Lost on what to monitor- insight requested.

Ace9133uwu

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I’m not a newbie to scanning. Rail, public safety, miscellaneous business and the like to name a few. However, one facet of monitoring I really never touched on is aircraft. That said, I live in central Eastern Indiana- a decent “intersection” between Dayton International, CVG, & Indianapolis International. I already have some local airports programmed. The main thing is with these three major airports and so much air traffic overhead I’m a bit overwhelmed and absolutely lost as to what specifically to monitor. If anyone could provide tips, insight and some basic information to point me in the right direction that would be great.

Any military air would be nice, too.

//73’s.
 

vagrant

ker-muhj-uhn
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Military Air = 225-380 MHz AM

There may be some stuff 380-400, but I have found Mil ground using that with P25 mode. The RR database may have specific freqs for Mil Air bases near you.
 

Ace9133uwu

|-/ Nothing kills man faster than his own head.
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Military Air = 225-380 MHz AM

There may be some stuff 380-400, but I have found Mil ground using that with P25 mode. The RR database may have specific freqs for Mil Air bases near you.
Thanks. I’ve looked a little bit at the Indiana Air Guard & found TGID 21536, Air Guard OPS-04. Also some conventional that I programmed, but I have my doubts that I’ll hear anything. Programmed in my 396XT. We’ll see what happens!
 

vagrant

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I have a Cal Air Guard and Lemoore NAS nearby and hear plenty. I hear even more N & S as well. Line of sight for aircraft at 20,000’ feet is 200 miles.
 

alphazulu

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If you are interested in listening to aircraft communicating with the FAA enroute ARTCC centers, central eastern Indiana borders;
Chicago (ZAU) Chicago (ZAU) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Cleveland (ZOB) Cleveland (ZOB) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Indianapolis (ZID) Indianapolis (ZID) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

With elevation and a good antenna you can pick up aircraft at the high altitude sectors approx. 250 miles away, and at lower sectors ~150 miles from your location

Note, you have to be within <20 miles of an FAA transmitter site (RCAG) to hear the ARTCC controller side communications

attached maps;
FAA ARTCC centers
random city of Richmond, Ind. (central eastern Ind.) with a 250 mile radius

artcc-map.jpg artcc centers central eastern indiana map (01).png
 

Ace9133uwu

|-/ Nothing kills man faster than his own head.
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If you are interested in listening to aircraft communicating with the FAA enroute ARTCC centers, central eastern Indiana borders;
Chicago (ZAU) Chicago (ZAU) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Cleveland (ZOB) Cleveland (ZOB) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Indianapolis (ZID) Indianapolis (ZID) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

With elevation and a good antenna you can pick up aircraft at the high altitude sectors approx. 250 miles away, and at lower sectors ~150 miles from your location

Note, you have to be within <20 miles of an FAA transmitter site (RCAG) to hear the ARTCC controller side communications

attached maps;
FAA ARTCC centers
random city of Richmond, Ind. (central eastern Ind.) with a 250 mile radius

View attachment 150450 View attachment 150451
Nice! I live in Richmond so that’s even better. I’ll program the ZAU & ZID RCAG’s in & see what I can get. Thank you!
 

MiCon

Mike
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I'm not entirely sure why you decided to focus on aviation monitoring, but here are a few basics.

If you're close enough to an airport with a tower where you can hear the controllers or a/c on the ground, you'll want to listen to the tower, ground, clearance delivery, and ATIS or AWOS recording frequencies. Also the FBO freqs at that particular airport.

For small airfields you can listen to the advisory frequency for a/c taking off and landing. You can also listen to the FBO freq (Field Business Office) for arriving a/c services. 122.95 is the most common FBO freq.

Large commercial AP's offer the additional monitoring of the airline freqs used for arriving & departing a/c making service requests with maintenance or gate info.

TRACON (Terminal RAdar CONtrol) freqs are ATC for a/c approaching and departing an airport.

ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) freqs are ATC for 'enroute' a/c at the higher altitudes.

You will eventually find that some ATC controllers are simulcasting on more than one frequency. If you hear a controller but not the a/c, you're hearing a simulcast transmission.

Sometimes you'll hear a frequency given without the first digit. IE, "Contact ground on 21.9" (121.9). Or even shorter, if the tower is on 121.whatever, he might say "Contact ground on .9" (121.9).

You can also listen to the FSS (Flight Service Station) frequencies. Here, you'll hear a/c asking for weather info, opening and closing flight plans, and other uses.

Good hunting.
 

Ace9133uwu

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I'm not entirely sure why you decided to focus on aviation monitoring
Just a recent interest and potential sub-hobby (if that makes sense) of mine. I’ve monitored medical helo’s in & out of my local hospital over the past year or so and found it to be extremely interesting. It’s evolved into photography and general scanner monitoring of commercial aircraft.

If you're close enough to an airport with a tower

The closest large airport from my location is roughly 45-minutes due East of me at Dayton International.

So far, thanks to the information that I’ve received from you, and others I have a decent frequency list compiled and programmed in a temporary bank on my SR30C and I’ve heard abdundant traffic.

I appreciate all of the information you provided. It’s a great jumping-off point.
 

N9JCQ

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Thanks. I’ve looked a little bit at the Indiana Air Guard & found TGID 21536, Air Guard OPS-04. Also some conventional that I programmed, but I have my doubts that I’ll hear anything. Programmed in my 396XT. We’ll see what happens!
Well air traffic will not be on that talk group. Go to the Indiana database and look up the Military link under statewide frequencies. It will give you most of what you need.
 

alphazulu

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Ace9133uwu

|-/ Nothing kills man faster than his own head.
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Airnav is an excellent source for airport frequencies
Dayton KDAY AirNav: KDAY - James M Cox Dayton International Airport
Cincinatti KCVG AirNav: KCVG - Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport
Indianapolis KIND AirNav: KIND - Indianapolis International Airport

Some smaller nearby General Aviation (mostly non-towered) airports and associated frequencies are at the bottom of each airport page
I guess I never explored that website outside of the live flight tracking map. Now that’s a really awesome and convenient thing to have around. Thank you for the direct links! I’ll be checking them out.

Let the programming fun begin!
 

ctiller

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If you aren't within about 20-30 miles of the larger airports your best bet will be the ARTCC or "center" frequencies. These handle mostly enroute aircraft, but also clear aircraft for approaches to smaller airports. When the weather gets bad these frequencies heat up with pilots trying to get around the weather. They are starting to get more quiet as we are moving more to using CPDLC which is a datalink between the pilots and controllers. Make sure you have 121.5 and 243.0 emergency frequencies in as sometimes you will hear some activity (though usually just stupid people making meowing sounds or chit chat). 123.45 is a good chit chat frequency you'll sometimes hear stuff on. also try searching 128.8-132.0 these are where company frequencies are and you'll sometimes hear a good conversation between flights and their dispatchers or maintenance control unless using ACARS (datalink)
 

Ace9133uwu

|-/ Nothing kills man faster than his own head.
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If you aren't within about 20-30 miles of the larger airports your best bet will be the ARTCC or "center" frequencies. These handle mostly enroute aircraft, but also clear aircraft for approaches to smaller airports. When the weather gets bad these frequencies heat up with pilots trying to get around the weather. They are starting to get more quiet as we are moving more to using CPDLC which is a datalink between the pilots and controllers. Make sure you have 121.5 and 243.0 emergency frequencies in as sometimes you will hear some activity (though usually just stupid people making meowing sounds or chit chat). 123.45 is a good chit chat frequency you'll sometimes hear stuff on. also try searching 128.8-132.0 these are where company frequencies are and you'll sometimes hear a good conversation between flights and their dispatchers or maintenance control unless using ACARS (datalink)
Nice! I’ll program the freq’s you mentioned. Good info to have about the weather, it’s raining a pretty good clip in central Indiana right now.
 

MiCon

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The past few posts have also been good info. I'm not familiar with your area (I'm in the SW US), but let's see if we can fuel your interest a little more.

Look up the ARInc frequencies in the 128 ~ 131MHz range. ARInc is a company that has transmitters & receivers all over the country. They provide communications to commercial a/c in such cases where the pilot can't reach his dispatcher on their company frequency. That being the case, the pilot can contact an ARInc dispatcher, who can transfer info between the pilot & his company, or set-up a radio patch between the pilot & company dispatcher. These can be boring-to-interesting conversations, from routine flight info, to on-board medical or domestic emergencies.

If you search 123.0 ~ 123.6 you will find a plethora of air-to-air and air-to-ground conversations: law enforcement, air ambulances, test flights, commercial pilots chit-chatting, etc. Even a rare but occasional military a/c.

Speaking of military a/c, someone already mentioned the military a/c band 225 ~ 380Mhz. That's the UHF band. There is a VHF military a/c band, 138 ~ 150Mhz. Like the other a/c bands, this is mostly AM mode, but I have heard a few a/c using FM mode here. The most active part of this band is 138 ~ 144Mhz. The military a/c also have low band capability in the 30Mhz ~ 70Mhz range. Mostly the 30 ~ 40Mhz area. This is mostly for air-to-ground comms with the ground troops, but you'll hear a/a comms also.

Heads-up: Although the air traffic controllers mostly use the military UHF freqs with military a/c, sometimes you'll hear military a/c with ATC on the VHF freqs. They usually ID with a name like BULLET and a two digit number.

Some standard military freqs to monitor would be 255.4 FSS, 311.0-319.4-321.0-372.2 PTD (Pilot To-Dispatch), 364.2 NORAD.

Listening to a/c is 90% boring ATC comms, but there's a lot of interesting comms to hear if you know where to look.

Have fun!
 

Ace9133uwu

|-/ Nothing kills man faster than his own head.
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but let's see if we can fuel your interest a little more.
Interest fueled! That’s a lot of information to take in & I appreciate it greatly. Thanks for the MilAir tips, I’ll add them to my growing list of footnotes.

I’ve programmed my second and newest BC125AT with a load of stuff and there has hardly been a lapse in radio traffic. I’m more thrilled than I thought I’d be!
 

ShawnInPaso

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I have a Cal Air Guard and Lemoore NAS nearby and hear plenty. I hear even more N & S as well. Line of sight for aircraft at 20,000’ feet is 200 miles.
Hey @vagrant - I've been trying to figure out what "N&S" refers to but to no avail. Can you help a guy out?

Thanks
 
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