Hearing planes from distant airports

Hello all. Just getting into Aviation monitoring. I was just curious if I can get the planes from far off airports let's say 200 miles away? I live in Cape Cod Mass and was just curious if I can hear planes from the NYC area such as LaGuardia or JFK international. I know I can't get the towers. I can get Logan airport traffic
Just the planes of course. I just.have a standard magmount Larsen antenna plugged into my 996T.

yes u should be able to hear planes contacting new York center and they should give the planes the next handed off channel for the airport tower ect same with departing aircraft. from where u are in the cap cod area put in boston center and new York center. there are times here in pa that I can hear planes talking to boston center and getting information for airports in new York. if u can fine the center channel that is not far from u. u can hear the center and the airplane airport tower u will not hear unless u are with in a couple of miles of the airport. when planes get to 1000 feet or more they can be heard for long distances. what type of scanner are u using I use base for my setup. also lmr 400 cable with a rs ground plane antenna work good for me here in pa. weather also play a role In what u will and will not hear in the summer during skip i can hear nypd and fdny here in chester co pa. so start off by putting boston center in your scanner every channel and listen for a couple of days fine the channel that u can both sides of the transmission. then write that channel down and add the new York center in another bank same here and once u fine the ones that work put them in another bank . also I went to Walmart and pick up a tv amp this helps bring in some of the lower heard channels that are weak to hear. I used to live in Worcester mass so boston center u should try first.

also try to get a base antenna for the 118mhz to 136mhz for aircraft monitoring. and get it up has high as u can. if u have more question I can help u or someone else hear will also try and help.

Planes are pretty high up - so longer waves travel further.

I can hear the local center about 150 miles away from home

A discone antenna does well for aviation reception. A surplus military one will hold up very well. I use an old Diamond discone and get a lot of traffic. Of course I am near Boeing here too.

Getting an antenna high up, also requires you to take into account line loss of your cable. Use good cable for longer runs. If you are running more than 50 feet or so, RG-213 will be better than RG-58 for instance.

In a previous life, I worked on ships that had a helipad. Some techs would run the aviation antenna 11 decks up the stack to get more height, using RG-58 coax. Then wonder why they couldn't talk to anybody. This was with an Icom A110.

If you can see it you can hear it. The higher the plane the farther you can see it. Line of sight distance or reception range (nautical miles) taking into account the curvature of the earth is equal to 1.23 times the square root of the altitude (feet).

Altitude (feet) = reception distance (nautical miles)

5000 = 86nm
10000 = 123nm
15000 = 150nm
20000 = 173nm
25000 = 194nm
30000 = 213nm
35000 = 230nm
40000 = 246nm
45000 = 260nm

1 nautical mile = 1.15 statute miles

In my experience you have to have very good equipment and an antenna above and clear of all obstacles to be able to receive out to that maximum theoretical distance. Anything blocking the signal, hill, trees, walls will degrade reception range significantly. Even with an antenna in the clear and a standard scanner you probably won't get much better than 85% of the maximum distance above.

If you are interested I can attach a map showing all the high altitude sectors and frequencies with range rings around your location for reference.

Sure that would be helpful Airscan.

AirScan said:

If you can see it you can hear it. The higher the plane the farther you can see it. Line of sight distance or reception range (nautical miles) taking into account the curvature of the earth is equal to 1.23 times the square root of the altitude (feet).

Altitude (feet) = reception distance (nautical miles)

5000 = 86nm
10000 = 123nm
15000 = 150nm
20000 = 173nm
25000 = 194nm
30000 = 213nm
35000 = 230nm
40000 = 246nm
45000 = 260nm

1 nautical mile = 1.15 statute miles.............

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That right there^^^^^^. I used to monitor the Space Shuttle leaving and returning to Cape Canaveral on their UHF. I used a discone, and could hear them clearly 800 miles out.

Sure that would be helpful Airscan.

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Attached below is a high altitude chart (24000 feet and above) showing sector boundaries and frequencies. Centered on the New Bedford area with range rings at 100 and 200 nautical miles.

High altitude sectors generally start at 24000 feet and extend above, unless otherwise indicated.

I would just program all frequencies in you state and you should hear something I love in NJ and have NY, Boston and Washington ATCC. Even in big states I would program all of them

KB1UAM said:

...was just curious if I can hear planes from the NYC area such as LaGuardia or JFK international.

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You could go here: Listen to Live ATC (Air Traffic Control) Communications | LiveATC.net

In the Airport/ARTCC Code box in the upper left corner, put in KJFK (For JFK) or KLGA (for LaGuardia) in the search box and you will be presented with several feeds from each airport.

Yeah, I know its not the same as listening to it on your radio or scanner, but it achieves the same result!

related question

Don't want to hijack-but this is related. How do you find where a particular frequency is originating? Last night I was picking up what I think is Memphis, or an RCAG on 120.800. It was weak but readable most of the evening and overnight, but Memphis is over 200miles from my location! They were giving the Memphis altimeter reading, and telling the planes to switch to Memphis Approach 125.8. Haven't been able to figure out where to find those charts listing the RCAG sites for places other than ATL. Approaching weather may have made this possible, but I've never heard Memphis before.

Memphis (ZME) Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Perhaps transmitting 120.800 from the Memphis Center (ZME) RCAG at Huntsville, Al.?

Just as an aside somebody should fix up those lists so they show proper VHF frequencies in North America. (I say that because Europe uses 8.33 kHz channel spacing.)

From the ZME wiki for example 124.2700 is not correct, it should be 124.2750. ATC and pilots tend to drop the trailing "5" when speaking because it's automatically selected by the radio but for someone entering it into an SDR software package or direct-entry radio it's going to be off-frequency.

Rule of thumb. If verbally it ends in .x2 or .x7 it's really x25 and x75.

ATCTech said:

Just as an aside somebody should fix up those lists so they show proper VHF frequencies in North America. (I say that because Europe uses 8.33 kHz channel spacing.)

From the ZME wiki for example 124.2700 is not correct, it should be 124.2750. ATC and pilots tend to drop the trailing "5" when speaking because it's automatically selected by the radio but for someone entering it into an SDR software package or direct-entry radio it's going to be off-frequency.

Rule of thumb. If verbally it ends in .x2 or .x7 it's really x25 and x75.

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Noticed that in the DB myself a while back. The ATC handbook specifically addresses dropping the 3rd character 5 in phraseology.

I had a friend inquire recently as to why he was having problems receiving. That trailing 5 was his issue.

What does the handbook say, bad practice to drop the 5 or is it approved phraseology? I've never asked our controllers here in Canada but now that you mention it I'm going to.

Bob

alphazulu said:

Memphis (ZME) Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Perhaps transmitting 120.800 from the Memphis Center (ZME) RCAG at Huntsville, Al.?

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Thanks Alphazulu that has to be it. I couldn't find that RCAG page that you linked. I just knew it was doubtful that even with the craziest weather I would be hearing ATC from 250miles away in all these hills.

Does anyone have the charts like Airscan posted for New Jersey?

I also live on Cape Cod and recommend listening to the Coast Guard aero frequencies out of Otis. I live in Falmouth so I can hear both sides pretty easily as well as Cape Cod Air out of Hyannis. I also tend to get Logan without much difficulty. I don't often hear NYC on VHF but have no problem picking up the transatlantic chatter on HF. You might want to consider buying a Tecsun 660 or other small HF receiver for that type of thing. Good luck!

You live on Cape Cod, the OP is not on Cape Cod :roll:

New Bedford is "South Coastal" Massachusetts - that would be like Marshfield claiming they are Cape Cod :

K1TSL said:

I also live on Cape Cod and recommend listening to the Coast Guard aero frequencies out of Otis. I live in Falmouth so I can hear both sides pretty easily as well as Cape Cod Air out of Hyannis. I also tend to get Logan without much difficulty. I don't often hear NYC on VHF but have no problem picking up the transatlantic chatter on HF. You might want to consider buying a Tecsun 660 or other small HF receiver for that type of thing. Good luck!

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