Right after I watched this I found a Realistic PRO-2023 on eBay for $29 instead of $20 and it looks and works great, I didn't have to do anything to it. I ordered the same antenna you have, programmed my local channel and guard, and it just started working. Thanks for turning me on to this!
I'm a ham too and I use ham radios to receive aircraft AM! I also have non-ham radios that receive air band too. My Yaesu VX-6R gets both the civilian air band as well as the military air band. As does my Kenwood TH-D-75. The Yaesu has a slow scan speed though. The Kenwood doesn't work very well with it's intended Tri-band antenna because when I get near the top of the air band it's really close to the low side of the 2 meter ham band. Since the antenna is more resonant at 2 meters and the top of the air band is not far below that, the noise floor gets louder up over about 130.000 MHz and so it opens up the squelch and stops scanning. I then have to turn the squelch up all the way or put a non-ham antenna on my Kenwood. Then it works much better and doesn't do that because the non-ham antennas are far more broad banded. Only thing is I hope I don't forget I have a non-ham antenna on it (if I'm listening to the air band) and forget to put the right antenna on it and try to transmit with the non-ham antenna, which could damage my output transistors. The Kenwood scans like 20 time faster than my Yaesu does though. I'm a former pilot so I like to listen to planes. My handheld Uniden BC125AT scanner is a great air band scanner but it's a battery pig. So I don't use it much for that. The Uniden does not receive the military air band.
I've got a Radio Shack 200 channel Pro - 2022 scanner I've had for at least 45 years and still works as good as when it was new. Have rooftop mounted antenna. Closest airport is about 3 miles away and can hear local tower, ATIS, pretty good - all airborne craft will pick up 20-25 miles away. (only one side I can hear.. Unable to get ATC com's though). They just don't make um like they used to. My old dead battery Sporty's SP-200 does pretty good as well when plugged in. Back in the mid 80's it would even scan and could pick up mobile telephones (early ones) and baby monitors as well.
The Baofeng UV-5R is an FM only transceiver. Of course it receives AM aviation like crap. Just because it can receive Aviation freqs doesn't mean it can demodulate AM signals.
Yep, I was going to say this. There is an alternative which is the Quansheng with the re-flashed software which makes it into a proper AM (and sort of SSB) receiver.
Greetings , I follow you on GoldwingDocs, but stumbled across this channel. Anyway didn’t know you’re a Ham, how cool. I am as well, N9XFX. I still have my old Bearcat 210 scanner. I work across the highway from the Zenith Aircraft company here in Mexico MO.
Didn't realize you were a ham Scott.. good stuff. I use a Yaesu FT60, which does a good job on AM rx It's not the fastest scanning but for a couple frequencies, it's more than good enough. Hard to beat that 20 dollar Realistic though. Dedicated old school scanners are perfect for a shop radio. 73 de N5XL VE5AEA
I would recommend putting the antenna outside, and then just turning the squelch up. The weaker signals won’t break the squelch, and those that are strong enough will be loud and clear and not fuzzy like what you heard. Just my two cents, there’s a lot of other good advice here as well.
I have two old radio shack scanners, and one is in my garage. They've done well for most things, but because of their age they didn't fit the new narrowbanding that some frequencies are on. Not an issue for aviation am though. What's sad is my work was throwing them in the trash because they were "too old". They work fine.
I am also a ham and have tried A LOT of radios and scanners on Airband. I use a Realistic Pro-2020 I picked up years ago for Airband AM reception. 73, de KF7YN
I originally put up a Homebrew Ground Plane that has GREAT range but i soon realized it was to much chatter! I went back to the factory telescoping whip so all i hear for the most part is aircraft on this side of town / area. I cant even hear ATC which is fine. What i did do later was buy a 2nd scanner, connected to the Homebrew Ground Plane and if i want ATC i turn it on. Most used scanners are cheap and do a fine job for RX only! Maybe not as selective as a Air Band radio but they do ok. Whats your QTH? Im South West of KTXK about 7 miles.
I 'stole' a Used A23 ICOM for $10 that receives great with stub antenna ie: every airplane aloft in 100 miles, local tower at 10 miles and even frequently ground crew mobiles. Very fast scan of memory channels, plus I can ride the beam to the airport in my car! I can't figure out how a single vertical antenna gets heading/bearing input. SIDE NOTE: On 10m ham band and my low DIY J-pole antenna, 'received a 767 coming in at 32,000 ft over Nova Scotia that had a ham operator/engineer using the aircraft radio and vertical antenna in the tail & said he had 8 degree wide forward beam. I was in Missouri and was able to get a QSL.
Whoever told you that the UV5R can do AM is wrong. I to am a ham radio operator and what you are hearing is the interference that the UV5R is hearing. That radio is a nice ham radio unit and I use it with my Clearnode all the time but, forget AM use. Bad idea. Plus you have to unlock the radio. My aviation radio is the Rexon RHP530. Perhaps one day the Lord will let me fly again and I'll be able to use my little handheld. Also, the Uniden scanners are great. Might be worth looking into them. KC3CDU ... I'm good on QRZ by the way. 😊
It's actually an M5R, which does have AM receive capability on air bands...but it's a terrible receiver, as I mentioned. Miserable sensitivity and terrible selectivity.
I don't find the Baofeng UV5R to be good at ham! I have two identical 8 watt versions but they stink on receive and transmit harmonics. I only use Icom, Kenwood or Yeasu for VHF/UHF. The Baofengs are junk as far as I'm concerned. When I hear Baofengs on my local repeaters, I often have a hard time understanding their speech because they have very low mic gain and so under-deviate causing poor signal to noise ratio. They are also harder to use because they only have up-down arrow keys to change the frequencies on VFO or memory channels. I like rotary encoders which are much faster. No China made radio that I know of uses a tuning encoder. I hate them. They also never have a DC-in jack so you can't plug them into your car's cigarette lighter to pawer them.
@ I'm not going to argue with you over what radio is good and what one is bad. What I will say though is that the Baofeng UV5R was my first radio when I got my license back in 2014. They worked to get me into our local repeaters and did a good job and on top of that, they do great at getting me into my Clearnode which is mine and thus ultra local. Some people just have bad mic technique. Some yet just aren't happy with anything unless it's a brand name.
If your ELT goes off, you'll get a call from Tyndall first (and if they don't get you, they call ATC and then your home, and...) (all before the FSDO or CAP comes a callin) {ask me how I know ...} I, and a few hangar neighbors, all use Sporty's SP200s for radio traffic (FWIW)
There are versions of the UV-5R that can tune AM air bands - for instance, the one I showed in the video. But they are absolute crap at it, with very poor discrimination and signal gain.
The Baofeng UV-5R does not receive or transmit on AM. There is no AM receiver in the Baofeng UV-5R. This radio does not even receive signals below 136 MHz. The Baofeng UV-5R is an FM transceiver. To listen to the aircraft band you must be in AM 108-137 MHZ with channel spacing of 8.33 MHZ.
The older ones do not, you're correct, but newer ones (like the one I showed) do...but they're terrible at it. Also, no need for 8.33 spacing in the US, as it's not used here (yet).
Sorry but 8.33 spacing is not used yet anywhere. At least not in the USA. I bet you can't show me any official listing showing a 8.33 channel. They are all still using 25 kHz in the United States. BTW, you put 8.33 mHz but it's kHz. Problem is if say, a traffic control station or airport tower used a 8.33 channel, few older airplanes have transceivers that can do 8.33 so they could not talk to the pilot in the old plane!! This is a huge problem, so you won't find 8.33 being used at all yet.
Most of the general coverage receivers (or transmitters) has 50/25/12.5/10 kHz channels spacing (I suppose the scanners has also this channels spacing). So our (aviation) current 8.33 kHz channels spacing can work, but with some compromises about the quality of the audio. (73 de F5IBH)
I was all into this and the $20 price tag... until the point you state you bought a non functioning radio.... Albeit, you found a bad speaker, the point is that is was not a working one for $20
I use a handheld Radio shack Realistic 400 channel scanner. It has a DC power input barrel jack. I can't understand a thing anyone says in that milspeak gibberish so aviation communication - it's kind of pointless and a distraction. Ironic considering my dad was an air traffic controller and I've been up in a tower. My brain just can not process that nonsense, on the ground or while flying.
Old uv5 dont do airband. Newer m5 baofengs do air band but horribly. Also socotran 8629 great on air band. $31 on amazon. Best ht ever made. Easily firmware modified for wide rx. Quansheng UV-K6 UV-K5(8) Walkie Talkie 5W Airband Radio Type C Charge UHF VHF DTMF FM Dual Band Two Way Radio with NOAA Weather Alarm Function
Right after I watched this I found a Realistic PRO-2023 on eBay for $29 instead of $20 and it looks and works great, I didn't have to do anything to it. I ordered the same antenna you have, programmed my local channel and guard, and it just started working. Thanks for turning me on to this!
I'm a ham too and I use ham radios to receive aircraft AM! I also have non-ham radios that receive air band too. My Yaesu VX-6R gets both the civilian air band as well as the military air band. As does my Kenwood TH-D-75. The Yaesu has a slow scan speed though. The Kenwood doesn't work very well with it's intended Tri-band antenna because when I get near the top of the air band it's really close to the low side of the 2 meter ham band. Since the antenna is more resonant at 2 meters and the top of the air band is not far below that, the noise floor gets louder up over about 130.000 MHz and so it opens up the squelch and stops scanning. I then have to turn the squelch up all the way or put a non-ham antenna on my Kenwood. Then it works much better and doesn't do that because the non-ham antennas are far more broad banded. Only thing is I hope I don't forget I have a non-ham antenna on it (if I'm listening to the air band) and forget to put the right antenna on it and try to transmit with the non-ham antenna, which could damage my output transistors. The Kenwood scans like 20 time faster than my Yaesu does though. I'm a former pilot so I like to listen to planes. My handheld Uniden BC125AT scanner is a great air band scanner but it's a battery pig. So I don't use it much for that. The Uniden does not receive the military air band.
I've got a Radio Shack 200 channel Pro - 2022 scanner I've had for at least 45 years and still works as good as when it was new. Have rooftop mounted antenna. Closest airport is about 3 miles away and can hear local tower, ATIS, pretty good - all airborne craft will pick up 20-25 miles away. (only one side I can hear.. Unable to get ATC com's though). They just don't make um like they used to. My old dead battery Sporty's SP-200 does pretty good as well when plugged in. Back in the mid 80's it would even scan and could pick up mobile telephones (early ones) and baby monitors as well.
The Baofeng UV-5R is an FM only transceiver. Of course it receives AM aviation like crap. Just because it can receive Aviation freqs doesn't mean it can demodulate AM signals.
Yep, I was going to say this. There is an alternative which is the Quansheng with the re-flashed software which makes it into a proper AM (and sort of SSB) receiver.
Greetings , I follow you on GoldwingDocs, but stumbled across this channel. Anyway didn’t know you’re a Ham, how cool. I am as well, N9XFX. I still have my old Bearcat 210 scanner. I work across the highway from the Zenith Aircraft company here in Mexico MO.
Didn't realize you were a ham Scott.. good stuff. I use a Yaesu FT60, which does a good job on AM rx It's not the fastest scanning but for a couple frequencies, it's more than good enough. Hard to beat that 20 dollar Realistic though. Dedicated old school scanners are perfect for a shop radio. 73 de N5XL VE5AEA
I would recommend putting the antenna outside, and then just turning the squelch up. The weaker signals won’t break the squelch, and those that are strong enough will be loud and clear and not fuzzy like what you heard. Just my two cents, there’s a lot of other good advice here as well.
Good idea!
I have two old radio shack scanners, and one is in my garage. They've done well for most things, but because of their age they didn't fit the new narrowbanding that some frequencies are on. Not an issue for aviation am though. What's sad is my work was throwing them in the trash because they were "too old". They work fine.
I am also a ham and have tried A LOT of radios and scanners on Airband. I use a Realistic Pro-2020 I picked up years ago for Airband AM reception. 73, de KF7YN
2020 has some great receive
I use a quansheng ht. Much better than the baofeng, custom firmware too. Does AM nicely.
I originally put up a Homebrew Ground Plane that has GREAT range but i soon realized it was to much chatter! I went back to the factory telescoping whip so all i hear for the most part is aircraft on this side of town / area. I cant even hear ATC which is fine. What i did do later was buy a 2nd scanner, connected to the Homebrew Ground Plane and if i want ATC i turn it on.
Most used scanners are cheap and do a fine job for RX only! Maybe not as selective as a Air Band radio but they do ok.
Whats your QTH? Im South West of KTXK about 7 miles.
Great content
I'm using a COMTEL COM205 here, it's hasn't been switched of for at least 10 years, except for replacing the backup battery (it kept on warning)
I 'stole' a Used A23 ICOM for $10 that receives great with stub antenna ie: every airplane aloft in 100 miles, local tower at 10 miles and even frequently ground crew mobiles. Very fast scan of memory channels, plus I can ride the beam to the airport in my car! I can't figure out how a single vertical antenna gets heading/bearing input. SIDE NOTE: On 10m ham band and my low DIY J-pole antenna, 'received a 767 coming in at 32,000 ft over Nova Scotia that had a ham operator/engineer using the aircraft radio and vertical antenna in the tail & said he had 8 degree wide forward beam. I was in Missouri and was able to get a QSL.
Whoever told you that the UV5R can do AM is wrong. I to am a ham radio operator and what you are hearing is the interference that the UV5R is hearing. That radio is a nice ham radio unit and I use it with my Clearnode all the time but, forget AM use. Bad idea. Plus you have to unlock the radio.
My aviation radio is the Rexon RHP530. Perhaps one day the Lord will let me fly again and I'll be able to use my little handheld. Also, the Uniden scanners are great. Might be worth looking into them.
KC3CDU
...
I'm good on QRZ by the way. 😊
It's actually an M5R, which does have AM receive capability on air bands...but it's a terrible receiver, as I mentioned. Miserable sensitivity and terrible selectivity.
@ I have heard of the radio through a commenter on your channel but beyond that.
I know nothing about it.
I don't find the Baofeng UV5R to be good at ham! I have two identical 8 watt versions but they stink on receive and transmit harmonics. I only use Icom, Kenwood or Yeasu for VHF/UHF. The Baofengs are junk as far as I'm concerned. When I hear Baofengs on my local repeaters, I often have a hard time understanding their speech because they have very low mic gain and so under-deviate causing poor signal to noise ratio. They are also harder to use because they only have up-down arrow keys to change the frequencies on VFO or memory channels. I like rotary encoders which are much faster. No China made radio that I know of uses a tuning encoder. I hate them. They also never have a DC-in jack so you can't plug them into your car's cigarette lighter to pawer them.
@ I'm not going to argue with you over what radio is good and what one is bad.
What I will say though is that the Baofeng UV5R was my first radio when I got my license back in 2014.
They worked to get me into our local repeaters and did a good job and on top of that, they do great at getting me into my Clearnode which is mine and thus ultra local.
Some people just have bad mic technique.
Some yet just aren't happy with anything unless it's a brand name.
I restore ARC RT 328 plane radios. The tray and plugs are lost so you must find one for restoration. Nothing receives better.
I knew that was a Realistic in the background as soon the vid started. Dating myself. 😏
I did not know you have another hobby besides synthesizes
I guess you haven't found my motorcycle channel yet, then. :)
Where I am, radio so busy - I’d take an axe to it.
If your ELT goes off, you'll get a call from Tyndall first (and if they don't get you, they call ATC and then your home, and...) (all before the FSDO or CAP comes a callin) {ask me how I know ...}
I, and a few hangar neighbors, all use Sporty's SP200s for radio traffic (FWIW)
Interesting, Scott. So, what is your call sign? 73, Steve, AE6SS
KE8AFW
Before you spend $20 on a Baofeng make certain it does what you want.
Out of the Box Baofeng radios don't receive AM or tune below 136 Mhz.
There are versions of the UV-5R that can tune AM air bands - for instance, the one I showed in the video. But they are absolute crap at it, with very poor discrimination and signal gain.
Baofeng AR-5RM some air, police, etc
The Baofeng UV-5R does not receive or transmit on AM. There is no AM receiver in the Baofeng UV-5R. This radio does not even receive signals below 136 MHz. The Baofeng UV-5R is an FM transceiver. To listen to the aircraft band you must be in AM 108-137 MHZ with channel spacing of 8.33 MHZ.
The older ones do not, you're correct, but newer ones (like the one I showed) do...but they're terrible at it. Also, no need for 8.33 spacing in the US, as it's not used here (yet).
The Baofeng AR-5RM does. Not terrible but I live next door to an airport
Sorry but 8.33 spacing is not used yet anywhere. At least not in the USA. I bet you can't show me any official listing showing a 8.33 channel. They are all still using 25 kHz in the United States. BTW, you put 8.33 mHz but it's kHz. Problem is if say, a traffic control station or airport tower used a 8.33 channel, few older airplanes have transceivers that can do 8.33 so they could not talk to the pilot in the old plane!! This is a huge problem, so you won't find 8.33 being used at all yet.
Most of the general coverage receivers (or transmitters) has 50/25/12.5/10 kHz channels spacing (I suppose the scanners has also this channels spacing). So our (aviation) current 8.33 kHz channels spacing can work, but with some compromises about the quality of the audio. (73 de F5IBH)
- Cool.
You could also just bolt, or mechanically fasten the antenna to your sheet metal hangar... and possibly turn your hangar into a giant antenna!
Except...the hangar is grounded, so not a great antenna.
@@CanardBoulevard lol more like a big lightning rod with expensive aircraft inside lol.
I was all into this and the $20 price tag... until the point you state you bought a non functioning radio.... Albeit, you found a bad speaker, the point is that is was not a working one for $20
But...most of the ones on there are going to be working. Luck of the draw.
I use a handheld Radio shack Realistic 400 channel scanner. It has a DC power input barrel jack.
I can't understand a thing anyone says in that milspeak gibberish so aviation communication - it's kind of pointless and a distraction.
Ironic considering my dad was an air traffic controller and I've been up in a tower. My brain just can not process that nonsense, on the ground or while flying.
Old uv5 dont do airband. Newer m5 baofengs do air band but horribly. Also socotran 8629 great on air band. $31 on amazon. Best ht ever made. Easily firmware modified for wide rx. Quansheng UV-K6 UV-K5(8) Walkie Talkie 5W Airband Radio Type C Charge UHF VHF DTMF FM Dual Band Two Way Radio with NOAA Weather Alarm Function
Meow!
I was expecting that! :)
@@CanardBoulevard 😸😸