The Quest for the Best

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zguy1243

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Joined
Apr 24, 2006
Messages
311
Location
Calhoun Georgia
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
 
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Tweekerbob

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Joined
May 27, 2004
Messages
614
Wow! If everyone would realize that there isn't the best antenna for my BC-XXX we would have about 95% less posts.

All kidding aside, you identified your goal. Then you set out to obtain your goal, whilst filling the material needs thereof. Kudos to you...if you you're looking for improvements to your set-up...look no further in terms of an amateur set-up that hits on all da cylinders. If what you're aching for is MilAir, then, my friend, you got it!

The R8500 should hit it right...you will be HARD pressed to find surplus gear, but if you do...
 
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