A Journey Through My Scanning Triumphs And Disasters By Nigel Ballard 28 Maxwell Road Winton Bournemouth Dorset BH9 1DL ENGLAND. 20 July 1990 It all started many years ago, I was on vacation, bored to the back teeth, and in need of spending some serious cash. As a licensed radio amateur (G1HOI) I duly read all the obligatory monthly publications. My eyes were drawn to the JIL-SX200N scanner. It is fair to say that before this time I had no idea what a scanner was, or what possible use and enjoyment one could gain from a radio WITHOUT A MICROPHONE! Hopping into my TR-7 (and what a dog of a car that was!) I raced to the Shop, safe in the knowledge that I would return several quid lighter. The salesman clearly had no more idea than I did as to how one should drive a scanner, but regardless of this I was drawn by all the lights and buttons. I also purchased an eight element discone (yet another dog). Upon arriving home I assembled the discone and placed it in the loft (bad move), reasonably thick cable was routed through a ridiculously large hole in my lounge ceiling down to where the JIL sat. Connections were made, batteries inserted and power applied. Now what? Reluctantly I sat down and read the manual, Not much wiser I turned it on, pressed any button that looked like it had a purpose and waited to be amazed and enthralled by what I was surely going to hear. And what did I hear that would shake a nation to it's feet? BUGGER ALL that's what! In the preceding weeks I learned that I was a scanner pioneer, not much consolation to a chap ready to hoover in the world. Books, there weren't any, frequency listings, none of them either. I now had the definite impression that the shop had screwed me. But wait, a fisherman friend produced a list of marine frequencies. The first eighteen (It only had 18 memories) locations were entered in, and within a minute human voices emanated from the scanner, SUCCESS I thought. Boy this just has to be the most fun a boy can have without getting a girl into trouble. Laugh if you want, but in those days, anything heard not in the amateur bands was purely luck, and not judgement. Take two, the scanner had a search facility, so I entered a random pair of lower and upper frequencies. Within an hour or so my notebook was filling up with frequencies and cryptic notes, 165.4125 'sounds like a bus' etc etc. The only way I thought to tackle this problem was to buy a book and write in every frequency in 12.5KHz steps. This was done and from that point on, every voice heard was logged. What started out as a nightmare of a task, actually ended up as the best thing I ever did. As trunking was years away, if you heard a taxi company on a certain frequency on a monday, you could be damn sure the same taxi company would be in the same place on subsequent days. So the log book that started out completely empty, was now starting to have more entries than omissions. I was certain that lot's of traffic unreadable because it was in the noise, could be extracted if I just improved my set-up. Firstly, the discone went on the chimney breast high above the roof apex. The difference was quite staggering. I swapped my reasonable coax for the best uhf rated stuff my wallet could afford. No difference was noted on the vhf areas, but uhf was really starting to liven up. Traffic that was once completely invisible to the scanner could now be copied. Ploughing through yet another radio magazine, I saw a new advert for the AOR-2001, Authority On Radio impressed the hell out of me. Twenty memories (well 20 is better than 18) and NO GAPS. From my knowledge gained in the field of amateur radio I could see the sensitivity figures quoted for 12DB Sinad just blew the JIL out of the ball park. Into the car (a much better 3.0 Ford capri this time) down to the shop, and out with the wallet. I raced home and expected to be amazed. And I was, brother what a front end, alright the tactile keys were rubbish and the box looked like a Fisher Price reject (no insult intended), but who cares, it's no good having a flashy box if it is as deaf as a post. And like before, once illusive stations were logged in the now invaluable book. Friends started to get hooked, two rushed out and bought the 2001, and the league of scanner fanatics was duly formed. Just like swapping football cards, we would trade interesting new discoveries. A passer by spotted the discone (a dead giveaway) rang my door, said he was a radio engineer and a scanner buff, could we compare notes? Well just you try and stop me I said. After several coffee's and tall stories about the one that got away he left, but not before imparting his vital knowledge in the general direction of my log book. About this time I sold all my amateur radio and went QRT. No longer was I interested in getting a QSL from Woga-Woga on 10 milliwatts. I was now in touch with the real world, and most definatly hooked. Why bother reading the local evening paper telling me what happened yesterday, with a scanner I could get the whole story TODAY! The local paper was duly cancelled. Yet another radio publication showed off a new sixteen element discone, the sales blurb said why put up with all those nulls apparent on eight element discones, this made sense so I bought one, and yes the monitoring post got even better. The following months issue showed that the Japanese giant's Yaesu were soon to release their first scanner called the FRG-9600, the picture looked mouth watering, a vfo (what a treat) all modes including ACSB (later found to be worthless sales hype), a signal meter, fluorescent display and to top it off a metal box. The next day off I headed up the road to the approved dealers. That very day the first batch had arrived, as I walked into the shop, the sales staff were all huddled around the first one out of the box. Needless to say I bought the second one. Back home I realised that all the features and all the external build quality did not make up for a really deaf front end, and the FRG-9600 really excelled in this area. The 2001 on a straight comparison test would make the Yaesu look very sick indeed. I returned to the shop some weeks later where the engineers made the first of many modifications in an attempt to get the front end up to a reasonable spec. One engineer confided that the FRG-9600 only evolved as an inquisitive engineer in Tokyo wanted to see what could be gained from modifying a television tuner front end. Yes you guessed it, an FRG-9600 is what can be gained. I was less than happy and it soon found a new home. No marks to the electronics team, but full marks to the external design team. You never realise how bad your scanner is until you get to operate a better one. AOR obviously heard my cries as the press were now muttering about an improved model with vfo (of sorts), signal meter and coverage up to 1300 MHz. So I asked someone in the know, who would I want to listen to that high up? The answer came back that the fledgeling cellular telephone network were at 905 MHz for a start. Enough said, I wanted one, In fact I just had to have one. Mainly because I hated all those posers driving about with the steering wheel in one hand and a car phone in the other. It was a long wait, as AOR are well known for releasing the birth weight long before the baby is born (ala 3000). We will all kindly forget the fact that I too now have a car phone, so it's now alright to pose about isn't it? The day arrived when the AOR dealer said my long awaited 2002 had arrived, was it worth the wait? Of course it was. What a great little performer. The cellular literally boomed through. Whether mobile or at home, ALL traffic within a reasonable distance was mine. A good friend developed a computer controller for the 2002, and when enabled allowed all manner of fancy tricks to be achieved. Now enter another giant from the orient, ICOM. A picture appeared in the press showing the forthcoming ICR-7000, what a beast. A huge VFO, lots of memories etc. This time the cash was not readily available so interest free credit was arranged, and as soon as they arrived I had one. Well what can I say three years on. I still have my original one, the only thing that has gone is the signal meter display bulb. It has been on for hundreds and hundreds of hours. The AOR 2002 beats it for sensitivity but nothing else. If I am not hunting for really distant traffic then the ICOM has my vote. It is really the ease with which the thing can be driven. It is easy on the eyes, and has the look of a really serious piece of monitoring equipment. Enough said on the 7000 I think. Moving right along. A friend with contacts in Japan started giving me scanning magazines bought in Tokyo. Although the text was no use, the pictures however showed that (a) they had new models about ten months before the UK or USA saw them, and (B) they were much cheaper. A product caught my eye, namely the STANDARD AX-700. Nothing unusual in it except it had a large yellow LCD panadaptor built in, and with this one could visually see rf activity at up to half a meg either side of the channel you were currently sat on. Some weeks later it arrived, I was tempted to lift the lid, oh no it had that same tv front end tuner in it. Damn, this is going to perform like the 9600. Well to give it it's due there is not much to compare. What the Yaesu loses in sensitivity, the Standard gains in allowing every strong signal within about ten megs of where you are to come howling through it's very wide front end. Try it on a log periodic and you end up switching off and taking the mut for a walk. This is a real shame as anyone with experience of professional monitoring equipment, i.e. RACAL, WATKINS JOHNSON etc will tell you that a panadaptor linked to a good receiver is absolutely invaluable. Alright the ICOM does not have the hottest front end , but what comes through it's generous speaker is crisp, clear and above all usually only traffic transmitted on the currently monitored channel. As to handheld scanners, I bought a selection mainly from the USA. The first purchase was a Fairmate that boasted full coverage of the 900 MHz region. It arrived but not before the British customs had taken a good look at it. Yes it covered all the interesting areas, and unlike any other scanner destined for the USA market, it had user selectable mode's. Whereas in the USA everybody uses nfm except for aircraft. In the UK however, there are a great many interesting users still chatting on am. It did the job, but just like the squelch circuit on the AR-900 it had a mind of it's own. Birdies it had plenty, but regardless it impressed the hell out of everybody over here. I even took a bet with a cellular dealer who insisted that their network was totally secure. He lifted the phone and dialled a friend, within a few seconds the Fairmate locked on to his channel, needless to say he lost the bet. Next on the list of purchases was the Yupiteru MVT-5000. My contact in Japan brought two straight from the factory. When he flew back, I rushed over with the cash safe in the knowledge that I had the second unit in the country. The MVT goes up to 1300 MHz and resolves NFM/AM, it's features include a very high first i.f., battery saver, high scan rate and ten user selectable search banks. It's performance is superb, with just the supplied telescopic whip I could just make out the US Navy satellite comms on 261 MHz. Needless to say I still own it, and apart from the new Icom R-1 just in the shops over here, there has been nothing to touch it. UK dealers took nine months getting supplies, and in the process had it renamed as the JUPITER TWO. After being told for almost two years that the AOR-3000 would be in the shops any day. Last week the first units became available to the general public. The delay was twofold. Firstly, the initial batch were fraught with technical problems. And secondly, when sorted out, the first deliveries went straight to the British Ministry Of Defence who realised it's great potential. I bought one three days ago, and as yet cannot make a judgement. Already the processor has completely locked up twice, rendering all my programming useless, as a reset clears any and all memories. The coverage is super wide, 100KHz straight through to 2036.00 MHz, no gaps and all modes. It is still in that poxy little plastic box with buttons designed for only the smallest of fingers. I have been really interested in it's HF capabilities, SSB resolution is great, no mickey mouse voices or drift. With the 3000 connected to a uhf antenna I can easily hear ANDY (Andrews airforce base in the USA). When I have had a few weeks use with it, I will send up a small revue to aid prospective purchasers. As it stands now, I have seven antennas on the roof, a log periodic and rotator waiting to go up, an assortment of pre-amps. H-100 super low loss coax running all over the place. four scanners online. And most important of all, a compendium of loggings for almost every user in my area. I think that after eight years I have things pretty well covered. If any radio keys up in my area and talks in plain speech (not DVP) between 100KHz and 2036MHz then in theory I have the capability to receive their transmission. What is my idea of a perfect scanner? Well it would have to be the circuitry of the AOR-3000 in a box made by the Yaesu design team, and incorporating the panadaptor of the AX-700. If this beast were ever to appear at the right price, then I think I could be persuaded to sell all the others and just rely on this one imaginary unit. As to the law in the UK, the funny thing is that scanning anything outside the amateur, CB or broadcast bands is completely illegal. If caught monitoring anything outside these areas then a hefty fine and full confiscation of all your equipment is in order. Boy, you guys in the states have it easy. The police wrongly think that to own a scanner MUST mean you have criminal intent. Strange days indeed! We are now at the present day. When time permits I will write another article on ways the experts go about signal acquisition. Many of these methods can be employed by YOU to great effect. I apologise in advance if you found this article a bit rambling, but it is written at work and time is pressing. In a future article I will also cover different antenna types. If you have any comments regarding this article,please leave me a message on this BBS, and I will be sure to respond. Best Regards and in the words of the USAF RC-135 (flying recon aircraft) IN GOD WE TRUST-ALL OTHERS WE MONITOR. I could not have put it better.  Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253