The Monitoring Post and Amateur Radio Station

 

Six base/mobile type scanners and a portable scanner are used for VHF/UHF scanning.  They are fed from a discone antenna and a VHF vertical antenna with RG-6 coax.  The signals are split to each scanner with TV type splitters; a TV signal amplifier is before each splitter to offset signal loss in the splitters.

An HF/VHF/UHF multiband radio and a 2-Meter radio comprise the amateur radio equipment.  Both radios can also serve as additional receivers and the HF/VHF/UHF radio doubles as my general coverage receiver for HF monitoring.

The station computer is an inexpensive EMachine from Walmart.  It isn’t the world’s most advanced computer, but it is good enough to run programming and control software for the scanners, programming software for amateur radio gear, and Ham Radio Deluxe for the HF radio.  I use an Acer LCD monitor because it puts less weight strain on the desk and it puts out far less RF interference than a CRT.

 

The Scanners consist of a Radio Shack PRO-2005 and PRO-2006, 2 Uniden BC780XLT’s ,  a Uniden BC796D, and a Uniden BC895LXT.

The PRO-2005 is used for analog VHF/UHF conventional monitoring.  The BC796 is used for both analog and digital conventional and trunked monitoring.  These two cover public safety, US Coast Guard, Federal, Forestry, DNR, and other miscellaneous frequencies.

The PRO-2006 is used for VHF Lo-Band monitoring, mostly for the Army and National Guard units at Hunter.  Often times it helps to have a separate scanner for the Lo-Band FM frequencies because their audio is louder than the VHF/UHF AM frequencies.  The BC895 is used for VHF/UHF Air Traffic Control and commonly used Base/Command Post frequencies.  One BC780 is used for squadron and unit frequencies and the second BC780 is used for operating area frequencies; that allows me to hear both the air-to-air traffic and operating traffic from the flights I’m monitoring.

 

A Yaesu FT-897D is the core of the amateur radio station.  It is simple HF/VHF/UHF multimode radio.  It is outfitted with an LDG AT-897 antenna tuner and an LDG FT-Meter.  The FT-Meter is an easier read than the bar graph meter on the FT-897’s display; it also allows me to display more information.  On receive, both the bar graph and FT-Meter are set as an S-Meter, but on transmit, the bar graph displays modulation and the FT-Meter displays SWR.  For VHF/UHF (including 6-Meters), the FT-897 is fed by a Jetstream JTB-4 triband vertical (6/2/70cm).  For HF, it is fed by a G5RV hung as an inverted vee.

A Yaesu FT-2800 is mounted under the desktop to allow for 2-Meter operation while the FT-897 is on HF.  The FT-2800 shares the JTB-4.

I use Ham Radio Deluxe for some computer control of the FT-897, but mostly for logging purposes.  The FT-897 is connected to the computer via Yaesu’s CAT cable and a serial to USB adapter.

I also have a number of Amateur Radio HT’s to compliment the base radios and the mobile station.  I have my good old standby, the Radio Shack HTX-202.  It is the first amateur radio that I bought and I have no plans of giving it up anytime soon.  It is simple, durable, and a very good radio.  I also have a Yaesu FT-50 that I purchased used at a Ham Fest some years back; it is currently a daily carry radio, staying in the bag I take to work for cross band repeat use with the mobile radio.

By now, the observant reader will have noticed that most of my Amateur gear is Yaesu.  This is not because I believe that Yaesu is any better than Kenwood, Icom, or Alinco.  It is simply because I have a limited budget and Yaesu seems to off the most “bang for the buck.”  I have used Kenwood, Icom, Alinco, and Radio Shack amateur gear and have been satisfied with them all.

As far as scanners go, I’m an avid user of Uniden equipment.  Once again, it is not because I think the Uniden is a better radio.  To be honest the GRE/Radio Shack radios are just as good.  Uniden radios excel in some areas and the the GRE/Radio Shack radios in others.  I simply prefer the Uniden user interface, finding the GRE/Radio Shack user interface a bit more complex and confusing.