Airband frequencies

[jazzboypro]

View attachment 105674

Thanks for the info

 

[KB2GOM]

Trucker700, what you are hearing that is not published on the RR data base are "Airline Company Freqs."...this is for pilots to call when they are about half an hour out from landing to call their respective airline and tell them about special needs pax., unaccompanied kids, and special requests. This info is confidential and not published. A lot of this info is now transmitted via ACARS.

On a separate note, I have an Icom airband receiver and it is "mind blowing" as to how sensitive it is, I pick up planes over Canada living in Ohio. You cannot compare Icom's, they are professional grade.

Which particular Icom airband receiver do you have, and what antenna are you using?

 

[Trucker700]

Which particular Icom airband receiver do you have, and what antenna are you using?

I have an Icom 5100A dual band transceiver. As for antenna, a Larsen dual band 5/8 wave.
I have found that setting up my Uniden 436 for civilian and military air only, works much better than the 5100A. The 436 sounds as good, if not better on AM than the 5100A.
But, if I didn't have the 436, I would be happy with the 5100A.
James
AKA: Trucker

 

[R0am3r]

Trucker700 - I'm wondering if you made a selection for a new aviation radio? I recently purchased the Uniden BCT15X and find little difference between it and my SDS200 while monitoring air band frequencies. Oddly enough, I found a couple of instances where the SDS200 would pick up a distant signal while the BCT15X was silent (both radios were monitoring the same frequency). Please note I feed all of my scanners and SDRs from the same antenna (MP Antenna 08-ANT-0861) and use the Electroline Amplifier/Splitter. Despite what others say, my SDS200 is hardly deaf and performs quit well on the VHF bands.

 

[Trucker700]

Trucker700 - I'm wondering if you made a selection for a new aviation radio? I recently purchased the Uniden BCT15X and find little difference between it and my SDS200 while monitoring air band frequencies. Oddly enough, I found a couple of instances where the SDS200 would pick up a distant signal while the BCT15X was silent (both radios were monitoring the same frequency). Please note I feed all of my scanners and SDRs from the same antenna (MP Antenna 08-ANT-0861) and use the Electroline Amplifier/Splitter. Despite what others say, my SDS200 is hardly deaf and performs quit well on the VHF bands.

For mobile in my pickup, i use the Uniden 436. I found it works quite well. When I was driving over the road, I used my SDS100 and a Larsen scanner antenna mounted on the passenger side mirror.
It worked just fine for Airband as well as other services. I did find that if I was extremely close to an airport, it would overload at times. Example, on I-10 in front of Sky Harbor airport, it would overload if the tower was really busy. If I was just monitoring Airband, I could set the filter settings to Wide, and the overload problem didn't happen.
I also have an SDS200 here at home. And scanning just Airband it works just fine using the telescoping antenna.
I do believe the SDS radios scan slightly slower. But, not by much. As for audio, I think the 436 has a bit better sound to it on analog signals. But, not enough to choose one over the other.
James
AKA: Trucker

 

[iMONITOR]

I've been seeing excellent performance scanning/searching the air bands using a SDRplay RSPdx SDR receiver. It performs so much better than any scanner I've ever used, including the BCT125AT, BCT15X, and all the rest! I'm using a SIRIO SD 2000 N 100~2000MHz discone antenna. You'll start hearing what you've been missing, and seeing it as well.

 

[Trucker700]

I've been seeing excellent performance scanning/searching the air bands using a SDRplay RSPdx SDR receiver. It performs so much better than any scanner I've ever used, including the BCT125AT, BCT15X, and all the rest! I'm using a SIRIO SD 2000 N 100~2000MHz discone antenna. You'll start hearing what you've been missing, and seeing it as well.

That is something I have looked at. But, I didn't know how well it would work. I have a couple of the cheap dongles that didn't really impress me.
I might have to try an SDRplay.
Thanks for the tip.
James
AKA: Trucker

 

[N9JCQ]

Trucker700 - I'm wondering if you made a selection for a new aviation radio? I recently purchased the Uniden BCT15X and find little difference between it and my SDS200 while monitoring air band frequencies. Oddly enough, I found a couple of instances where the SDS200 would pick up a distant signal while the BCT15X was silent (both radios were monitoring the same frequency). Please note I feed all of my scanners and SDRs from the same antenna (MP Antenna 08-ANT-0861) and use the Electroline Amplifier/Splitter. Despite what others say, my SDS200 is hardly deaf and performs quit well on the VHF bands.

I use the same antenna here from my Uniden 780 XLT and it works fab for me. I am 2o miles due north of O'Hare and the 780 can hear about everything from ORD. My 325P2, not much at all.

 

[iMONITOR]

That is something I have looked at. But, I didn't know how well it would work. I have a couple of the cheap dongles that didn't really impress me.
I might have to try an SDRplay.
Thanks for the tip.
James
AKA: Trucker

There's no comparison between SDRplay's SDR's vs something like the inexpensive TV dongles like the RTL-SDR's! In addition SDRuno software is really nice!

SDRplay

Copyright (c) 2014-2023 SDRplay Ltd - SDRplay®,SDRuno® and SDRconnect® are registered trademarks belonging to SDRplay LtdRegistered UK company 09035244, 21 Lenten Street, Alton, Hampshire, GU34 1HG, UKRegistered Ireland company 3591295EH, The Black Church, St Mary’s Place, Co. Dublin, D07 P4AX...

www.sdrplay.com

Airspy is another good one.

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