Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

A place to discuss airband listening, frequencies and anything related to this area of the hobby.
Post Reply
User avatar
WARLOCK
Top Poster
Top Poster
Posts: 1414
Joined: 04 Jun 2008, 08:27
Call Sign: 26TM134
Location: cambridgeshire

Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

Post by WARLOCK »

looking for a homebase scanner for airbands been offered a Uniden ubc785xlt would this be ok for the aiebands any thoughts as to a good outside antenna ???
from warlock---26TM134
User avatar
RogerD
Top Poster
Top Poster
Posts: 1819
Joined: 05 Oct 2007, 13:22

Re: Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

Post by RogerD »

A simple dipole cut for the middle of the band will do the job perfectly well - it's where you put it that counts. Shove it up high and away you go.
Can't imagine any reasonable scanner being poor on a crucial band like 118-137, but some will have more background noise than others due to the way their AM circuits demodulate the signals, if that bothers you. And then there's scan speed to consider - do you want to monitor one channel or cover as much ground (pun almost intended) as possible? It certainly helps if you want to scan a load of seldom used channels for anything out of the ordinary.
User avatar
Admiral
Legend
Legend
Posts: 10108
Joined: 08 Mar 2011, 21:20
Call Sign: 26TM157
Location: MK-UK

Re: Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

Post by Admiral »

Yes, the 785 is a nice airband scanner, both civil and military, as you're in the Fens, a simple dipole should suffice, plus if you get really into it, it has 8.33kc steps for the crowded parts of the civil band.
Winner of the 2017 IBTL 'Summer Sizzler' competition
tomos
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 224
Joined: 03 Apr 2011, 08:11

Re: Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

Post by tomos »

The 785 is a great base scanner for airband, I think it's the last decent home base uniden made before the 800 etc, which is also a great scanner if you don't mind the car sterio look :) I sold on my 800xlt for another 785xlt

Only downsides for me where, a serial connection for programming software (FTDI serial to USB works fine though) and not being able to use Bctool software

The Diamond D777 is a brilliant white stick antenna for air band, whilst also being very good for the rest of the available frequency.
merseylad
Regular
Regular
Posts: 60
Joined: 14 Aug 2007, 15:44
Location: liverpool

Re: Uniden ubc785xlt any good for airband ???

Post by merseylad »

I have had a 780xlt for about 9-10 years used on a discone without a hint of trouble fantastic for civil and mil airband use
Post Reply