Radio Shack scanner for milair

[prcguy]

That is a great antenna project, Prcguy. Is there much military traffic in the clear on the UHF sat band, or is it mostly bootleggers?

I have not listened in awhile and in the clear US military traffic is really rare these days. If you come across something in the clear many times its a mistake and should not be in the clear. I've heard stations testing in the clear then announce they are going "black" and after that one station is only a hiss and I hear the other station reply "this is XYZ in the black" and continue with the conversation not realizing his crypto is not working. Otherwise lots of pirates out there, mostly in Brazil.

 

[PACNWDude]

For base/mobile, I still use the old school Pro-2006, and a couple of Pro-2032's. Although, some people want a lot for these as of 2023, as if there is a bit of a cult following for them or something.

 

[moonbounce]

The Pro 2006 is great for mil air, the only drawback is that it doesn't have the 25KH step, and you can't lockout birdies in search mode, other than that it is a great scanner. The one thing I do like about it that you can scan any band in AM, FM, or NFM, as mentioned here, it is a good option to have when scanning 138 Mhz to 144 Mhz as mil air comms. are in use here also.

 

[iMONITOR]

Pro-43, Pro-60, Pro-2045, Pro-2052 all do a good job.

I had a few PRO-2052's (CAT #20-432) over the years and they worked great! I think later versions with the (B) suffix on the catalog number had a factory change that opened up the small portion of Mil-Air was originally missing, but I can't find any evidence of that today doing Google searches.

 

[iMONITOR]

if you can find one the RS Pro-43 is an excellent mil and civ air scanner.

As the PRO-43 scanners aged they often needed an internal keypad cleaning, or replacement. I don't know if it was from frequent use or a design flaw, but was talked about more with the PRO-43 than any others as I recall. Something to consider if you're hunting for or buying a used one.