I'm in the market for a handheld scanner. Ideally I'd like one that
can both receive and transmit on the 108-136 "airband", as well as be
able to receive ATIS and CTAF broadcasts from military airports, which
I believe are UHF and in the area of 276 MHz. Apparently, such a
device is illegal (that can transmit and receive on two different
"bands"), so I guess I can live with a unit that can only receive
those frequencies, but can't transmit. I've been trying to do research
on which unit to get, but it's all very confusing. I guess there are a
bunch of different "modes" of transmissions, (AM, FM, WFM, etc) and
military airplanes only transmit using one of those types, yet most
scanners only decode AM (or something). As you can tell, I'm not a
radio expert, so I was hoping if someone out there knows their stuff,
they could point me in the right direction. I'm looking to spend about
300 bucks or less. Thanks.

Why, EEG not looking good?


Bertie

> I'm in the market for a handheld scanner.

For transmitting/receiving/handhelds, I like ICOM. I've owned two of
them, and they are as close to bulletproof as I've found.

Just an FYI. It ain't "handheld", but we've also got that Sporty's
scanner with "aviation interrupt", and it's great.

It's locked on the local NPR classical music station, playing nice,
tinkly music in the lobby, but it automatically interrupts when
someone talks on Unicom or Cedar Rapids approach. (You can program
more frequencies, if you want.)

It's a nice unit that fills two real needs. My only gripe is that
programming is completely non-intuitive -- I have to dig out the
manual every time.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Sep 22, 5:20 am, Jay Honeck > wrote:
> > I'm in the market for a handheld scanner.
>
> For transmitting/receiving/handhelds, I like ICOM. I've owned two of
> them, and they are as close to bulletproof as I've found.
>
> Just an FYI. It ain't "handheld", but we've also got that Sporty's
> scanner with "aviation interrupt", and it's great.
>
> It's locked on the local NPR classical music station, playing nice,
> tinkly music in the lobby, but it automatically interrupts when
> someone talks on Unicom or Cedar Rapids approach. (You can program
> more frequencies, if you want.)
>
> It's a nice unit that fills two real needs. My only gripe is that
> programming is completely non-intuitive -- I have to dig out the
> manual every time.
> --
> Jay Honeck
> Iowa City, IA
> Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
> "Your Aviation Destination"

Does the ICom model you have tried receive military transmissions?
What about the sporty's?

> Does the ICom model you have tried receive military transmissions?
> What about the sporty's?

Nope. Sporty's doesn't, and I don't know any handheld *transmitter*
that does.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Being multiband is not illegal. I believe the issue is civilian use of
military frequencies

There are plenty of multiband radios on the market - some amatuer
radio/HAM equipment can broadcast on 4 distinct bands. Yaesu used to
make a VHF/UHF public safety band radio. Just not seen any civilian
transcievers that do VHF and UHF air band - and the stick in the mud is
UHF air band cause its uncle sams.

Dave

buttman wrote:
> I'm in the market for a handheld scanner. Ideally I'd like one that
> can both receive and transmit on the 108-136 "airband", as well as be
> able to receive ATIS and CTAF broadcasts from military airports, which
> I believe are UHF and in the area of 276 MHz. Apparently, such a
> device is illegal (that can transmit and receive on two different
> "bands"), so I guess I can live with a unit that can only receive
> those frequencies, but can't transmit. I've been trying to do research
> on which unit to get, but it's all very confusing. I guess there are a
> bunch of different "modes" of transmissions, (AM, FM, WFM, etc) and
> military airplanes only transmit using one of those types, yet most
> scanners only decode AM (or something). As you can tell, I'm not a
> radio expert, so I was hoping if someone out there knows their stuff,
> they could point me in the right direction. I'm looking to spend about
> 300 bucks or less. Thanks.
>

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:50:43 -0700, buttman > wrote:

>Does the ICom model you have tried receive military transmissions?
>What about the sporty's?

You might have to get a civilian air handheld (transmit / receive),
and a military air scanner.

"buttman" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> On Sep 22, 5:20 am, Jay Honeck > wrote:
>> > I'm in the market for a handheld scanner.
>>
>> For transmitting/receiving/handhelds, I like ICOM. I've owned two of
>> them, and they are as close to bulletproof as I've found.
>>
>> Just an FYI. It ain't "handheld", but we've also got that Sporty's
>> scanner with "aviation interrupt", and it's great.
>>
>> It's locked on the local NPR classical music station, playing nice,
>> tinkly music in the lobby, but it automatically interrupts when
>> someone talks on Unicom or Cedar Rapids approach. (You can program
>> more frequencies, if you want.)
>>
>> It's a nice unit that fills two real needs. My only gripe is that
>> programming is completely non-intuitive -- I have to dig out the
>> manual every time.
>> --
>> Jay Honeck
>> Iowa City, IA
>> Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
>> "Your Aviation Destination"
>
> Does the ICom model you have tried receive military transmissions?
> What about the sporty's?
>

I have an Icom R5 receiver only. It is a terrific little scanner, fits
in my shirt pocket, gets VHF, UHF, weather, Am and FM. Essentially, it
receives everything except cellphones, and there are unblocked versions for
that. As I remember, you can pre-program about 1200 frequencies and search
bands. It goes with me whenever I even approach an airport. With
re-chargeable batteries, it is around $200. I agree with Jay, it is not the
easiest to program. There is an application you can run on your PC that will
program the entire unit.

Al G

The transmit job is a little different. You will want bigger batteries
and a specifically tuned antenna. This will probably be a second radio

buttman wrote:
>I'm in the market for a handheld scanner. Ideally I'd like one that
>can both receive and transmit on the 108-136 "airband", as well as be
>able to receive ATIS and CTAF broadcasts from military airports, which
>I believe are UHF and in the area of 276 MHz.

I've got the ICOM A-6 which handles the civilian com frequencies. I
believe the A-24 is the same radio, but includes the nav frequencies 108-
117MHz.

Don't most military fields have both UHF and VHF frequencies? While
travelling, I often punch in the VHF ATIS frequency to get a report from a
military field. They also usually have VHF frequencies for the tower. On
a civilian airband radio, you could hear the tower, but not the military
planes that were talking to the tower.

I've never needed any special radio equipment for flying into military
airports. What is it that you're trying to accomplish?

John Galban=====>N4BQ (PA28-180)

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