Military Air in Northeastern NJ

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lindenscanner

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I have recent;y become interested in monitoring military aircraft. I have read a lot on the RR forums and elsewhere so I understand that it can be a challenging hit or miss hobby. I also understand that there are some limitations if I do not have an outdoor antenna.

I am in Union County NJ so am near most of the metro airports. I have a BCD436 HP. I recently purchased a Diamond SRH77CA but also have a RS whip antenna and RS800MHz.. From Sentinel I have added The NYC Tracon frequencies, the RCAG frequencies, the Military frequencies for EWR, JFK and LGA.. I also have the McGuire AFB frequencies, the ANG (from ACY), Norad and NJ's CAP frequencies. While I have heard some transmissions from Norad, ARW , NJANG and WRI I thought perhaps I'd hear a bit more given that I would think there are pretty regular patrols over the NYC area. I do not hear anything on the TRACON sites. I usually am just up in my attic listening.

I also have the Military Bands in my search fields (yes I know there are a lot of frequencies so using only 1 scanner to search even though I ave it broken up into is not ideal). Just wondering if there are other things worth adding to my FL (Andrews AFB/Dover AFB probably out of my range here??).

Thanks.
 

popnokick

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The RR message thread below is but one of at least two major MilAir freq sources. Why isn't the thread in the Military Monitoring Forum instead of the Maryland Forum... NO idea. But here it is -
http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...forum/326347-sticky-thread-milair-2016-a.html
There's another thread that covers more of the Northeast / New England... and it's a "sticky" thread too, I believe. Search may help.
 

lindenscanner

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The RR message thread below is but one of at least two major MilAir freq sources. Why isn't the thread in the Military Monitoring Forum instead of the Maryland Forum... NO idea. But here it is -
http://forums.radioreference.com/ma...forum/326347-sticky-thread-milair-2016-a.html
There's another thread that covers more of the Northeast / New England... and it's a "sticky" thread too, I believe. Search may help.
Thank you. Yes, I know about the Military Sticky in the Maryland Forums and I posted my question there as well. I guess what I am really trying to find out is whether given my set up (indoor antenna single scanner) I am hearing about what I'd be expected to hear.
 

popnokick

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Based on your description in your first post... and comparing it to my setup.... I think you're hearing what you should hear. Whenever I see a new freq pop up in any of the MilAir posts / stickies I put it into my scanned channels. There are times I wished I had a second scanner, but I'm not (yet) that dedicated to MilAir monitoring. But multiple receivers is the way to do it if you're serious. You won't hear CAP activity as often as you might think... it's been a few months since I've heard anything, but they can light up and be very active very suddenly. I haven't heard traffic on the refueling tracks (at least that I recognize as such)... but I suspect it's there. I don't have an ear on the scanner 24/7. Most of the time, pretty quiet. When a milair channel becomes active, you'll know it.
 

MBill

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One would think that mil air would be quite active in the Northeast, but my experience has been
that not much is usually happening.
I would though, add the Boston Center Mil air frequencies. There is some training from time to
time and most of the mil air comms I have heard are on the Boston Center frequencies. Also
add the Air Refueling frequencies for upstate New York and New England area. You may
also want to add the local military UHF command post frequencies. There is some military
air activity, but it requires patience and having the scanner running the frequencies to hear.
Having two scanners does help, if you are serious about monitoring the Mil Air band.
 

pilotman6012

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The other thing to Remember aircraft at altitude 25,000,35,000 or higher can be heard from further distances,so you might add some frequencies on the fringe of your range,weather,and propagation can change that any time.Monitoring with one radio will be difficult,because there is so many frequencies.I recently changed up,some of my radios,one is covering VHF,one for VHF Hi (Air To Air) with one radio as backup when it gets busy with loads of aircraft up and 2 covering UHF frequencies,basic Atc,Cp,Ops and the other UHF Air/Air frequencies.Being where you are located you might pick up traffic that cross the Atlantic ocean both eastbound and westbound.
 

jaymatt1978

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Truthfully I was scanning in Northern NJ for close to 25 years and ONLY heard milair AFTER 9/11 and then it was only one or two different frequencies. Things are definitely more active in southern NJ, not a lot more, but definitely more. My one observation is there isn't much activity between *McGuire and Andrews because I'm right in the flight path!!!
 

nyair1

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Best is to get yourself some software that would allow you to hook up your scanner to your computer and let it run unattended during the day and then go back and see what is active. I use Proscan with my 2 radios. It tells me what freqs were active and also records the audio to play back. Unless you are in a really busy area you might not have a ton of traffic. With the software you won't miss any of the action and you won't have to be parked in front of your radio all day.
 
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