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Hi all
I'm looking forward to buy the PSR282 200 channel scanner and i wanted to ask some couple of questions about it.
1) I live in Slough (Berkshire) and i wanted to ask if anyone knows that will i able to tune in Heathrow tower.
2) will i able to listen to all the Frequencies at Heathrow airport e.g.
118.50 and 118.70 Heathrow Tower
121.70 and 121.9 Heathrow ground
120.40 Heathrow Radar
119.725 Heathrow Approach
121.975 Heathrow Clearance (basically all Heathrow frequencies)
and last of all
3) is the scanner any good? i have been hearing so many things about the scanner, but unfortunately i get so many answers and i very much do get confused.
can someone please kindly just tell me about the scanner if it is any good or not and try to answer my questions
Thank you
LHR786
I'm looking forward to buy the PSR282 200 channel scanner and i wanted to ask some couple of questions about it.
1) I live in Slough (Berkshire) and i wanted to ask if anyone knows that will i able to tune in Heathrow tower.
2) will i able to listen to all the Frequencies at Heathrow airport e.g.
118.50 and 118.70 Heathrow Tower
121.70 and 121.9 Heathrow ground
120.40 Heathrow Radar
119.725 Heathrow Approach
121.975 Heathrow Clearance (basically all Heathrow frequencies)
and last of all
3) is the scanner any good? i have been hearing so many things about the scanner, but unfortunately i get so many answers and i very much do get confused.
can someone please kindly just tell me about the scanner if it is any good or not and try to answer my questions
Thank you
LHR786
Message from Calico at Tuesday, 14-Dec-10 20:01:32 GMT
Hi LHR786,
Have seen this scanner on Maplin's website.
Read the glowing reviews on Maplin's product web page, but how unbiased are they?
They say that there is a built-in charger for example, but I couldn't see included any mains adaptor to provide the power (energy) needed for the charger.
This could mean additional costs, eg a £ 10.00 extra?
Also didn't see anywhere any mention to Attenuator function. This may create an issue if you want to one day connect a higher gain, external antenna (e.g. Yagi etc)so as to have better reception from your house or car. Issues of overloading for example.
Price is attractive, but for a little more you could also get a far more capable radio (Second-hand better value for money) for example with computer connectivity and control, e.g. AOR-8200, that would give you very broad scanning options
Can be found for less on ebay, for example there is one going for £60.00, item number: 110623557497
May be an idea to do a thorough Google search for:
"GRE PSR-282 + problems"
Also, what is your budget for, if you don't mind saying?
73 + happy shopping
Calico
PS Nevada sell it for £10.00 less than Maplin:
http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/radio-scanners/scanners/gre-psr-282
Have seen this scanner on Maplin's website.
Read the glowing reviews on Maplin's product web page, but how unbiased are they?
They say that there is a built-in charger for example, but I couldn't see included any mains adaptor to provide the power (energy) needed for the charger.
This could mean additional costs, eg a £ 10.00 extra?
Also didn't see anywhere any mention to Attenuator function. This may create an issue if you want to one day connect a higher gain, external antenna (e.g. Yagi etc)so as to have better reception from your house or car. Issues of overloading for example.
Price is attractive, but for a little more you could also get a far more capable radio (Second-hand better value for money) for example with computer connectivity and control, e.g. AOR-8200, that would give you very broad scanning options
Can be found for less on ebay, for example there is one going for £60.00, item number: 110623557497
May be an idea to do a thorough Google search for:
"GRE PSR-282 + problems"
Also, what is your budget for, if you don't mind saying?
73 + happy shopping
Calico
PS Nevada sell it for £10.00 less than Maplin:
http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/radio-scanners/scanners/gre-psr-282
Message from tuebschen at Tuesday, 14-Dec-10 20:02:02 GMT
haha
8 miles from heathrow away you can even open the window for listening heathrows air traffic. i am pretty sure that you can receive those.
but as calico says, for same or a little more money you should find a better one.
Last edited by tuebschen at Tuesday, 14-Dec-10 20:04:23 UTC
thanks for your replies
The thing is, that i don't want to really spend over £100 for a Air Band Scanner.
i just want one that would be very clear from Slough and i can listen Heathrow Tower.
Thats the only thing i need
The thing is, that i don't want to really spend over £100 for a Air Band Scanner.
i just want one that would be very clear from Slough and i can listen Heathrow Tower.
Thats the only thing i need
Message from Calico at Wednesday, 15-Dec-10 00:48:53 GMT
Although the sub £ 100.00 price range is mostly for very basic, entry-level radios, you still can (only just) get a pretty good and advanced radio.
I would give serious consideration to a Uniden BC72XLT instead of the GRE PSR-282 for the following reasons:
1) Sensitivity: The Uniden is twice as sensitive (0.5 uV) for air band monitoring than the GRE ( 1uv)
2) Features: The Uniden comes with the very desireable (and for free too)"Close Call" feature. This means that you go for example to Tesco, and your BC72 automatically scans, and finds for you what is transmitted close to you and on what frequency. When we say close, take this to mean strong sigs, but you can choose what, how strong and how much you want to hear by the Squelch setting, see more at bottom of this posting, (PPS). Can't say much more here for obvious reasons, (public forum), but suffice to say Optoelectronics sell separate devices for such purposes for 100s of £. In your area, you should be able to get loads of stuff, pity this model cant be computer controlled for our site...
3) The Uniden is a faster machine:
180 steps per second The GRE: 50 steps/s
4) The Uniden 72 comes complete with charger and two 1800 mah Ni-mh AA Batteries
The GRE doesn't, you need to buy these separately, so the lower price is deceptive.
5) The Uniden has ten (10) Priority Channels, the GRE has one (1)
6) On the flip side, the only feature I can see in favor of the GRE, is that it has twice as many memories, 200 vs 100 of the Uniden. For me though this is not as important, in view of the aforementioned.
7) The Uniden is known and appreciated globally, mentioned -and top rated- for example at the best known reviews site:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6596 ("Close call" gets flattering remarks there too)
The GRE could not be found at all there.
8) If you decide to upgrade to a more serious radio one day (e.g. with computer control that can be hooked to Global Tuners!) the Uniden will sell far more easily than the GRE, as it has more at the same price bracket.
Without getting too technical (e.g. birdies, IFs etc), in short, personally I would NOT go for the GRE when there are so much better radios out there for below £ 100. But if your heart leans towards the GRE, it's not bad either.
If more in depth info is needed, specifications, or even the manuals of both radios, I can email them upon request.
Hope this was of some help for you,
Calico
PS: Hellos to tuebschen ;)
PPS: Copied from Uniden's manual
Close Call RF capture works great for finding frequencies at
venues such as malls and sporting events. You can
set the scanner so Close Call detection works “in the
background” while you are scanning other
frequencies, turn off normal scanning while Close
Call is working, or turn off the Close Call feature and
use the scanner normally. You can set the scanner
so it alerts you when the Close Call feature detects a
frequency. You can also set the frequency band
where you want the scanner to look for
transmissions.
Unlike searching, which requires the scanner to tune
to a frequency to check for a transmission, Close
Call RF capture directly detects the presence of a
strong, nearby signal and instantly tunes to the
source’s frequency.
I would give serious consideration to a Uniden BC72XLT instead of the GRE PSR-282 for the following reasons:
1) Sensitivity: The Uniden is twice as sensitive (0.5 uV) for air band monitoring than the GRE ( 1uv)
2) Features: The Uniden comes with the very desireable (and for free too)"Close Call" feature. This means that you go for example to Tesco, and your BC72 automatically scans, and finds for you what is transmitted close to you and on what frequency. When we say close, take this to mean strong sigs, but you can choose what, how strong and how much you want to hear by the Squelch setting, see more at bottom of this posting, (PPS). Can't say much more here for obvious reasons, (public forum), but suffice to say Optoelectronics sell separate devices for such purposes for 100s of £. In your area, you should be able to get loads of stuff, pity this model cant be computer controlled for our site...
3) The Uniden is a faster machine:
180 steps per second The GRE: 50 steps/s
4) The Uniden 72 comes complete with charger and two 1800 mah Ni-mh AA Batteries
The GRE doesn't, you need to buy these separately, so the lower price is deceptive.
5) The Uniden has ten (10) Priority Channels, the GRE has one (1)
6) On the flip side, the only feature I can see in favor of the GRE, is that it has twice as many memories, 200 vs 100 of the Uniden. For me though this is not as important, in view of the aforementioned.
7) The Uniden is known and appreciated globally, mentioned -and top rated- for example at the best known reviews site:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/6596 ("Close call" gets flattering remarks there too)
The GRE could not be found at all there.
8) If you decide to upgrade to a more serious radio one day (e.g. with computer control that can be hooked to Global Tuners!) the Uniden will sell far more easily than the GRE, as it has more at the same price bracket.
Without getting too technical (e.g. birdies, IFs etc), in short, personally I would NOT go for the GRE when there are so much better radios out there for below £ 100. But if your heart leans towards the GRE, it's not bad either.
If more in depth info is needed, specifications, or even the manuals of both radios, I can email them upon request.
Hope this was of some help for you,
Calico
PS: Hellos to tuebschen ;)
PPS: Copied from Uniden's manual
Close Call RF capture works great for finding frequencies at
venues such as malls and sporting events. You can
set the scanner so Close Call detection works “in the
background” while you are scanning other
frequencies, turn off normal scanning while Close
Call is working, or turn off the Close Call feature and
use the scanner normally. You can set the scanner
so it alerts you when the Close Call feature detects a
frequency. You can also set the frequency band
where you want the scanner to look for
transmissions.
Unlike searching, which requires the scanner to tune
to a frequency to check for a transmission, Close
Call RF capture directly detects the presence of a
strong, nearby signal and instantly tunes to the
source’s frequency.
Hi there again to all
i have bought the PSR-282 200 channel scanner today from Maplin and the scanner is looking very good.
I have one concern again about the scanner. when i switch it on and when i am listening to Heathrow approach, i only can listen to the pilots not the (controller?)
Any body know why is this happening?
Please reply ASAP, i am really trying my best to get used to the scanner but it just not working for me
Thank you
LHR786
i have bought the PSR-282 200 channel scanner today from Maplin and the scanner is looking very good.
I have one concern again about the scanner. when i switch it on and when i am listening to Heathrow approach, i only can listen to the pilots not the (controller?)
Any body know why is this happening?
Please reply ASAP, i am really trying my best to get used to the scanner but it just not working for me
Thank you
LHR786
Message from concorde at Tuesday, 21-Dec-10 22:01:38 GMT
Hello LHR786
I have a PSR-295 and use it from my home location in mid Suffolk with an outside aerial. This is the Diamond D-777 but this is for VHF/UHF. You can pick up a cheaper aerial than this for about £40 but the secret is to get it outside as high as possible. This will enable you to hear two way with Heathrow tower and all other frequncies at LHR.
I can pick up LHR Approach from here and also hear the controllers depending on conditions.
Regards
Geoff
I have a PSR-295 and use it from my home location in mid Suffolk with an outside aerial. This is the Diamond D-777 but this is for VHF/UHF. You can pick up a cheaper aerial than this for about £40 but the secret is to get it outside as high as possible. This will enable you to hear two way with Heathrow tower and all other frequncies at LHR.
I can pick up LHR Approach from here and also hear the controllers depending on conditions.
Regards
Geoff
Message from Calico at Wednesday, 22-Dec-10 07:15:02 GMT
The Maplin choice (PSR-282 200) as was explained on 15th December is not very sensitive, only 1uV (about 4 times more "hard-of-hearing" than an Icom PCR-1000 or two times less sensitive than a Uniden BC72XLT or Icom PCR-1500). At least we tried to make you aware early enough...
Low-spec. radios, sadly don't perform that well, despite "looking very good".
On top of that, your rubber duck type antenna is not resonant on the frequency you are trying to receive. You just happen to be receiving the airplane, because at the height that it is, the so called Line-of-sight is many more miles so it's much easier to hear the plane than the ground station.
At 5000 ft you get about 70 nautical miles radio-range (line-of-sight at VHF).
But at 10 feet you get 3.2 nm max line-of-sight, you get the idea.
Hence to compensate now for the less sensitive PSR-282 200 radio and the weaker signal of the ground base station, as Concorde pointed out you might indeed need an external antenna and preferably if possible tailored for the frequencies you are after, not so much for RF reasons as for linearity issues of the PSR-282 200.
However, if I can receive both sides (planes and base) of Heathrow VHF, even down here in Dorset, and you can't despite living so close to Heathrow, it would have to be suggested you checked other frequencies as well. Surely you should be able to receive both sides on some freqs at the very least!
Start by checking out which Heathrow freqs are the strongest in an open space outside your house, then check which of these you can (and should) still hear with your scanner whip at the best reception corner of your residence...
Last edited by Calico at Wednesday, 22-Dec-10 10:24:02 UTC
Low-spec. radios, sadly don't perform that well, despite "looking very good".
On top of that, your rubber duck type antenna is not resonant on the frequency you are trying to receive. You just happen to be receiving the airplane, because at the height that it is, the so called Line-of-sight is many more miles so it's much easier to hear the plane than the ground station.
At 5000 ft you get about 70 nautical miles radio-range (line-of-sight at VHF).
But at 10 feet you get 3.2 nm max line-of-sight, you get the idea.
Hence to compensate now for the less sensitive PSR-282 200 radio and the weaker signal of the ground base station, as Concorde pointed out you might indeed need an external antenna and preferably if possible tailored for the frequencies you are after, not so much for RF reasons as for linearity issues of the PSR-282 200.
However, if I can receive both sides (planes and base) of Heathrow VHF, even down here in Dorset, and you can't despite living so close to Heathrow, it would have to be suggested you checked other frequencies as well. Surely you should be able to receive both sides on some freqs at the very least!
Start by checking out which Heathrow freqs are the strongest in an open space outside your house, then check which of these you can (and should) still hear with your scanner whip at the best reception corner of your residence...
Last edited by Calico at Wednesday, 22-Dec-10 10:24:02 UTC
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