beerad4
Member
Is the BC125AT still the best scanner for mil air? I live near Wright-Patt AFB and am looking for the latest and greatest aviation scanner.
Thanks for any and all help!
Thanks for any and all help!
Quick question for the professionals-
- Thread starter beerad4
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It's not necessarily the best but it is a good radio and it allows you to change the mode on the VHF frequencies that are AM air to air. It does a good job of receiving. And for the price, it's a good deal.
One problem it has though is that it will not go above 380 MHz. In a lot of areas, including where I live, that's not a big problem because we have part of the DOD Nationwide TRS here and there is not a lot of use of the frequencies like there used to be above 380 MHz because of the trunk radio system use of them. They had to change things up a few years back but I still occasionally will catch a military aircraft using frequencies above 380 MHz. Between 380 MHz and 399.975 MHz, it is supposed to be getting phased out due to the various radio systems and uses like the one I mentioned. But there are still plenty of areas in the country where it's not a factor or a problem and it would limit you being able to possibly hear some traffic if they use the higher end of what used to be the UHF portion of the military band.
There are much better receivers that work on the military ban but they cost a lot more money too. If you want to handheld, and the 380 MHz plus frequencies don't make any difference, I think the BC125AT would be a great scanner. It does better than most of the Uniden scanners that are made for TrunkTracking or monitoring the TRS's. There are plenty of mobile/base scanners that do great jobs too. The BC780XLT, the BCD796D, and a lot of others are great in the military bands. Of course Uniden doesn't make these anymore and you would have to buy one used. But I would not recommend buying too many of the modern day Uniden scanners like the BCD536HP/BCD436HP. They don't do too good of a job in my experience. My SDS200, Uniden's top dog right now, is done a great job for me but I see a lot of other people saying it doesn't do good for them in the VHF/UHF military band.
When it comes to both the base and handheld scanners that cover the VHF/UHF military aviation frequencies, and if you're looking at Uniden, the radios made prior to about 2012 did a lot better job. Now if you're looking at some of the more sensitive and higher priced scanners like AOR or ICOM, those can do really good jobs as well.
It's kind of a hard question to answer but I do like my BC125AT and it serves me well when I want to grab a handheld and monitor military. That's solely what I use it for. It's not the best but it does do a great job. And the fact that it allows you to change the mode where you need to and set it to AM mode is a big plus. I sometimes hook my BC125AT up to an outside antenna and use it at home. The 500 channels may sound like a lot but I wish it was 1,000 at least. But the 500 channels might suit you perfectly also? I know Wright Patterson has had a lot of traffic and test flights and things like that in the past. I'm guessing that still goes on today? But since you can find the BC-125AT many times, when it goes on sale, for about $89, that is a great price for a great radio that will usually work great for people and most scenarios I believe. And it does have the alpha tags which is something a lot of older scanners might not have. I think all of the scanners I mentioned have the alpha tag capability but there are older scanners, like the Pro 43, that outperform just about any handheld scanner in the military bands. But you only get 200 channels on it. I've compared my Pro 43 with the BC125AT and the 125 held up real decently with some of the weak signals. So I don't think you could go too wrong if you got one and the military traffic you were interested in hearing was in the DHF/UHF military bands unless there were frequencies you wanted to listen to in those last 20 megahertz, AKA the 380 MHz - MHz frequencies.
Brian
COMMSCAN
One problem it has though is that it will not go above 380 MHz. In a lot of areas, including where I live, that's not a big problem because we have part of the DOD Nationwide TRS here and there is not a lot of use of the frequencies like there used to be above 380 MHz because of the trunk radio system use of them. They had to change things up a few years back but I still occasionally will catch a military aircraft using frequencies above 380 MHz. Between 380 MHz and 399.975 MHz, it is supposed to be getting phased out due to the various radio systems and uses like the one I mentioned. But there are still plenty of areas in the country where it's not a factor or a problem and it would limit you being able to possibly hear some traffic if they use the higher end of what used to be the UHF portion of the military band.
There are much better receivers that work on the military ban but they cost a lot more money too. If you want to handheld, and the 380 MHz plus frequencies don't make any difference, I think the BC125AT would be a great scanner. It does better than most of the Uniden scanners that are made for TrunkTracking or monitoring the TRS's. There are plenty of mobile/base scanners that do great jobs too. The BC780XLT, the BCD796D, and a lot of others are great in the military bands. Of course Uniden doesn't make these anymore and you would have to buy one used. But I would not recommend buying too many of the modern day Uniden scanners like the BCD536HP/BCD436HP. They don't do too good of a job in my experience. My SDS200, Uniden's top dog right now, is done a great job for me but I see a lot of other people saying it doesn't do good for them in the VHF/UHF military band.
When it comes to both the base and handheld scanners that cover the VHF/UHF military aviation frequencies, and if you're looking at Uniden, the radios made prior to about 2012 did a lot better job. Now if you're looking at some of the more sensitive and higher priced scanners like AOR or ICOM, those can do really good jobs as well.
It's kind of a hard question to answer but I do like my BC125AT and it serves me well when I want to grab a handheld and monitor military. That's solely what I use it for. It's not the best but it does do a great job. And the fact that it allows you to change the mode where you need to and set it to AM mode is a big plus. I sometimes hook my BC125AT up to an outside antenna and use it at home. The 500 channels may sound like a lot but I wish it was 1,000 at least. But the 500 channels might suit you perfectly also? I know Wright Patterson has had a lot of traffic and test flights and things like that in the past. I'm guessing that still goes on today? But since you can find the BC-125AT many times, when it goes on sale, for about $89, that is a great price for a great radio that will usually work great for people and most scenarios I believe. And it does have the alpha tags which is something a lot of older scanners might not have. I think all of the scanners I mentioned have the alpha tag capability but there are older scanners, like the Pro 43, that outperform just about any handheld scanner in the military bands. But you only get 200 channels on it. I've compared my Pro 43 with the BC125AT and the 125 held up real decently with some of the weak signals. So I don't think you could go too wrong if you got one and the military traffic you were interested in hearing was in the DHF/UHF military bands unless there were frequencies you wanted to listen to in those last 20 megahertz, AKA the 380 MHz - MHz frequencies.
Brian
COMMSCAN
Get a Icom R30. best of the best!
spacellamaman
Member
PROFESSIONALS? HA!
professional cash burners
and yeah the 125 is where its at.... till you discover audio recording
then you will be a professional too
i am eating ramen noodles as i write this, and there is a reason...a professional one
professional cash burners
and yeah the 125 is where its at.... till you discover audio recording
then you will be a professional too
i am eating ramen noodles as i write this, and there is a reason...a professional one
The 125 skips from 380 to 399 and covers 400 to 512. That leaves out some of the military airband. It is a decent radio but nothing spectacular. Take a look at the IC-R30. Five or six times the cost of the 125, but covers 0.1 to 3304.999 MHZ minus cell and has recording and built in gps plus a huge selection of menu options. It does most broadcast modes, but no DMR, as Icom pushes their digital format called D-Star.
Any idea if the R30 will do Phase 2 with a future firmware upgrade? I've never looked at the R30 but may have to check it out. I have an SDS100 but the Icom seems interesting. Who has the best price on this?
You would have to ask Icom. For now its just phase I. My R30 picked up better than my 436. Little bit of a learning curve but not bad. being a receiver, your not limited like scanners. If you get one and get stuck on something, we can help you. Plenty of R30 owners on this board. You won't regret getting one. Just google search and look at the different vendors to try and save a few bucks.
Will it track a P25 P1 trunked system?
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
No Icoms can't trunktrack. Mike
I use two BC125AT scanners for Mil Air daily. They're on 24/7 in the office using power via USB and connected to the computer for control using Scan125 which is free/donationware. I use two for scanning say 250 freqs each, versus one scanning 500 and missing something. At around $100, they're a bargain and work well for Mil Air. I'll probably purchase a third.
I also have an Icom R30 and it has quite a few features above and beyond the BC125AT, but it costs much more. For basic Mil Air monitoring the BC125AT works for me.
For an external antenna at the house perhaps use a discone and add an FM broadcast filter on the line to reduce interference. For handheld use there are two particular antennas that work best for me on military air, after testing well over a dozen:
#1. Diamond SRH320A - This has an SMA connector, but you can get an SMA to BNC adapter.
#2. Diamond RH951S - This has a BNC connector. (Use this one and avoid the adapter. They're close enough in mil air results.)
I also have an Icom R30 and it has quite a few features above and beyond the BC125AT, but it costs much more. For basic Mil Air monitoring the BC125AT works for me.
For an external antenna at the house perhaps use a discone and add an FM broadcast filter on the line to reduce interference. For handheld use there are two particular antennas that work best for me on military air, after testing well over a dozen:
#1. Diamond SRH320A - This has an SMA connector, but you can get an SMA to BNC adapter.
#2. Diamond RH951S - This has a BNC connector. (Use this one and avoid the adapter. They're close enough in mil air results.)
I own the BC125AT, BCT15X, and the RTL-SDR V3 dongle using all 3 at different times for analog MIL-Gov Air/Ground on VHF/UHF and all work great.
spacellamaman
Member
i totally dig the coverage down to 0.1, and that has tempted me to get an ICOM, but what i am curious about to any R30 owners here is:
over 1300mhz, with the rx modes available, what kind of stuff is monitorable? i think the more coverage the better, but i just dunno what (and i am including various industrial equipment etc) even transmits in that area (aside from wifi i should say)
nd5y
Member
Probably nothing. Almost everything will be wideband (hundreds of kHz to tens of MHz) digital. The R30 doesn't have wide enough filters to receive stuff like that let alone deocde it.
Giga-Parts has the IC-R30 on sale for about $500. Other places it runs about $600. It i9s more a professional monitoring radio than a hobby scanner. If the P25 system is not large, the lack of trunking is partly covered by the 200 channels per second scanning speed, but a busy system will be hit or miss. P25 audio is better than my Motorola 800 mhz radio.
When I scanned P25 by low/high frequencies, picking up chatter wasn’t that great. Once I entered all the frequencies into memory banks, am able most of the time to hear both sides of the conversations.
Military air does not use P25, nor does it use trunking. Mil air mostly uses simplex AM, so we should stay focused on that. Anyone else have another scanner recommendation for military air?
P.S. I am not a professional, but I play one on TV.
P.S. I am not a professional, but I play one on TV.
digitalanalog
Active Member
May take some looking around on eBay, but I used to have one about 20 years ago.
and it did real good on MilAir.
Radio Shack Pro-43
some info here
rigreference.com
there are also some MODS available if you search.
Great little portable for MilAir
invest in a good antenna.
and it did real good on MilAir.
Radio Shack Pro-43
some info here
RadioShack / Realistic Pro-43, Handheld VHF/UHF Scanner / receiver | RigReference.com
RX-range: 68-88 / 118-174 / 220-512 / 806-899 MHz (Europe), TX-range: -, Handheld model, Manufactured between 199x and 199x
there are also some MODS available if you search.
Great little portable for MilAir
invest in a good antenna.
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