New to monitoring air traffic

[SBellew]

This is my local airport.

I am not sure which freq I should program in to listen to the planes or tower (if there is one). Sorry for asking what is mostly likely a stupid question.

 

[druhe]

This is my local airport.

I am not sure which freq I should program in to listen to the planes or tower (if there is one). Sorry for asking what is mostly likely a stupid question.

Looks like there is no control tower at this facility. You want to monitor 122.800, you should hear aircraft making announcments pertaining to their intentions. The approach and departure frequency 120.050 is used to communicate with Atlanta Center which controls the airspace for your region. The two AWOS frequencies 127.825 and 119.575 broadcast weather conditions for the airfield of interest.

One other thing there is no such thing as a stupid question.

 

[w0fg]

Looks like you'll also want to add 123.8, Birmingham Approach.

 

[SBellew]

Thanks guys. I will add those in now and see what I can hear.

 

[BadDolphin]

This may help you to make sense of some of the calls, where yo might hear something like "Cessna N61107 turning base for One One."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rn.svg/800px-Airfield_traffic_pattern.svg.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_traffic_pattern

 

[DanHenry]

Pilot Controlled Lighting on 122.8 at Gadsden

SBellew,

You've gotten good advice above.

One other thing you'll probably hear is a series of 7, 5, or 3 "mic clicks" on the frequency 122.8 at Gadsden. It's called Pilot Controlled Lighting. Clicking the mic 7, 5, or 3 times within 5 seconds turns the lights on or resets a 15 minute timer to keep them on.

7 = high intensity
5 = medium intensity
3 = low intensity

-Dan

 

[SBellew]

I must not be close enough, or there just is not enough traffic at my airport, I have not heard anything so far on these freq's.

 

[iMONITOR]

I must not be close enough, or there just is not enough traffic at my airport, I have not heard anything so far on these freq's.

Normally the aircraft band should default to AM mode, but if your scanner has a Mode option, make sure you have these frequencies programmed a AM mode.

 

[K0ATC]

This is my local airport.

I am not sure which freq I should program in to listen to the planes or tower (if there is one). Sorry for asking what is mostly likely a stupid question.

All good information, unfortunately it looks like you do not have a controlled airport near you. If you look at the bottom of the page you linked, it shows other airports near the one you looked up, all of those are also uncontrolled. No need to worry though, you can hear plenty of live ATC if you put in some of those center frequencies. There are sections on RR where you can look up center freq's. You will only hear the pilots talking, you will most likely not hear the center controllers, but its a good listen non the less. I would add all the unicom frequencies from those near by airports into a scan group, you will hear some activity. Good luck, let us know what you hear.

Scott

 

[ka3jjz]

You might also benefit from a better antenna - a little stick antenna isn't very efficient at civil air freqs. Constructing a ground plane tuned for about 125 mhz or so would probably work quite well as a simple example, as would the homebrew off center fed dipole. Both of these antennas, and more, are described in the scanner antennas wiki. (anything in blue is a link)

If memory serves we have a link for a 2 meter (144 mhz) ground plane, but it has a section where you get the formula so you can figure out what the lengths of the elements should be. Feed it with good coax (here, RG6 will work just fine) and you should start hearing much more than what you can with a stock antenna. Even mounting it in an attic will bring some improvement.

73s Mike

 

[SBellew]

You might also benefit from a better antenna.

Yeah, I have been eyeballing a Scantenna since I listen to multiple bands. I think I am gonna go ahead and order one up today.