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!