A Good Scanner?

[Rhino]

I recently purchased an Alinco DJ-X7, but was having a problem with it. When the Blue Angels came, and I punched the correct TAC frequencies in for the Diamond and Solos, I had a very hard time picking them up until they were literally "Smoke On" right over top of us. I have the squelch all the way to the point a minor whisper will set it off. Maybe I'm just not using it correctly?? I am getting ready to sell this, and I was going to let anyone here get first crack on it.



But my main question, what is a good/relatively inexpensive ($200-300), and easy to find hand held scanner that would work great for the T-Birds (not the regular 141.--- frequency but the Tac freqs they use), the Blues, and the Snowbirds. We even get the IL ANG flying training hops around here, so it would be nice to pick them up as well.

If anyone knows anything more on this, please help..I am planning on going to the Rockford Air Show in September to see the mighty T-Birds and would like to have the piece of mind of what I should buy before then. If anyone would like to purchase this scanner above, PM me and I will give you a ballpark figure of what I am asking for it.

Thanks!
SuperBugz

[Tomcatboy48237]

I recently purchased an Alinco DJ-X7, but was having a problem with it. When the Blue Angels came, and I punched the correct TAC frequencies in for the Diamond and Solos, I had a very hard time picking them up until they were literally "Smoke On" right over top of us. I have the squelch all the way to the point a minor whisper will set it off. Maybe I'm just not using it correctly?? I am getting ready to sell this, and I was going to let anyone here get first crack on it.



But my main question, what is a good/relatively inexpensive ($200-300), and easy to find hand held scanner that would work great for the T-Birds (not the regular 141.--- frequency but the Tac freqs they use), the Blues, and the Snowbirds. We even get the IL ANG flying training hops around here, so it would be nice to pick them up as well.

If anyone knows anything more on this, please help..I am planning on going to the Rockford Air Show in September to see the mighty T-Birds and would like to have the piece of mind of what I should buy before then. If anyone would like to purchase this scanner above, PM me and I will give you a ballpark figure of what I am asking for it.

Thanks!
SuperBugz

My Pro 97 from Radioshack gets Milair and was only like $120 on sale. It works pretty well and isn't close to that $200-$300 range.

[Rhino]

I know of that Pro-97, just want something a little better... LOL sorry I'm picky...

[lqcorsa]

I have the Pro-97 and I didn't pick up the blues, or patriots during a few weeks ago airshow. I had a few freq. programmed and I also used the scan function a couple times. Meh, oh well I didn't feel like messing around with it while the Navy's finest was demonstrating.

[Rotorblade]

I use a Pro 97 and also got quite the deal on it. I have listened to two Thunderbird shows this season and a Snowbirds show and had no issues. I acquired some pretty decent quality recording because of the RadioShack Pro 97.

That scanner looks like one for a racing event and I had a buddy who was using something like that at one of the air shows and had similar problems.

[Lawndart]

All the comms from this year on our audio page were recorded using a Pro-97 (with the wrong settings too I might add). So, if you're getting anything worse than that with something else, the Pro-97 is a better choice. These clips would have been better quality with AM instead of narrow-band FM (incorrectly and inadvertently used). Other settings used were quick-scan between only the two frequencies used for the day (Diamond & Solos), priority on the Diamond freq, no DLY (i.e. no wait after a x-mission before going to scan mode, so it's instantaneous). All freqs, but the current ones were LO (locked out).

For greater range buy a separate and extended antenna. This scanner was tested by the air show announcer (at show center) too and he was quite pleased comparing it to his more expensive Sporty's transceivers. For something that relatively cheap, he gave it his approval and actually wanted to know where I bought it and how much it cost. So, for the budget-minded air show fan, I'd recommend the Pro-97!