On Apr 7, 9:04 am, "Marco Leon" wrote:
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message

...

I have a Bearcat BC340 scanner, as well as a ICOM A6 transceiver. The
signal reception on the A6 is vastly greater than the Bearcat scanner,
using a side-by-side comparison with same antenna feed.

I am looking for a scanner comparable in quality to the ICOM A6, but
without the transmit option (which will hopefully be cheaper).

Any ideas?

Don't know if you want handheld or a base scanner but I picked this one up
from Radio Shack a year or so ago. It's branded for NASCAR but it carries
the airband as well. It's also a rebrand from a Bearcat I believe. At $49
it's really a low-risk buy and you can even spring for a good antenna which
is a big factor in performance.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...180625&cp=&sr=...

Marco

I've had that one too, but I returned it. I did a side-by-side
comparison with the ICOM A6. Using the same outdoor antenna (roof
mount), the ICOM can receive transmissions that does not even show as
a blip on the Radio Shack or Bearcat models that I had tried. When
tuned to an AWOS 30 miles away, the signal is loud and crisp on the
ICOM, but I can't even get a scratchy transmission on the other
models. I was surprised by the huge disparity. My suspicion is that
the ICOM circuit has been optimized specifically for the air band. It
seems the best option for me is to stick with the ICOM A6 and use it
as a scanner even though I don't need the transmitter functionality.
It is cheaper than buying the other multi-band scanners from ICOM.