zguy1243
Member
Being a devoted Milair Listener I am always looking for a way to squeeze just another tiny bit more performance out of my gear. I relate listening to Milair allot to DX'ing, most of the comms you hear are distant and week. I have been trying new radios and buying different antennas and preamps since I started listening back in 1994. In the recent years I have really put forth a effort to find the BEST radios, antennas, cable, and preamps there are for Milair listening. It has been a very costly effort let me tell you. I started back in 1994 with a Pro2030 scanner that I got for my 14th birthday sitting at the gates of Tinker AFB with my 100$ scanner. It didn't take me long to find out that 118-136 was not were the action was, I needed a 225-400Mhz capable radio, This lead me to the Pro-2005 scanner, which will still put alot of todays new radios to shame in the miliar bands. Well Here I am almost 14 years later. Over those years i have learned alot and sucked every up bit of info I could get about military communications. The gear I use today really isnt all that diffferent than the Pro2005 I used 14 years ago. I can say I have Probably owned nearly every single commonly available VHF/UHF receiver. With that said, let me put out the results for the BEST receiver for Military aircraft 225-400Mhz band that I have found so far.
Best base model receiver: Icom R8500. A high class radio that performs like nothing else in the milair bands. You cant beat it.
Best Handheld-Yupiteru MVT-9000- This thing hears just like the R8500 in the Milair band. Unreal performance from a handheld. The ONE to have.
Best Directional antenna-Military issue AS-1604G 225-400Mhz Log Periodic. These are hard to find but the performance for a directional antenna is second to none.
Best Omni-directional antenna-The Good ol' scantenna so far. I have tried every omni i can find and the dang 40$ scantenna still hold #1. Im still working on this one...
Best Preamp-Angle Linear Hi-level premamps. These are custom tuned units avaible from Chip Angle at www.anglelinear.com Best amp you can get for 225-400Mhz. Low noise and high gain.
Best antenna cable(that is practical for home use) LMR600.
Best Hand held Antenna-Maldol ALH-500
Well that is what I have came up with, I welcome any comments or ideas.
Jody
North Georgia
Best base model receiver: Icom R8500. A high class radio that performs like nothing else in the milair bands. You cant beat it.
Best Handheld-Yupiteru MVT-9000- This thing hears just like the R8500 in the Milair band. Unreal performance from a handheld. The ONE to have.
Best Directional antenna-Military issue AS-1604G 225-400Mhz Log Periodic. These are hard to find but the performance for a directional antenna is second to none.
Best Omni-directional antenna-The Good ol' scantenna so far. I have tried every omni i can find and the dang 40$ scantenna still hold #1. Im still working on this one...
Best Preamp-Angle Linear Hi-level premamps. These are custom tuned units avaible from Chip Angle at www.anglelinear.com Best amp you can get for 225-400Mhz. Low noise and high gain.
Best antenna cable(that is practical for home use) LMR600.
Best Hand held Antenna-Maldol ALH-500
Well that is what I have came up with, I welcome any comments or ideas.
Jody
North Georgia
Last edited: