gmv@petfe.UUCP (George M. Verbosh) (12/27/84)
<Cute filler> >Come on now.... someone out there has purchased >one of those spiffy looking SONY air-8 scanners. >... >Please send out a product report to the net.... > >Thank you, >Phil Cohen >Talaris Systems Well Phil, you've coaxed me into admitting it! I've got one. My wife bought a Sony Air-8 for my birthday. I received it in October (we had to wait about 5 weeks for deliverly, I don't think that is a problem now). Since then I've taken it on a few business trips to Washington DC. So now that I've road tested it (for real), a few comments: The FM reception seems fine to me, both at home and on the road. I like having the radio on the road since soooo many hotels have only TV. FM in the morning is a whole lot more useful to me. AM seems fine too, but the small built-in antenna may not be ideal for fringe areas or smaller stations. I'ts real easy to pick up WNBC from central Monmouth County NJ (~18Mi across water, 50KW), but it could be tough in the hills of Vermont. LF suffers from the built-in antenna limitation, since I have trouble picking up TWB from Newark at times. I can hear them, but they come in weekly. Of course, TWB are designed to be received in flight, not on the ground 20 miles away. PSB band works just fine. In addition to FM when I travel, I like to listen to the local NOAA Weather Radio. Police, Fire, Ambulance and Trains also operate on PSB (VHF), but I'd rather listen to air band. Air band is just the cat's meow. Works as well as/better than my Bearcat 220, without the interference the 220 sometimes has. The Air-8 also gets the entire VHF band from 108-136MHz, not just the COMM frequencies that some radios get. An 18" antenna is included (looks a bit kinky, but it works) for FM/PSB/AIR. The unit will scan up to 10 channels in any single band. It will not scan across bands, but you can program what order it scans within a band. Also has a priority feature that samples the selected channel every 2 seconds. Sony claims that 4 Alkaline batteries will last about 20 hours of average use (whatever that is), but I think they will last longer than that. I must admit I sometime feel a bit silly sitting at Newark with my ear-plug inserted and this 18" antenna sticking up (I keep thinking I'll be reported as a pervert :-)), but it's been no problem at all, and very interesting. If you are working on an IFR rating this is *THE* way to get into the radio procedures (listen to clearance delivery). The standard tower frequencies can be found on sectional charts. Refer to NOAA/Jepssen approach charts for clearance and other frequencies. BTW - at the end of November I attended SigAda at the Hyatt Crystal City. The Hyatt is located on the southern edge of DCA and I was on the 16th floor. What a view! This is a very active airport with very active tower. Unfortunately, I did not have much time to spend watching/listening, but the little I did was some of the best I'v ever done. There is a park just North of DCA that looks directly down one of the runways. If I'm down there in the spring, I've promised myself I'd pack a lunch (and my Air-8) and do some serious airplane watching. No, I don't own stock in Sony, but I do like my 'toy', even though it is not cheap. I do not know if anyone beside Sporty's carries it. BTW - I've not been able to find out for sure if it is legal for use on-board an airliner. Anyone care to comment on this? -- - - - - - -- George M. Verbosh US Mail: Perkin-Elmer, 197 Hance Ave., Tinton Falls NJ, 07724 UUCP: ...!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!petfe!gmv Phone: 201/530-5900