Radtel RT 950 Pro as an Airband Receiver?

 So, after a very long time of not posting here I thought I would take the opportunity to 'resurrect' this blog and post on my findings with my recently purchased Radtel 950 Pro radio. Just like Chinese manufactured cars, the UK is being 'flooded' with Chinese radio equipment so just how good is the 950 pro particularly for airband listeners?

I have to say, I am comparing the Radtel 950 Pro against my Icom IC R15 which is a completely unfair comparison as the Radtel cost just £89 and the Icom over £400! The R15 in my humble opinion, is one of the best radios around for Civil and military airband listening right now and I think, ranks alongside 'benchmark' receivers such as the Signal R535 & Yupiteru MVT7100 (I've owned both in the past) but I'm not going to go into all the reasons why just now.

I bought the Radtel for two reasons, number one, I wanted a tougher more rugged (and cheaper) radio that I could use when 'in the field' away from home or at an airfield/airshow which is not very often for me. Reason number two was because I just occasionally listen to HF aero frequencies which the Radtel is also capable of doing but I am not able to compare it alongside a 'better' HF radio.

So having compared the Radtel alongside the R15 on the very same dipole antenna, I can honestly say on VHF airband the Radtel is really very good on both audio quality and sensitivity, I was truly surprised by it's performance! although some of the weakest signals come through as carrier wave only with no discernible audio whereas those signals are still good audio on the R15 as you would expect.

It is a slightly different story on UHF military band however. It is quite difficult to compare signals on UHF mil as transmissions are often very short, but I have managed to do so, by comparing known frequencies primarily for Swanwick military. So having monitored 233.725MHz on both radios, reception seems very good on the Radtel but by the time you reach Swanwick mil central on 252.875 the Radtel is almost completely deaf to very strong transmissions here. I was able to compare signals on 256.200 (a known Lakenheath air to air) and then further up the band, Swanwick mil on 275.500 and I have to say the Radtel remains pretty deaf on those frequencies! 

Just quite how low and how high this 'null zone' extends I'm still working on, but what I have noticed is that known frequencies that are 350MHz and above, are coming through load and clear again and comparable to the R15.  

I think all in all, given it's price point, you are getting a lot of radio for your money and it will serve the purpose for which I brought it. It's never going to replace my R15, but it has some great features such as displaying three frequencies at once etc. 

Just a point on it's memory features, what I consider memory 'banks' are labelled 'zones' on the Radtel. The free software available for programming memories is not great, but it works. In my very unscientific testing, it seems to scan memory channels at a very slow 5-6 channels a second (100+ on the R15!) so for airband monitoring you really don't want to be scanning more than a handful of frequencies at a time. 

In conclusion, if your main interest is VHF air you could do a lot worse than the 950 pro, it's audio quality and sensitivity really surprised me, however if you monitor a lot of mil air frequencies like myself, the 'null reception zone' around 250-275MHz coupled with the very slow scan rate of memory channels means it's not so great a choice. As I've already said, it's never going to replace my R15 as my main listening device but I do still believe, you are getting a lot of radio for less than £100!

Uniden UBC125XLT my scanner of choice at the moment!

Well, its been quite some time since I posted here! I must admit, I mainly tweet in real time these days regarding military aircraft movements and frequencies being used etc. However, I do want to keep this blog "alive" as there is a lot of information that is still useful and relevant going back some years for anyone quite new to the hobby of airband listening.

After having sold a Uniden 125XLT last year in preference for a Uniden BCT15X I find myself back with a 125XLT! Incidentally I also purchased a Yaesu VR120D to take on holiday with me to Devon last summer and it was an awful radio! VERY susceptible to interference and as a result, pretty deaf compared to the Unidens I'm used to and so I wouldn't recommend one of these to anyone and it was moved on to a new home pretty quickly!

The BCT15X is a great scanner (albeit in terms of sensitivity identical to the 125XLT) but with it's "dynamic memory" it was just too complicated for me as my only interest is airband.

And so, I find myself back with a 125XLT which provides great reception with very little interference or breakthrough in my location, using my DIY loft antenna which gives me excellent results.

I actually love the idea of fixed memory banks and channels numbers because I can still group things logically and memorize my most frequently used channels which means I just punch in the channel number followed by the "hold" button and I'm where I want to be very quickly! 

This coupled with its excellent features such as temporary lockout (resets when powering radio on & off again) and the priority features such as being able to designate one channel out of each bank as a priority and then using one of the priority functions such as "priority DND" (do not disturb: so it will only switch to a priority transmission IF there is no signal on the frequency you're monitoring at the time) means you have something resembling a "dual watch" feature, in fact, it means you can be monitoring up to 11 frequencies virtually simultaneously! (the one your on plus 10 priority channels).

That's it for now and if you're interested in following my real time military movements tweet then give me a follow: @Su39frogfoot

ICOM IC-R5

I have now received my little Icom IC-R5 back from Geoff at Castle Electronics in full working order who I can highly recommend for repairs.

This is going to be an ideal receiver for when I'm 'on site' at airfields and airshows, it's so compact but seems very sturdy and robust. I have to say after some initial testing, the supplied rubber duck antenna is next to useless, but as soon as you replace this with just about anything else, it really begins to shine and is a very capable and sensitive receiver on the VHF & UHF airband at least.

Many people have complained about the lack of buttons on the little Icom's making them difficult to use, but after having read the manual several times over on programming frequencies into memories and then into banks and also programming search bands (or scan edges as Icom like to call it) I am now able to do everything I want to do without referring to the manual. It's really quite quick and easy to tune frequencies I want to get to manually in VFO mode too.

I have been messing about with the Icom connected to my loft antenna usually reserved for my Uniden BCT15X and I had quite a shock this Sunday morning! While tuning around on the Icom I could clearly hear a constant broadcast from RAF Wittering coming through the squelch and showing one bar of signal on 123.925.

The broadcast was as follows: 'Wittering radar is now closed and will reopen at 0730 Zulu on the 14th August'.

I was quite surprised I could hear anything from Wittering given my location on the West side of Leicester but what was more surprising was when I reconnected my antenna to the BCT15X, the transmission wasn't coming through the squelch and even when I backed it off, the broadcast was barely audible! Could the IC-R5 really beat my BCT15X in pulling in weak signals? Well, yes it does in this case!

So, all in all, a very capable little receiver for airband at least, HOWEVER, the scan speed of memory channels is woefully inadequate in my opinion if you intend to scan a lot of frequencies, because while it will search at about 30 steps a second, it's actual scan speed of stored memories is just 10 CHANNELS A SECOND.

Now, if your going to use this radio 'on site' as I will be doing, this is not much of an issue, because I will typically be monitoring a handful of frequencies at the most, but for use as a home based scanner monitoring perhaps hundreds of frequencies as I do, it is simply not up to the job. To be fair to Icom, it does say on the front 'communications receiver' and not 'communications scanner' !

Having said that, I hear the slow scan speed has been addressed with the Icom IC-R6 so maybe getting hold of one of these will be my next goal....

Icom IC-R5 and Scampton Air Show

Well, I decided to purchase a 'spares or repair' Icom IC-R5 recently with the hope that it could be fixed primarily for me to use 'on site' at the Scampton Air Show which is the only event I'm likely to attend this year.

Having seen a recommendation for Castle Electronics (hamradiosales.co.uk) after a short conversation with Geoff there, I despatched the IC-R5 off to him last week hoping he can get it working. As yet, I've heard nothing, so watch this space!

I have owned an IC-R2 and R5 in years past, and the Icom IC-R5 is a one bank or all banks scanner. It's scan speed is not very fast either, but usually when 'on site' at an air show, I'll be monitoring a handful of frequencies at the very most, so it's drawbacks are not much of an issue for me in that situation.

I thought the little Icom would be an ideal 'discrete' scanner to use when out and about which is not very often for me, hence why I didn't want to spend much on it. If it can indeed be fixed, I'll report back on it's performance when used 'on site' and when attached to my home antenna.

As I mentioned, Scampton is about the only air show I'll attend this year and I know there's quite a bit of skepticism of the price versus content for this show at the moment on various forums.

I would like to give the organisers of what is a brand new event the benefit of the doubt but I must admit the 'flying' content with just over a month to go looks fairly light considering it will be nearly £80 for myself and my wife to attend (better value admittedly for families as under 16's go free).

There has been much fanfare in recent emails of attendees to the show, only to learn they are joining the static display only, which is great, but at the end of the day if I want to look at aircraft sitting stationary, there is a large number of air museums I can visit at any time to admire aircraft in that way. Is it only me or do most people want to attend an air show to see aircraft in their natural environment and that means flying!

Well, I'm holding off buying tickets for now as I want to see if anything else develops in the last month or so. I may well attend my local show down the road - The Victory Show at Cosby on the same weekend - not a full scale air show by any means, but they always puts on a good flying display and for £15 advance ticket cost is excellent value!  

As with all air shows, it's good to include the air show 'common' frequencies in your scan: 121.175 - 130.675 - 132.9 - 130.5 - 130.625 - 134.55.

Cosby Victory Show have always tended to be allocated 121.175

Uniden BCT15X

I've had my Uniden BCT15X for over a month now and I am thoroughly pleased and impressed with its features!

As it was supplied with a serial cable which is next to useless for most modern computers, I have programmed it manually which was actually quicker and easier than I thought it would be. Although it was probably two to three hours work in all to create a total of three systems (CIVIL AIR, MILITARY AIR & TACTICAL AIR) each containing various groups and then programming individual channels with alpha tags under all the group's, I now have everything set out just as I want it and it's very easy to instantly enable or disable groups and/or systems as I'm scanning (which incidentally it does very fast).

I've had a mess around with some of the features such as the bandscope function which allows you to set a centre frequency, then set the band width and step for the frequency search and will then display a signal bar for any transmissions found in the search range you have set. In fact, messing around with this feature enabled me to find an E3 AWACS frequency that was in use at the time!

Putting it alongside my UBC125XLT I think it is a little more sensitive but of course, any radio is only as good as the antenna used and it's position.

Above you can see my BCT15X in bandscope mode with 126.000MHz as the centre frequency with a total bandwidth of 1 MHz (from 125.5 to 126.5). The largest signal bar to the right of centre is East Midlands approach transmissions being intercepted on 126.175.

If you have a BCT15X and are struggling to get to grips with using it please check out the easier to read online manual on the Marksscanners website. 

Airband Scanners and the Need For Speed!

This is something I've touched on with a recent post when comparing the Uniden UBC125XLT with the Yupiteru VT225 and that is the speed with which a scanner will scan its memory channels (search speed is also important when looking for new frequencies too).

Many scanners available today offer scan speeds in the region of 20-40 channels a second which may sound quite reasonable. I think some of the AOR, Icom and Alinco radios scan at these sort of speeds and I believe the older Yupiteru scanners are in the region of 30 cps (channels per second) and many of the radio Shack/Realistic radios such as the PRO 2042 are in the region of 40 cps.

As I say that may sound reasonable, but when you have perhaps say 500 memory channels stored (quite reasonable even for airband especially if your interest is military and civil) it would take a scanner doing 20 cps 25 SECONDS to get round to checking each channel again! and when you consider that transmissions are often very short particularly on military airband you can begin to see that it would be possible to completely miss a transmission without ever being aware of it and then you're left scratching your head trying to lock on to that aircraft and the frequency it's using, so SPEED REALLY IS IMPORTANT in what determines a good radio scanner for locking on to those signals!

This is one area the Uniden radios in particular seem to excel, the 125XLT I have at the moment for instance has a published scan speed of 80 cps and I can honestly say, I've never picked up as many transmissions as I now do on this radio.If it's within reception range, I'll hear it.

My next intended purchase is a dedicated home based scanner and I'll probably be looking at the Uniden BCT15X as this has a stated search and scan speed of 100cps! I appreciate this scanner is not for the faint hearted as it has 'dynamic memory allocation' which I'm not going to explain here but it's quite a steep learning curve compared with most scanners today but I'm pretty familiar with the Uniden radios now having previously owned a 3500XLT with dynamic memory allocation so I think I know what I'll be doing with it so watch this space. Once I manage to get hold of one, I'll post my opinions and experience with it on here!

Air Traffic Control and Bandboxing

Many of you are perhaps familiar with 'bandboxing' in air traffic control circles, for those that are not familiar with the term it basically means a controller is working more than one sector and/or frequency at a time.

Remember these? An early digital airband radio from Swinburne

For instance, the Daventry high sector for mainly northbound traffic over the east midlands uses 127.1 and the Daventry high sector for mainly southbound traffic over the west midlands uses 129.2. Now this morning (Sunday morning) traffic levels are lower and therefore one controller is working both sides of this sector and hence both aircraft and controller can be heard on both frequencies (transmissions re-transmitted on both frequencies). You may hear the controller on one frequency and the aircraft on another frequency.

This situation frequently occurs for me with Swanwick military central because I can always hear the controller on 252.875 UHF but if an aircraft is talking to him on his VHF frequency (128.7) I usually only hear the aircraft side of the conversation (probably different transmitter sites in use). 

Again, it can be down to a lot of factors such as your location and the location of any actual transmitter sites that 'repeat' the transmission from Swanwick etc.

But hopefully, that gives you an idea, I'm no radio 'tecchy' so would not even try to explain the more technical aspects of this!

USAF Reach flights

On a clear day I often see 'reach' flights crossing the UK, usually on a well used route either travelling east or west through southern Wales (sometimes further south using reporting point 'gitus' approx 15 miles north of Lands End) across to RAF Marham in Norfolk (and then on to 'navpi' in the north sea east of Great Yarmouth).

Aircraft using these callsigns typically include C130 Hercules, C5 Galaxy, C17 Globemaster and KC10 and KC135 Tanker aircraft and occasionally other types.

These flights usually cross 10-15 miles south of my location but are clearly visible from here in Leicester on a clear day. Occasionally their routing is slightly different such as 'reach 707' (C130J) early this morning that went straight across eastbound from central Wales (usually but not always heading to Ramstein) and passed almost overhead my location.

These flights are almost always working Swanwick military on 252.875 and usually a few miles east of here get transferred to Swanwick Military 'East' on either 259.6 UHF or 133.325 VHF.

Another common route for 'reach' flights is from the Northwest (Lake District or further North) across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and then across the North Sea off the North Norfolk coast and from the Yorkshire area these usually work Swanwick civil control on 126.780 until passed to Maastricht when Eastbound.

I'd be interested in knowing the frequencies they usually work further North if anyone can help?

Uniden UBC125XLT and the battery save feature

I've mentioned before that the only slight annoyance with my Uniden UBC125XLT is the battery save feature which automatically kicks in after a couple of minutes when I am monitoring a single frequency and frequently means I miss the first second or so of a transmission which can be vital if the pilot is reading back a frequency change for example.

This feature is only apparent when connected to my small extension speaker as it generates a 'thump thump' noise as the circuitry is continually switching on and off!

The only 'workaround' I have found so far is to have one of the priority modes activated while monitoring a single frequency. My preferred option is the Priority DND option which checks any priority channels that are activated every 2 seconds as long as there is no transmission on the main frequency being monitored. With priority activated the battery save function does not 'kick in' at all.

Of course, you might say you don't want to be monitoring anything else, well if that's the case, if the frequency is in a memory channel, say for arguments sake, in bank 1 then make that channel the one and only priority channel allowed in that bank and only activate bank 1 for scanning, then put the scanner in hold mode on the frequency you want to monitor along with the priority mode and the scanner will be only listening to that channel and the battery save feature will not activate at any time!

The other option is the same as above ie. activate only the bank your channel is stored in during scan mode, hold on your desired channel, make that the priority channel and then activate 'Priority Plus' which will only scan priority channels in activated banks, so in this case, it will only monitor the one frequency in the one and only active memory bank.

Anyway it's not ideal, but it does work if you find the battery save feature an annoyance like me.

Yupiteru VT225 vs Uniden UBC125XLT

So, I've had an interesting few days with my Yupiteru VT225!

As soon as I got the VT225 'out of the box' I had forgotten how relatively small the LCD display is. I guess I've become very used to the nice big, bright display on my 125XLT!

After a relatively short period of time putting these radios side by side connected to my attic DIY dipole antenna (which incidentally, still performs better than any commercial product I've tried) what has become evident is that the VT225 was not pulling in any signals any better or stronger than my 125XLT! this was bit of a surprise, I really expected it to do better somehow.

With the radio connected to the attic antenna, it was pulling in all sorts of 'hash' and in fact, when trying to monitor Lakenheath approach which I regularly listen to on 309.200MHz, there was 3 signal bars of 'white noise' making it impractical to monitor. I also noticed on other frequencies where the background noise could easily be 'squelched out' I was getting the muffled breakthrough of strong local airways transmissions in places, something that I simply do not experience with the 125XLT. Don't get me wrong, the 125 is not perfect, there are a few odd frequencies that are susceptible to strong data transmission breakthrough in my location, but they are VERY FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. 

It's not all bad, I think the Yupiteru VT225 is a sensitive radio, but it is probably best used with a telescopic antenna attached directly to the radio itself and in the right position, is a very good receiver. Worth noting is that the audio quality on the VT225 is excellent and it has a very 'bass' quality sound to it. To get a similar quality of audio I have to attach a small usb charged speaker to the 125XLT. 

Interestingly, the scan rate quoted for the VT225 is 30 channels a second as opposed to 80 channels a second quoted for the 125XLT. When it comes to scanning airband and not wanting to miss the often, very short transmissions (particularly military) in my experience, SPEED IS EVERYTHING especially if you have several hundred frequencies stored in memory. 

All in all, I'm glad I took a trip down 'nostalgia lane' and it's made me appreciate what I have in the 125XLT - it is an excellent scanner for airband (and for the money) and the host of features and it's ability to reject unwanted signals have come along way since the Yupiteru scanner era of the 1990's. Do I sound like I'm on Unidens payroll? wish I was!

So what now for the Yupi? well it's already moved on to a new home! And my Uniden UBC125XLT is staying right here with me! 

What can I try next? fancy one of this little Icoms....

Yupiteru VT225 Civil and Military Airband Radio

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic and have decided to buy a Yupiteru VT225 airband receiver I found on Ebay at a reasonable price. I remember buying one of these brand new probably 20+ years ago now!

I remember being impressed with it's performance and ease of use so I thought it would be good to obtain one again and put it against my Uniden UBC125XLT just to see if it is a better performer. It will be a rather 'unscientific' test and I will simply see if the signal strength of ground stations I can currently receive is any better than the 125. In particular, I'll be interested in it's UHF performance which on any radio never seems quite as good as VHF primarily because the 'line of sight' physics become more critical as you increase frequency from VHF through to UHF.

If i decide to stick with it I will have to reduce my current frequency list down to those that I listen to most of all compared with those I have stored on my 125XLT as the VT225 has just 100 memory channels in 10 banks whereas the 125XLT has 500 memory channels in 10 banks. Also, I have come to love the 16 character 'alpha tagging' on the 125 so I can instantly see what I'm listening too! AND, for the first time in my many decades of listening, I'm able to easily program the 125XLT on my computer! 

I guess the performance of the VT225 will need to be measurably better for me to stick with it. The VT225 has been regarded as equal in performance to the venerable Signal R535 and are still quite sought after amongst 'us airbanders' so it will be interesting to see the results of my 'testing' once the radio arrives, watch this space for my findings....

There be Dragons!

Just thought I'd mention an excellent blog for monitoring movements in and out of Fairford: ffdmovements.blogspot.com. As of today's date, there are two U2's on the ground that arrived yesterday (Wednesday 2nd November) and I also picked up 'Dragon 86' on its way into Fairford this morning on the London Military frequency of 133.900Mhz (Thursday 3rd November). Their callsigns always tend to be 'dragon' and quite frequently stop over at Fairford as they rotate their overseas deployments.

Incidentally, the author of the above blog also has a movements blog dedicated to Brize Norton activity here: bzzspotters.blogspot.co.uk. 

Update on my Uniden UBC125XLT

I've had this scanner for quite a few months now and I have to say, I'm still very pleased with it.

There is not much I can find fault with at the moment but perhaps the only thing that niggles is the battery save feature (which can't be toggled on and off by the user) which works well, but does sometime mean that you miss the first second of a transmission which may not sound much but when an aircraft is passed a new frequency you can miss part of that frequency being read back by the pilot and so you can't be always be sure what frequency he has changed to. It's a little thing, I know, but that's it really.

I find 500 memories arranged in 10 banks of 50 more than enough and I now have my memory banks arranged as follows:

Bank 1 Swanwick & Scottish civil
Bank 2 Local airports (for me that's B'ham, East Mids & Coventry)
Bank 3 minor airfields inc. gliders, safetycom etc.
Bank 4 Swanwick military
Bank 5 Waddington & Coningsby
Bank 6 Mildenhall & Lakenheath
Bank 7 Brize Norton
Bank 8 Marham
Bank 9 RAF & USAF air to air refuelling
Bank 0 (probably tactical freqs when I get around to it)

The fact that I can upload all these frequencies along with the alpha tag names very quickly via the computer is a great bonus and something I've never done before. 

My latest DIY antenna in the loft is performing very well and I can hear ATC transmissions from both East Mids and Coventry loud and clear from my Leicester location and I can also hear aircraft reading back their clearance to land at Brize Norton some 62 miles away. Aircraft at altitude can be heard 150-200 miles away so I'm happy with my set up at this time. Obviously, the very best option would be an antenna mounted on the chimney but that's not an option for me right now.

It's just worth noting too, that when listening at home I have a small USB charged speaker plugged into my scanner which really does provide an audio quality on a par with a much bigger base station radio and can transform your listening pleasure.

I'd be interested to hear from any of you also using the 125XLT and what you think of it. Personally I find it a bit simpler to use than my 3500XLT for just airband listening.

Airband Antenna

Until recently I've simply been using a telescopic antenna positioned in bay window of my bedroom where I receive the best reception.

I have now moved this into the loft and after experimenting on the best position (which is not always simply the highest I can get it) my reception has dramatically improved! I am still just using a telescopic antenna with a BNC connection to rg8 coax cable and what has always improved reception for me is having a similar length of wire hanging straight down 'trapped' in the earth side of the connector which is effectively creating a dipole type antenna.

My telescopic is extended to just under 23 inches (about 58cm) so it is tuned to 259Mhz which is precisely the middle of both the VHF and UHF airbands (118-400Mhz) and it is proving very effective.

For the first time in years, I paid the princely sum of £9.95 to try a Nagoya 771 dual amateur band antenna (2m/70cm bands) as I thought this might perform well as it is tuned for both amateur bands just above the civil and military airbands but in my very unscientific testing alongside the telescopic it was definitely poorer reception so I'm sticking with my makeshift antenna for now, oh well, for only £9.95 it was worth a try.

What I have learned over the years, is that depending on your location and what specific ATC units/airfields you want to hear the most, antenna height is not always as important as the location of your antenna, happy listening!

Airband Reception and Fog!

I woke up this morning to find that it is quite foggy outside. It's worth noting that reception on VHF and UHF frequencies which includes the airband frequency range, is often much better when there are fog conditions.

I don't want to start getting into technicalities here, but when there's high pressure and fog, it can have an effect on radio wave propagation in the troposhere (the lower level of our atmoshere) which affects airband reception. 

This morning is no exception, as I am receiving East Midlands ATC (about 15 miles from me) much louder and clearer than usual and there's a distinct improvement in reception of aircraft and maintenance vehicles on the ground at East Midlands Airport.

So, it's always worth scanning around in fog conditions to see what signals you can 'pull in'. I remember on one occasion, I was clearly receiving Gatwick approach ATC on 126.825Mhz from my location near Leicester! but that was exceptional and doesn't represent the norm.  

New Uniden UBC125XLT Scanner Has Arrived!

After a number of years using a Uniden UBC3500XLT I decided to purchase the new Uniden UBC125XLT. Why? well I was attracted to the large clear and well lit LCD display to be honest. 

Some might feel this is a step backward from the 3500 because that has theoretically 2500 memory channels which can be arranged into systems and banks containing as many channels as you want all with alpha tag naming and when you get used to it, it really is a powerful, fast and effective scanner. 

The thing is, my main interest is just airband listening, and even with all the civil and military frequencies I could possibly want programmed, I'm not using anything like all of those features and memories.

So, having justified my purchase of the UBC125XLT to myself, the other half, and all of my readers, I have to say I'm very pleased with it!

Ok, so it 'only' has 500 memories arranged in 10 fixed banks of 50 channels but I can work with that, it really is fine for me and somewhat simpler really! Very importantly I still have 16 character channel naming available. I think at most, I probably have about 200 frequencies I want to monitor regularly within reasonable range of my location so it's more than enough for me.

With regard to it's performance compared with the Uniden UBC3500XLT I really can't tell any difference when put side by side connected to the same antenna.

In fact, in my opinion, these Uniden scanners have excellent receiver sensitivity and in my unscientific testing compare very well with my old Yupiteru MVT7100 (still highly regarded) and even the much older 'Rolls Royce' of airband receivers, the Signal R535 which I've owned in the past.

For the first time in my 38 years of airband listening, I have managed to programme the scanner via computer! As the 125 came supplied with pc cable, I have managed to download Nick Bailey's excellent bit of software for programming the 125 and have successfully entered all my channels with alpha tagging quite quickly and easily. If you have any comments or opinions, please do get in touch!

Mildenhall Closure

I really must try and post here more often as it's been a while! I felt the need to comment on the recent announcement regarding the closure of RAF Mildenhall. 

When I first heard the news it immediately brought back memories of the great airshows I attended there, particularly in the late 1980's and early 90's.

I'm sure many readers can recall those shows, one that stood out to me (and I can't remember the exact year) was when an SR71 Blackbird took part in the show while the second aircraft based at Mildenhall was on static display.

Although the closure is about four years away it will undoubtedly be devastating news for the many people who's living depends on this airfield and it's operations.

At least it looks like Lakenheath is to remain for the foreseeable future with the announcement of F35's eventually being based there. 

I was also recently saddened by the news that this years 'Airwaves 2015' publication may be the last. For many airband listeners, this publication really is essential reading with it's extremely comprehensive airband frequency listings. Let's hope it can carry on in some way and I'm sure the airband community will lend whatever support we can to it's continued publication.

Cosby Victory Show 2013

Well, I've not posted here for an awful long time, too long really, but I just thought I'd mention it's time for the Cosby Victory Show once again.

Due to various reasons this is the only 'airshow' I'll get to again this year - but thankfully it's virtually on my doorstep. 

For the first time, this show is over three days this year although Friday 6th September is primarily a schools/educational day with no battle re-enactment or air display, but it does show that this event is continuing to grow ever more popular.

I'm planning to attend on Sunday 8th September as among the usual display items such as Spitfire/hurricane and P51 Mustangs (some of which will be on the ground using Cosby's North/South grass runway) there is supposed to be a Typhoon displaying! although I'll miss the Red Arrows (albeit a flypast only) and B17 'Sally B' on the Saturday.

They usually use one of the standard airshow allotment frequencies which are: 

121.175

130.625

130.675

132.9

134.55

130.5 

Incidentally, the universal common frequency (known as 'Unicom' in the states for many years) for non-radio airfields is: 135.475 although it's use at Cosby is unlikely.

Latest News: After listening in on Saturday I can confirm the frequency in use is the airshow common frequency of 121.175MHz. 

Airband Radio Choice!

Craig has contacted to say he blew the dust of his old WIN 108 airband radio recently but was looking for suggestions on a new scanner choice. Well, I'm a bit biased as I have a Uniden Bearcat 3500XLT and for the money, I think it's by far the best scanner right now, very fast scan and too many features to mention such as 'close call' (hunts down and intercepts nearby strong transmissions) AND, most importantly for me, very sensitive. I consider it as sensitive as the Signal R535 and Yupiteru MVT7100 - both of which I consider as 'benchmark' radios for sensitivity and performance on the airband in particular.

There are much more expensive scanners on the market but while they are full of features, the actual sensitivity and reception performance let them down and that's what counts at the end of the day isn't it?

My Early Airband Radio......

I'm feeling in a nostalgic mood today and managed to find a picture of my first 'proper' airband radio, a Sharp airband radio. I did have one of those very cheap multiband radios before it, but I consider this to be my first 'real' airband radio.

 

Others that I've owned in the past include the Signal R537S which had just two crystal controlled fixed channels available as well as being able to tune the VHF airband via the tuning dial, aah those were the days! This was followed by a WIN108 - my first digital display airband radio, anyone remember these?

I was very excited by the red LED light in the top left corner of the Sharp radio as the intensity of the LED gave some indication of signal strength! I remember the tuning dial was quite 'stretched out' with numerous frequency markings so you had a good idea of where to place the tuning dial to listen to certain frequencies, but of course, like many of these radios, you could be monitoring several frequencies either side of the one you wanted to listen too!