Aircraft Monitoring?

[blakem445]

I have noticed most airports have VHF & UHF frequencies for towers, ground etc. When you are programming airports into your radios do you put both UHF and VHF into your scan list? Is there one that is better to program over the other?

Thanks,

Blake

 

[drdispatch]

The VHF frequencies are for civilian aircraft and the UHF frequencies are for military aircraft. Airports will generally "multicast", i.e. transmit on both frequencies at the same time, thus you will hear the tower on both VHF & UHF; but you will only hear the aircraft on one or the other. (That said, military aircraft are also equipped with VHF radios to communicate with airports that don't have UHF capability.)

 

[rk911]

And the farther away you are from the airport the less likely you are to hear the tower and aircraft on the ground. Aeronautical radio traffic is AM modulation. AIRNAV.com is an excellent source for airport information including frequencies.

 

[MiCon]

Most civilian AP's don't have UHF capability. That being said, there are many that do, usually the AP's with longer and wider runways. But if military a/c don't usually use said AP, you'll hear very little activity on the UHF freq except for the controller simulcasting the VHF freq.

Joint use AP's such as Yuma, AZ and Phoenix Int'l will use both VHF and UHF on a daily basis.

If you're only interested in listening to the civilian a/c, program just the VHF freqs.
If you're only interested in listening to the military a/c, program just the UHF freqs.

 

[tvengr]

What is your nearest airport? A good source for up-to-date frequencies is AirNav.

 

[jazzboypro]

Sadly Airnav.com has no info on both international airports in Montreal.

 

[nd5y]

SkyVector.com has airport info for other countries.

Airports in Québec, Canada | SkyVector

 

[rk911]

Montreal Airports

 

[jazzboypro]

..Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.