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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: radio recommendations sought
Message-ID: <1044@terak.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Feb-86 14:56:42 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.1044
Posted: Wed Feb 12 14:56:42 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Feb-86 01:44:29 EST
References: <4125@ut-sally.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Calcomp Display Products Division, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 32

> Can anyone suggest a decent, relatively cheap receiver or
> scanner that gets aviation frequencies (~108-~130?MHz)?
> Cost objective is under $100 

You might check out Radio Shack.  They have a few multi-band portable
radios that include aircraft band.  The list price is usually about
$100, but they are sometimes on sale for $60 or so.  [Note: you do *not*
want their "Jetstream" or whatever-it's-called pocket size radio].

I have an ancient Radio Shack "Realistic Patrolman 6" (that particular
model is no longer produced) that I paid $60 for back in '77.  It has
better sensitivity and selectivity than any other tunable air-band
radio I've come across (no, I haven't seen the Sony unit).  Sensitivity
is good enough that the tower never hears anything that I don't.  The
selectivity is approximately plus-or-minus 200 KHz; when tuned to 120.5
you can hear from 120.3 to 120.7.

The squelch was useless.  It died after the radio took a long drop onto
the ramp, and I didn't care.

> Main criterion other than that is ease and accuracy of tuning.

Well, accuracy (in the sense of being tuned to 120.0 when the indicator
is over the "120" mark) is a weak point of the Shack's radios.  But
the tuning is repeatable, so I use the "logging" scale to keep track of
where I've found the various frequencies.

P.S. I usually take the radio with me when I'm flying.  If I plug my
headphones into it, it makes a nice back-up receiver (the speaker isn't
loud enough to hear in my plane as long as the engine's running).
-- 
Doug Pardee -- CalComp -- {hardy,savax,seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!terak!doug