LaGuardia Airport new ATCT New Transmit and Recieve Sites

[Lynch_Christopher]

I found this article on the FAA website. It basically talks about the construction of the new LaGuardia Airport Air Traffic Control Tower. Towards the end it discuss how the tower will be linked to the navigation aids and to new remote transmit and recieve sites. New transmit and recieve sites are being built that will help audio clarity between the controllers and pilots. For those that are near LaGuardia they should probably hear some testing regarding the new transmit and recieve sites within the next couple of months.

Here is the link to article:

https://employees.faa.gov/org/linebusiness/ato/news/features/story/index.cfm?newsId=59876

 

[CqDx]

Thanks so much for the article!

I have been looking for an article related to LGA communications for quite a while and I think this piece pretty much summarizes it all. I still would like to wait and see if this hints a new transmitter will be placed atop LGA tower. It was mentioned in another post that antennas on the tower are usually used for receiving and RCAS sites at the airport is used for transmitting to avoid interference.

Here's a picture I took of LGA tower back in November. On that particular day the ASDE-X radar was spinning.

Flickr Photo Download: New La Guardia Airport Control Tower

And this is an picture of the RCAS site at LGA, just south of runway 13 threshold.

Flickr Photo Download: Peter Nygard Boeing 727-100 at La Guardia Airport!

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

Thanks so much for the article!

I have been looking for an article related to LGA communications for quite a while and I think this piece pretty much summarizes it all. I still would like to wait and see if this hints a new transmitter will be placed atop LGA tower. It was mentioned in another post that antennas on the tower are usually used for receiving and RCAS sites at the airport is used for transmitting to avoid interference.

Here's a picture I took of LGA tower back in November. On that particular day the ASDE-X radar was spinning.

Flickr Photo Download: New La Guardia Airport Control Tower

And this is an picture of the RCAS site at LGA, just south of runway 13 threshold.

Flickr Photo Download: Peter Nygard Boeing 727-100 at La Guardia Airport!

Hey glad that you liked the article. Thanks for the posting the pictures. Thats the first picture I have seen of the new tower without all the scaffolding on it. Its a nice looking tower.I have a feeling that they will probably put the recieving antennas on top of the tower. I also wonder if they are going to keep the RCAG in the same spot

 

[CqDx]

Well there weren't a LOT of antennas on the roof top as of now, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of construction activity on the existing RCAG site.

Either way I hope this would be good news, I live just 1.5 miles south of LGA and at 40 feet above ground I can barely hear the tower transmissions. On the flip side, I can hear the company frequencies loud and clear!

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

You mentioned that you can't recieve them being 1.5 miles away from the airport, I know driving over the Whitestone Bridge going to JFK I can't even pick them up and you can basically see the airport from the bridge. That RCAG I think also houses some of the transmitters for the New York TRACON such as 120.4 (LaGuardia Departure), 134.9 ( LaGuardia Final Vector), 120.8 (HAARP Sector), 118.17 (Liberty Areas North Sector) and 263.0. How are you able to recieve these frequencies? It's going to be interesting to see whether they put the transmitters with the N90 radios or build a totally seperate RCAG site.

Whats also interesting is if you take a look at new control towers that are being built around the country most of them don't have many antennas on top of them so it seems like they are building more RCAG sites. For example: Pheonix Tower, Manchester - Boston Regional Airport Tower. Atlanta Tower, Washington Dulles Tower, Maimi Tower.

 

[CqDx]

You mentioned that you can't recieve them being 1.5 miles away from the airport, I know driving over the Whitestone Bridge going to JFK I can't even pick them up and you can basically see the airport from the bridge. That RCAG I think also houses some of the transmitters for the New York TRACON such as 120.4 (LaGuardia Departure), 134.9 ( LaGuardia Final Vector), 120.8 (HAARP Sector), 118.17 (Liberty Areas North Sector) and 263.0. How are you able to recieve these frequencies? It's going to be interesting to see whether they put the transmitters with the N90 radios or build a totally seperate RCAG site.

Whats also interesting is if you take a look at new control towers that are being built around the country most of them don't have many antennas on top of them so it seems like they are building more RCAG sites. For example: Pheonix Tower, Manchester - Boston Regional Airport Tower. Atlanta Tower, Washington Dulles Tower, Maimi Tower.

I could pick up the controller most of the time on the frequencies you mentioned, they are low, but intelligible. I don't know about 263.0 since I don't monitor milair on a regular basis. Though during the UN convention I could hear NORAD on 260.9 and 271.0, I think the transmissions originate from some other sites though.

On the other hand, occasionally I can hear 118.17 blasting, the signal was so strong that I could hear the transmitter keyed and unkeyed. I have no idea where the transmitter is located but it definitely is a site other than LGA RCAG. The only transmitter that I could get so strong is empire state building which is in direct line of sight with my antenna.

 

[NYCRADIO]

i'm located in maspeth queens and i pick up there tower loud and clear maybe its you're radio? do you have a outside antenna?

 

[CqDx]

I do, but it is not as high and there are buildings between the antenna and LGA tower.

 

[NYCRADIO]

well how high? because i have buildings between the antenna and the tower too lol but there no interference

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

I could pick up the controller most of the time on the frequencies you mentioned, they are low, but intelligible. I don't know about 263.0 since I don't monitor milair on a regular basis. Though during the UN convention I could hear NORAD on 260.9 and 271.0, I think the transmissions originate from some other sites though.

On the other hand, occasionally I can hear 118.17 blasting, the signal was so strong that I could hear the transmitter keyed and unkeyed. I have no idea where the transmitter is located but it definitely is a site other than LGA RCAG. The only transmitter that I could get so strong is empire state building which is in direct line of sight with my antenna.

Thats interesting that you were picking up NORAD on 260.9 and 271.0 you must have heard some interesting conversations. I have no clue where those sites are but they must be pretty close if you were able to pick them up. I think they may be co-located at FAA RCAG's. The 118.17 frequency is the North Sector in the Liberty Sector at the New York TRACON which has a transmitter located at LGA.

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

Since we are getting towards the end of September into October I believe that the new LaGuardia Tower cutover should be happening fairly soon. It is going to be interesting to to se if the reception and the clarity of the LaGuardia frequencies improves at all with the new RCAG site.

 

[CalebATC]

Well there weren't a LOT of antennas on the roof top as of now, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of construction activity on the existing RCAG site.

Either way I hope this would be good news, I live just 1.5 miles south of LGA and at 40 feet above ground I can barely hear the tower transmissions. On the flip side, I can hear the company frequencies loud and clear!

You must have a very bad antenna, or a very bad location. That should not be the case. I start hearing ATL tower at least 10 miles away inside the car with my rubber ducky.

The county airport, 7 miles away from me, with a mountain in the way, the AWOS broadcasting at 2.5 watts, I still get it perfectly clear with my 1/4 wave home brew antenna.

Caleb

 

[poltergeisty]

How about another runway? And fix the ILS!

 

[CalebATC]

How about another runway? And fix the ILS!

What do you mean, fix the ILS? What's wrong with it?

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

How about another runway? And fix the ILS!

There is no way that they would add a second runway since there is no room for it. Also if there are any problems with the ILS I'm sure the FAA would fix it since LGA is one of the busiest airports in the nation.

On a different note I also believe that the Port Authority built a new fire station at LGA.

 

[CalebATC]

There is no way that they would add a second runway since there is no room for it. Also if there are any problems with the ILS I'm sure the FAA would fix it since LGA is one of the busiest airports in the nation.

Definatley, and if you are trying to listen to the ILS, there is no point of that. They are meant to be received from a short distance, and are directional antennas that are aimed at a certain degrees high. All it is is a morse code sound, same thing as a VOR. There is no HIWAS or any voice.

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

As of 10/10/10 the brand new LaGuardia Airport Control Tower is in operation. The new Control Tower went into operation at midnight.

Here are some articles:
LaGuardia Airport To Use New Control Tower - NY1.com
LaGuardia To Start Using New Tower This Weekend « CBS New York- News, Sports, Weather, Traffic and the Best of NY

 

[CqDx]

So far no improvements on signal strength from LGA tower. I guess the antennas atop the new tower are RX only and the TX site remains at the old RCAG at the corporate jet ramp area.

 

[Lynch_Christopher]

LaGuardia ATCT

I'm kind of surprised that there is no difference in the signal quality after the new control tower being constructed. It may also just be that maybe they don't have the new RCAG site activated but they did say that it was going to be activated the same time as the tower but who knows. As for RX antennas on top of the tower I was taking a look at a couple of pictures and didn't really see any antennas but there looks to be just lightning rods if I'm not mistaken.

 

[rmiller818]

I think the old tower looked better, will it be demolished? Kinda a landmark.