Air WX Broadcast?

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KC9NCF

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I used to monitor this freq, and sometimes it was strong, sometimes not too good. I'm in Chicago, BTW. the freq I speak of is something that gave weather conditions, etc. It was in the 108Mhz to 136Mhz band. Every few hours the station call letter would change by one. It would say "Advise you have information Alpha" or something like that.

What freq would that be again for Chicago O'Hare?
 

Astro25

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Almost every airport has one of these. The information could (and usually does) change every day to a different phonetic - Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.
 

SCPD

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Every managed Airport has ATIS. It will update every Hr or so or more often if Weather changes.
It gives the Pilots the "current" wind speed and direction and what else is going on at the Airport, like runway closure etc.
That way when they talk to the tower, tower knows the Pilots knows the current info and does not have to waste Time giving it over and over to everyone and he she can concentrate landing all the incoming Airplanes.
sf
 

immelmen

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The ATIS code changes every hour at a minimum and can change as often as needed such as the issuance of SPECI METARs during the passage of a frontal system when the weather changes by the minute....every change is the next letter in the alphabet.

A pilot must read the ATIS code to a controller as a means of satisfying FAR 91.103 "Preflight action required"
a lot of places, Newark comes to mind, are sticklers and will often not give you a taxi clearence until you advise the ATIS code.
 

K4DHR

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Towered airports and some with FSSs will have an ATIS. In addition to weather information, it also includes the runways and approaches in use, as well as any NOTAMs regarding runways and taxiways.

At military bases, they also typically include runway braking effectiveness information.

Many, but not all, non-towered airports will have automated weather broadcasts as well. Any airport with an instrument approach is REQUIRED to have automated weather available. However, these may not always be over VHF frequencies. I've flown into a couple of airports that only had NDB approaches (at the time) and the weather was broadcast over the NDB (MF) frequency. Then there are others that broadcast their weather over the VOR frequency if there is a terminal or low VOR (likely not owned by the FAA) located at the field.

These are even fewer and far between than they were when I was actively flying 4-5 years ago. Unless they're part of another approach, quite a few stand alone NDBs and terminal VORs are going the way of the dodo as GPS approaches are added to these airports. As a result, they've been replaced with VHF ASOS/AWOS systems that aren't associated with a navaid.
 

chrismol1

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I know around here at Albany international airport here in NY, atis is on 115.000 and has very good, well i eman excellent covergage even though the airport it 26 miles or something away from me
 

immelmen

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I know around here at Albany international airport here in NY, atis is on 115.000 and has very good, well i eman excellent covergage even though the airport it 26 miles or something away from me


Thats because what your hearing is not KALB ATIS. Albany airport atis is 120.45mhz and its digital-atis capable so all the airlines in there get it via acars data link.

115.00mhz is in the freq range for radio aids to navigation and based on your being 26 miles from KALB airport it looks like your picking up the HIWAS(Hazardous Inflight Weather Advisory Service) broadcast over the Cambridge VOR which is also 25 miles from KALB on a freq of 115.00 which would also explain why you are picking it up so well.

A good way to tell is if you also hear morse code every 30 seconds or so mixed in with the voice.
 
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Yokoshibu

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yeah, HIWAS is the way to go, smarter pilots pull out the knob and listen for it!
 

immelmen

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yeah, HIWAS is the way to go, smarter pilots pull out the knob and listen for it!

It is good if your dispatcher is lazy or your GA out for the $400 hamburger in a bug-smaher, but be careful what your using it for. HIWAS does not satisfy FAR 91.103 for operation into any airport. Its only equivalent to a Flight service brief of Airmet tango/sierra/zulu, sigmets, and convective sigmets.....therefore not a legal brief just by itself.

Also, many HIWAS outlets voice transmissions are unreadable in the flight levels. sometimes at night the hi-sector controllers will often just read the report over the freq. If its too busy they will announce its issuance and the easiest way to get them is via an "area WX" request on the ACARS menu. (honestly 99% of the time, no one listens to them, because you can just "free text" the dispatcher to do it for you and he will give you the scoop....along with the score to the cubs game.)
 
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