zerg901]

The Pro 106 can scan the civilian and military air and ground frequencys (approx 25 Mhz to 55 Mhz - 118 to 174 - 220 to 512 - 700 to 1300 Mhz). I am pretty sure that it can also trunk track the military TRS at 380 Mhz. Pro 106 cannot decode NEXEDGE, DStar, Mototrbo.

 

[ka3jjz]

No scanner can handle Mototrbo, NEXEDGE or DStar...Mike

 

[jimlawrence]

I've used an old Pro-97 at airshows for years with great success. Its signal stalking capabilities will help you find boss freqs as well as many others. Of course, it's a non-P-25 scanner so if your goal at airshows is to hear all the LMR traffic, it probably won't be the one for you. However, since my main goal is the air boss and air-to-airs/performers discretes, it does the job admirably.

 

[UPMan]

BC125AT is specifically targetted to scanning events like that. It has both civilian and military air band coverage (actually, 25-54, 108-174, 225-380, and 400-512 MHz coverage). And, you can put alpha tags on the channels to make it easier to ID agencies you've programmed.

 

[nanZor]

Having owned an R5 and R6 (in addition to many other Icom products), as well as the Uniden 125AT, in this similar bracket the 125 wins hands-down for a number of reasons.

Don't get me wrong, the R6 is a great radio (albeit with one major flaw for me), but from an operational standpoint, you had better be willing to live / use it every single day to master the complex operational structure. I did - but a few months later - good luck remembering it all.

Memory management and superior alpha-tagging over the R6 is just one feature. Not having to buy custom software, and a custom programming cable are another. With the 125 you get the software free, and the cable is just a standard usb cable. If you lose it, just get another from practically anywhere around the house. And there is no question that the display on the 125 is drastically easier to read since it is about the size of the R20 physically.

Neither radio is a dog in the performance department. However, if you plug the audio cable from the R6 into say a typical mobile stereo input, you'll immediately hear the power-saver ticking away. That forces you to disable that feature. It is not known if Icom will ever fix it. The earlier R5 did not have this problem. The R6 also uses a mono jack, forcing nearly every modern user to have a huge adapter on the end of it for stereo phones. The 125 comes out of the box set up for stereo - although thankfully there is NO desense-prone FM broadcast reception.

The 125 allows for free firmware updates, and the latest improves upon an already good product. Try upgrading the firmware for your R6. Or for that matter, finding online support from the vendor directly in the forums. You get that right here with Uniden.

 

[krokus]

... perhaps general listening as well.

What other comparable/better options are there to the Icom IC-R6 scanner?

For air shows, get a used handheld model. Scanners from the 90s and on should do fine, like the RS Pro-43 and later. Since these can be gotten on the cheap, you can focus more on the non-aviation stuff with another radio.

 

[nanZor]

For air shows, get a used handheld model. Scanners from the 90s and on should do fine, like the RS Pro-43 and later.

Ugh - most models from the 90's era (except the '43) are dual-conversion using a first IF of 10.7 mhz. That leads to image and/or desense problems, in either the amateur 2m band (144mhz), or from the upper end of the FM broadcast band, not to mention suceptibility to NOAA overload as well.

Why not start out right with a modern unit, with a warantee, online support directly from the vendor, and a decent front-end to boot. You get NONE of that with 25 year old technology. Some of us take our airband monitoring seriously. Start out right so you don't end up buying things twice.

 

[cherubim]

BC125AT is specifically targetted to scanning events like that. It has both civilian and military air band coverage (actually, 25-54, 108-174, 225-380, and 400-512 MHz coverage). And, you can put alpha tags on the channels to make it easier to ID agencies you've programmed.

Why did Uniden cut the top 20MHz off from the MilAir band ? It's not always digital trunking in that region.