For some time, I've been unhappy with my Uniden BC-996's performance on the military UHF airband. It does just fine on public safety, federal, and military land mobile frequencies and it gives me the easily ability to monitor P25 digital signals, but military aviation is my primary monitoring target. I haven't been able to hear much of my favorite thing to listen to for the last year. Recently, the opportunity presented itself to obtain a third BC-780 for use in the car.
This was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. Another benefit to this 780 is that it has the Scanner Master remote face kit making it the perfect scanner to mount in the car. Given the limited space in the front of the Saturn and the size of the 780 and the 996, I probably couldn't have put both in if the 780 didn't have the remote face kit. The face of the 780 is mounted near the top of the dash over the AM/FM radio and the rest of it is under the front passenger seat.
Several times recently I've been asked what I'm using for antennas on the mobile radios, I never can remember the model numbers, so I'll post them here for easy reference. The Yaesu FT-8800 2-Meter/70-cm dual band transciever (center dash) uses a Comet CHL-62S. The BC-780 uses a Diamond SG7200NMO (an amateur dual band antenna that just happens to be an excellent milair antenna) and the BC-996 uses an Antennex ABSCANC.
The benefit of having both radios in the car is that I now have the ability to hear more. The 996 has been devoted to trunked and conventional public safety and federal communications. The 780 is devoted to military communications. Either radio can be used for searching, leaving the other to scan known frequencies when I'm searching for new frequencies or systems. With my 60-70 mile round trip each day, they provide an excellent way to pass the commute time.
Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
