Does the Shack Pro-164 have the Ability

[rginarizona]

I have a question on the functionality of the Radio Shack Pro-164 Scanner.
Does this triple trucking scanner have the built in ability (as in off the shelf) to receive Air Traffic
between a local Airport and Incoming and Outgoing Aircraft???? and not just a "one sided conversation".

I have a Shack Pro-164 scanner with an arial mounted antenna about 12ft in the air. Granted I would like about 25ft but 12 is what I have. The commercial Airport is about 14 miles line of site away.
Some of the Aircraft are Military most are commercial. The Commercial traffic is in the clear, the Military stuff is pretty much dead silence...I would like to pick that up but don't have a clue as to whats needed.

What have you folks with Pro-164's done to inhance your receiving of traffic. Public Safety calls come in loud and clear. I would like to be able to receive more Aircraft Traffic and I'm looking for recomendations
to improve my scanner. ....Thanks Ron

 

[SCPD]

Well you would only hear military traffic if they are talking to the tower or one another. Often you will need to wait for a military exercise or Air Show in your area to hear them.
As long as your antenna is installed properly along with coax cable you will receive everything that is line of sight of it.

 

[kd7ckq]

rginarizona, what are the freq's that you have programmed in? 14 miles is a long way, unless you can actually see the tower at D-M or TIA. Listening to the A/C is easy, it's the towers that are hard. They usually transmit with low power since the A/C are usually high above the terrain. You might also want to ask this in the AZ section of the forum as there are a few listeners in the Tucson area.

 

[rginarizona]

Thanks for your feed back....I usually listen to Tucson Approach at 119.400 and 133.000.
I didn't realize that their was a discussion group specifically for the Tucson crowd...I will
look for them. Is that Group located in the Pro-164 discussion group?.....Ron

 

[kd7ckq]

rginarizona, turn on your Private Mail so I can send you some info. 119.400 is just one freq. for the TIA TRACON APP/DEP, and 133.00 is a High Altitude channel for Albuquerque ARTCC.

Arizona Radio Discussion Forum

Also, try these to get you started. 125.100, 118.500, 128.500, 124.000, 118.300.

 

[n5ims]

Remember that most of the tower systems are designed for communication from ground to air so their antennas are selected for their ability to cover this function. Any ground-to-ground coverage much beyond the airport is not part of the system design and shouldn't be expected to perform well.

 

[kd7ckq]

Exactly, I live about two miles from a VOR facility and I can barely hear it. I have to turn the squelch all the way down to hear it.

 

[davidmc36]

I am about 20 miles from the local airport and with my antenna at 40ft AGL I can hear both sides but the "tower" side of it is anywhere between 1/5 and 3/5 depending on which transmitter it is, Clearance delivery, Ground, Tower, Terminal; they all come in at different strengths.

 

[rginarizona]

Hi Kd7ckq.....thank you for those freq's that you posted, I will certainly put them into my scanner
and see what comes up. I hope its an improvement. My Email address is: rginarizona@yahoo.com if you want to send me further info, it would be very much appreciated. I'm located about 12miles from TIA and about 20 miles from DavisMonthan AFB on the West Side of I-19. I would very much like to hear the DM Tower but they may be using special gear to incrypt the traffic...I say that only because I don't much from them. If anyone out there is receiving any traffic from DM I would like hear from you, I may have the wrong scanner for all I know... Thank you all that have posted on my query. .Keep them Coming.......Ron

 

[N8IAA]

Hi Kd7ckq.....thank you for those freq's that you posted, I will certainly put them into my scanner
and see what comes up. I hope its an improvement. My Email address is: rginarizona@yahoo.com if you want to send me further info, it would be very much appreciated. I'm located about 12miles from TIA and about 20 miles from DavisMonthan AFB on the West Side of I-19. I would very much like to hear the DM Tower but they may be using special gear to incrypt the traffic...I say that only because I don't much from them. If anyone out there is receiving any traffic from DM I would like hear from you, I may have the wrong scanner for all I know... Thank you all that have posted on my query. .Keep them Coming.......Ron

To understand why you don't hear the tower comms, you should know that they use very low transmit power on small antennas. Their target, the plane, is hundreds, or, thousands of feet in the air. The planes have no problem hearing the tower Line of sight is the prime consideration in VHF and UHF air comms. And, 14 miles is a long way to hear comms that are transmitting on less than ten watts into the antenna. This doesn't include buildings, trees, and other things that are in the way of you receiving the signal. An antenna up in the air on the roof of your house, or, even in the attic, will greatly improve your chance of hearing more comms.
HTH,
Larry

 

[rginarizona]

Thank you Larry for your feedback...I'm going to look into raising that Antenna I think that is my
best option at this point. With the low transmit power from the Airport is probably why I hear the Aircraft and not the tower....thanks again ....Ron