Aircraft Reception Question

[bb49490]

Quick question on aircraft transmission. My folks live around 65 miles from Indy airport, but they can hear both sides of a transmission from the tower to incoming and outgoing aircraft. I gave them my Pro-2037, programmed it for them and was amazed when I heard both ends of the conversation from that far away with no external antenna with excellent reception. They live in a very rural area. I didn't think you could get a control tower that far away. Any thoughts?

 

[ka3jjz]

Not a control tower, but I'd put money on a remote transmitter/receiver setup which is hard wired or microwaved to the control tower proper. 73s Mike

 

[bb49490]

I never thought of that.....I bet you are right!!! How do you find that out? Is that something that is licensed?

 

[kf4lne]

its not uncommon to install the radio equipment miles from the actual tower. You want to have your avaition radio system out in the clear where you will be able to get clear, solid signals that arent going to be garbled by multipathing caused by nearby city buildings and such, so the radio gear may be installed in a pasture miles from anything. I bet if you look around the countryside a bit you will see a building with some low mounted aviation antennas on it.

 

[bb49490]

I will check that out the next time I am up there.
THANKS!!

 

[mjw357]

Are you sure it was Indianapolis tower? What frequency was it? You didn't say, 65 miles in which direction?

I have never seen control tower radio gear or antennas anywhere except on top of the tower itself. The planes they are talking to are well above any terrestrial interference, there is no need to put them anywhere offsite.

 

[bb49490]

They are west of the Indy Tower. The pilots are saying Indy Center

 

[bb49490]

There were several frequencies, but I believe one of them was 134.175, I think. I will have to check when I am back in that area. I thought it was strange when I heard being that far from the tower, but it came in very clear.

 

[timmer]

Sounds to me that it might be Indy center, not Indy approach. Centers have many remote transmission sights in order to cover the large areas that they need to cover. They may be near one. 65 miles is a long way to be hearing an approach control/tower. I can rarely recieve one even 30 miles away with an outdoor antenna mounted 4o feet up, except when there's ducting going on. (skip).

 

[n4jri]

If they're saying "Indy Center" I feel sure that they're talking to Indy Center (Indianapolis ARTCC, for any newbies reading the mail). 134.175 is listed as one of its frequencies here in the RR database. You can access it by going to Indiana in the database and looking at the bottom of the page for ARTCC center freqs.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[bb49490]

Is it common to hear both sides of the conversation that far away when dealing with ARTCC's?

 

[DPD1]

Is it common to hear both sides of the conversation that far away when dealing with ARTCC's?

Yes, because their sectors cover a much larger area... Where transmitters for an airport or local TRACON maybe only be at mid level building height... The Center transmitters for each sector could be on mountain tops, or high towers. Most Centers cover multiple states, with each sector covering an area equal to multiple counties.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Featuring the New MilTenna Omni Air Band Antennas -

 

[mjw357]

Is it common to hear both sides of the conversation that far away when dealing with ARTCC's?

I don't know the particulars of ARTCC radio equipment, but I was flying back from Pennsylvania one cloudy day at 4000', was instructed by Cleveland to contact Indy. I was surprised that I could reach them from eastern Ohio. And that was the day my alternator crapped out, so I didn't even have full TX power. So they must have higher antennas and bigger transmitters than the local controllers, as they generally only work with traffic 20-30 miles out, so that makes sense.

 

[Colin9690]

Generally ARTCCs have large antenna networks and arrays because they need to be able to communicate with aircraft 300-600 miles away.

 

[DPD1]

They're also fairly dynamic, as they can switch transmitter locations and frequencies within the same sector. They also have the special use freqs, which can cover the whole center area. It's actually part of the NORAD comm system.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, MURS, GMRS, & Ham Antennas -

 

[wa8vzq]

If you look at the ARTCC area map on milaircomms.com, you'll see that ZID covers into the middle of West Virginia. So having you contact them would not be an unusual set of conditions. They have a fairly large, 3 channel RCAG facility at Zanesville which is quasi-eastern Ohio - between Columbus and Wheeling, WV.

Dan
Apple Valley, MN

 

[mjw357]

They have a fairly large, 3 channel RCAG facility at Zanesville which is quasi-eastern Ohio - between Columbus and Wheeling, WV.

Dan
Apple Valley, MN

Not sure what an RCAG is, I assume a remote TX/RX site of some kind? That explains it.

 

[wa8vzq]

RCAG is an acronym for Remote Center Air to Ground. It is a radio communications outlet that is
connected to an ARTCC via either a phone line or microwave link. The transmitter equipment is
either 10 watts or 50 watts output depending upon the intended area of coverage.

Dan
Apple Valley, MN