ARTCC Frequencies

[btlacer]

I like to monitor ARTCC frequencies, I live close to Evansville, Indiana and can hear Indy Center on 132.525
I was wanting to monitor Chicago, Memphis and Kansas City ARTCC. Which frequencies should I program? I know I will not be able to hear the Centers but at least the planes I can. Any help I appreciate it!

 

[KF6DGN]

ARTCC - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[bgav]

See this map, start with high altitude sector frequencies.

 

[dpm3]

Over (up?) here in St. Louis ZKC (Kansas City Center) has a pretty fair amount of traffic on both 132.650 and 135.050

 

[BMT]

RR has the most up to date Center freqs!!

BMT

 

[btlacer]

Thanks everyone, I guess I am just confused on how the ARTCC works, if you look them up on the Wiki or database there are alot of frequencies for each ARTCC center. Which ones should I program? Only the "High" or "Very High" frequencies, or "Low"? My other question is I know each ARTCC center is seperated into sectors, which ones should I program? Ones that are close to me? Thanks everyone!

 

[Tahoe1970]

It's a big topic

How the whole system works can be confusing at first.

Here are a couple of good places to start:
How Does Air Traffic Control Work? | eHow.com

Air traffic control - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HowStuffWorks "How Air Traffic Control Works"

Finding Air Traffic Frequencies - The RadioReference Wiki

This site focuses on CA but it has some good information about the national system - Some of the frequency information is old.
http://www.freqofnature.com/aviation/index.html#Aviation

Aimed at mil-air but has good information and good references for civ-air as well.
Military Comms Monitoring. HF VHF UHF

The ultra high, high, and low are based on altitude so what to listen to depends on what type of flights you are trying to listen to.

Sectors are geographically based and so the sectors closest to you are the ones which will have the nearest air traffic.

Once you decide some specifics you want to listen to, then the database here is a great place to start and usually has the most up to date information.

The FAA also has all kinds of stuff to download including manuals and charts many of which have the most current frequency information. Here's one place you could start:
IFR Enroute Aeronautical Charts (Lows, Highs, Areas)

You can end up with all kinds of stuff to listen to in the air-band and then next you may start exploring mil-air which is a whole different beast!

 

[spooney]

Here is what I listen to in the Evansville area:

Clearance Delivery 126.600000
Evansville Tower 118.700000
East Approach/Departure Control 126.400000
West Approach/Departure Control 127.350000
Ground Control 121.900000
Indianapolis Center (low) 128.300000
Indianapolis Center (high) 132.525000
Delta Airlines 'Atlanta Radio' 129.500000
Delta Airlines 'Atlanta Radio' 129.600000
Delta Airlines 'Atlanta Radio' 129.700000

If you want to listen to the other planes from other centers listen for the freq's that Indy Center hands them off to when they leave or some of the approach freq's for landing and enter them in your scanner.

 

[ai8o]

Low High Ultra ARTCC sectors that you can hear

Assuming you are on flat ground; not in a valley or near big hills or mountains:

How far away you can hear aircraft is directly related to their altitude.The higher they are; the further away you can hear them. You can't hear any aircraft that is over the horizon.

The FAA defines LOW as up to 23000 feet, High as 23000 to 33000, Ultra High as over 33000.

Your maximum radio horizons are roughly:

aircraft on the ground to 7 miles.

LOW aircraft 200 miles

HIGH aircraft 250 miles

ULTRA HIGH aircraft 300 miles


Get a map and draw three circles centered on your location at 200, 250, 300 miles.

Go to HTTP://www.MilAirComms.com and find

1) the LOW transmitter locations located within the 200 mile Circle.

2) the HIGH transmitter locations located within the 250 mile circle

3) the ULTRA HIGH transmitter locations located within the 300 mile circle.

Enter their frequencies in your scanner.

This is a very rough way to determine the frequencies to put in your scanner.
If you would like a more precise method of determining your radio horizon, and what ARTSS sectors you can hear; PM me.

P.S. Don't forget to put 121.5 (the emergency channel, and 123.45 ( the AV en-route chit-chat channel) in your scanner

 

[ai8o]

Assuming you are on flat ground; not in a valley or near big hills or mountains:

How far away you can hear aircraft is directly related to their altitude.The higher they are; the further away you can hear them. You can't hear any aircraft that is over the horizon.

The FAA defines LOW as up to 23000 feet, High as 23000 to 33000, Ultra High as over 33000.

Your maximum radio horizons are roughly:

aircraft on the ground to 7 miles.

LOW aircraft 200 miles

HIGH aircraft 250 miles

ULTRA HIGH aircraft 300 miles


Get a map and draw three circles centered on your location at 200, 250, 300 miles.

Go to HTTP://www.MilAirComms.com and find

1) the LOW transmitter locations located within the 200 mile Circle.

2) the HIGH transmitter locations located within the 250 mile circle

3) the ULTRA HIGH transmitter locations located within the 300 mile circle.

Enter their frequencies in your scanner.

This is a very rough way to determine the frequencies to put in your scanner.
If you would like a more precise method of determining your radio horizon, and what ARTSS sectors you can hear; PM me.

P.S. Don't forget to put 121.5 (the emergency channel, and 123.45 ( the AV en-route chit-chat channel) in your scanner

 

[BMT]

Go to HTTP://www.MilAirComms.com and find

I'm not knocking this guy's work, but the info is very outdated!!

BMT

 

[K4DHR]

Low/High/Ultra-High altitudes depend on the center. At Memphis most of our sectors use the following:

Low: SFC-FL230
High: FL240-FL340
UH: FL350+

Only exception at my center is Sector 44 (Pine Bluff), which owns FL240 and up. I've never heard anyone explain why there is no ultra high above it.

Atlanta Center has a number of Ultra Low sectors, likely to cut down on frequency congestion between ATL arrivals/departures and GA aircraft going in and out of smaller airports in the Center's airspace. The Ultra-Low sectors own from SFC-10,000 MSL.

Going up in the NE US, there are some Centers like ZNY that in effect have no low altitude airspace. Everything from FL200 (or maybe it is 17,000 MSL) and below is owned by approach controls.

 

[AirScan]

There really is no standard hard altitude boundary between High and Ultra High airspace, as K4DHR says it depends on the Center.

There are also some Centers in the US that triple-stack their high altitude airspace. For example the northern sectors of Indianapolis overhead the Dayton, Ohio area that use 120.575 from FL240 to FL300, 135.800 from FL310 to FL350, 128.775 from FL360 and above. Cleveland, Chicago and Atlanta also have some triple-stacked high altitude airspace.

In Europe it gets even more complex were Centers multi-stack their high altitude airspace. For example Swiss Radar overhead the Zurich area use 133.405 from FL250 to FL280, 132.815 from FL290 to FL320, 134.605 from FL330 to FL350, 132.835 from FL360 to FL370, 133.690 from FL380 and above. Although most of the time a certain combination of sector/frequencies are combined (frequencies cross-coupled) depending on traffic volume. France and Germany also have many multi-stacked high altitude sectors.

For those unfamiliar with Europe they use an 8.33 kHz spacing system, so the "channels" used are not the same as the "frequencies" used in North America.

 

[AirScan]

I like to monitor ARTCC frequencies, I live close to Evansville, Indiana and can hear Indy Center on 132.525
I was wanting to monitor Chicago, Memphis and Kansas City ARTCC. Which frequencies should I program? I know I will not be able to hear the Centers but at least the planes I can. Any help I appreciate it!

The Radio Reference Wiki page is the best and most accurate source I've seen on the web for ARTCC frequency information. The only problem with it is it doesn't necessarily give an accurate picture of what airspace is covered by the frequencies listed. For this you need an actual sector chart that shows the individual sector boundaries.

My ARTCC database project. I've put together my own chart and maintain a database that that does show the sector boundaries and corresponding frequencies covering all high altitude airspace over the USA and southern Canada. I've attached a sample map below (pdf file) centered on the Evansville area with a range ring set at 200 miles as a reference for btlacer.

I keep the maps up to date mostly from my own personal monitoring as I travel frequently, also from internet radio sources like here on Radio Reference or LiveATC.net, and from official sources (when available). Other helpful tools are Flight Explorer, Flight Aware, and Skyvector (for charts).

If there is anyone else out there who is interested in monitoring ARTCC frequencies and would like a chart for their area (only high altitude at this time) I would be happy to send one. The only thing I ask in return is that you can send me any updates or corrections to help keep the maps up to date, as accurate information from official sources is difficult to come by. If there are any controllers or people that are already familiar with the airspace in their listening area I would be happy to send a chart as well so you can check my work, that would be appreciated. Please PM if you are interested.

Thanks,

 

[lotsofradios]

Go to HTTP://www.MilAirComms.com and find

I'm not knocking this guy's work, but the info is very outdated!!

BMT

I've found that since using the Military Comms Monitoring. HF VHF UHF site I have found that most of what I was looking for was still being used. The SEALORD stuff at Military Comms Monitoring. HF VHF UHF is what really got me started in actually hearing real comms, without that I would have had to do lot of searching and possible would have given up.

Also I like when an aircraft carrier comes into the area, he usually puts up his live audio stream which has really helped me determine that I too can hear a lot of the same comms.

There is a lot of say for searching frequencies yourself, but its very nice to have a good starting point. I've also noticed that when I do find a frequency while searching, his website has provided me with some accurate information regarding that newly found frequency.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Going up in the NE US, there are some Centers like ZNY that in effect have no low altitude airspace. Everything from FL200 (or maybe it is 17,000 MSL) and below is owned by approach controls.

Airspace "under" ZNY is almost all controlled by N90 (New York Approach/Departure).

A large chunk of airspace "under" ZBW is controlled by ALB (Albany Approach/Departure).