CW

[WB9YBM]

Which airport? I can check the sectional if you like. There may not be any VORs near the airport in question.

hum...that's surprising. I took it for granted that all airports have some kind of beacon or another. Guess I was wrong!

 

[belvdr]

hum...that's surprising. I took it for granted that all airports have some kind of beacon or another. Guess I was wrong!

They have lighted beacons, but they are hard to hear though. LOL

 

[majoco]

The equipment installed at airports is dependent on the types of aircraft that use it - at a small airfield used mainly by light aircraft that fly VFR you wouldn't expect to find a VOR or an ILS installation, not even ATC. Once you get up to the passenger jets like 737's then you have to have much more equipment and services, rescue fire, fuel and maintenance facilities, runway lighting etc. An airport gets categorised and has to meet the FAA requirements before it gets a licence.

 

[GB46]

The equipment installed at airports is dependent on the types of aircraft that use it - at a small airfield used mainly by light aircraft that fly VFR you wouldn't expect to find a VOR or an ILS installation, not even ATC. Once you get up to the passenger jets like 737's then you have to have much more equipment and services, rescue fire, fuel and maintenance facilities, runway lighting etc. An airport gets categorised and has to meet the FAA requirements before it gets a licence.

Our airport has no VOR of its own, and doesn't even transmit ATIS bulletins, but it does have a control tower, handles some commercial passenger jet traffic, has a flight school and also a base for water bombers fighting wildfires. During normal times there's plenty of air traffic here, but the pandemic has reduced that drastically. As for licensing, the airport is owned by Transport Canada with management of navigational systems by Nav Canada. It's on land leased by our federal government from the owners, a local indigenous community.

 

[WB9YBM]

The equipment installed at airports is dependent on the types of aircraft that use it - at a small airfield used mainly by light aircraft that fly VFR you wouldn't expect to find a VOR or an ILS installation, not even ATC. Once you get up to the passenger jets like 737's then you have to have much more equipment and services, rescue fire, fuel and maintenance facilities, runway lighting etc. An airport gets categorised and has to meet the FAA requirements before it gets a licence.

Actually small craft can also be used for IFR operation if properly equipped and the pilot suitably licensed. I'm more inclined to think it has something to do with the type of airport, like you mentioned. From what I remember of my flying experiences--and this is going back about forty years--pretty much the only airports without radio beacons were the really tiny private fields, and the grass strips farmers had in their fields, although even the tiny fields we used to fly in and out of had rotating beacons (lights).

Thanks for bringing back some nice memories!

 

[belvdr]

Actually small craft can also be used for IFR operation if properly equipped and the pilot suitably licensed. I'm more inclined to think it has something to do with the type of airport, like you mentioned. From what I remember of my flying experiences--and this is going back about forty years--pretty much the only airports without radio beacons were the really tiny private fields, and the grass strips farmers had in their fields, although even the tiny fields we used to fly in and out of had rotating beacons (lights).

Thanks for bringing back some nice memories!

From what I remember, all public fields have a rotating beacon, but may not be routinely used, even at night for the larger fields with a 24x7 tower.

Many smaller fields, even with just small GA traffic, have an ILS or GPS approach for trainers.

 

[majoco]

You haven't said ( or perhaps I missed it ) what your proficiency in Morse code is. Listening to a whole load of NDB idents will be a slow and painful way of getting your speed up. There aren't so many 'teach yerself Morse' programmes around these days as the hams don't need 12 wpm to get a ticket. I have this prog on my computer that I occasionally use to keep my ear in shape and also as you have the original text you can key along with the perfect morse - which is what my instructor nearly 60 years ago said is the best way to learn. It's called "Winmorse 2" from here....https://www.winmorse.com/download.htm.... no need for an instruction book, just load a *.txt message into the "Files open" screen, select the spped you want, "convert" it to a *.wav file with a new title, press enter and off it goes!

 

[WB9YBM]

You haven't said ( or perhaps I missed it ) what your proficiency in Morse code is. Listening to a whole load of NDB idents will be a slow and painful way of getting your speed up. There aren't so many 'teach yerself Morse' programmes around these days as the hams don't need 12 wpm to get a ticket. I have this prog on my computer that I occasionally use to keep my ear in shape and also as you have the original text you can key along with the perfect morse - which is what my instructor nearly 60 years ago said is the best way to learn. It's called "Winmorse 2" from here....https://www.winmorse.com/download.htm.... no need for an instruction book, just load a *.txt message into the "Files open" screen, select the spped you want, "convert" it to a *.wav file with a new title, press enter and off it goes!

My code speed was up to about 25 WPM, just by sheer use (I was surprised I had gotten that fast--I wasn't even trying!).

 

[rfburnz]

For casual listening.... Search Amazon for "shortwave radio ham ssb". Any of those that will receive SSB will work.
You will hear plenty of CW, especially on the lower end of the amateur radio bands. Best bet is the 40 meter amateur band.