Newbie need help for Chicago O'Hare Air traffic

[Tbonesteak]

Hi everyone, need some help here... (English is not good, hope you understand what I mean )

Try to listern on O'Hare air traffic but due to I am very new to this scanner thing, I just brought a Uniden BCT8 and search for air channel 108-137 and do found some channels are pilot speaking to tower. ( But only hear 1 times or less within 5 min. scan, O'Hare is a busy airport and shouldn't like that slow radio transmition) But what I like to get help is how to get in their talk group as I notice I only able to come across hear one side talking, ( either pilot or dispatcher ) after I read the manual which learn that was in a truck system....

Then I try to find the frequency on web and get so confused.... they only list part of frequency..... like below: ( never get it working on my unit, keep saying it's error when I input those frequency )

O HARE GROUND: 121.675 121.75(OBND) 121.9(IBND) 348.6
O HARE TOWER: 120.75(SOUTH) 126.9(NORTH) 127.925 132.7 390.9
CHICAGO APPROACH: 119.0(360-179) 128.45(180-359) 284.0(180-359) 393.1(360-179) 121.15 124.35 125.7(180-359)
CHICAGO DEPARTURE: 125.0(340-159) 125.4(220-339) 127.4(160-219) 269.5(160-219) 307.2(220-339) 337.4(340-159)

Anyone can provide a clear step by step how to set it ? The manual came with the unit are so confuse and looks like miss some step.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DPD1]

The one freq that's slow must be one you stumbled onto that's for a much smaller airport. When they leave digits off, it's just because the digit is a zero. So 121.75 is 121.750 and so on. But when you put in the freq, you shouldn't have to bother punching the zero, it should automatically assume you want a zero if you don't put in a number. But maybe that model is different.

So pick one bank and just put each of those freqs they list in a memory... Turn off the banks that you aren't using and you should be in business. It's hard to know exactly what's going wrong if that doesn't work. If it says error when you put in the freq, read about how you check the 'step'. The step should be set on 'auto' for each memory.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, Aviation, MURS, GMRS, Marine & Ham Antennas -

 

[Tbonesteak]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your help and I manage to get the frequency in the scanner but it's still the same, once a long while has a transitmition and that's for sure is going to O'Hare traffic.

Any help on my other issue please!

 

[trainman111]

How far are you from O'Hare? and what type of antenna are you using?

 

[wannabescannist]

I get similar response as to what Tbonesteak describes. Sometimes it can be very busy and other times very little traffic. I just figured there weren't any planes in the sky. And I never hear the control tower or ground, only pilots. I'm not big on Air so it never really bothered me. I'm not far from O'Hare either. All my antennas are rubber ducks.

 

[DPD1]

As an example, I'm about 5 miles away from two pretty busy airports in a very urban area. On some days, I can't always hear the ground side for some stuff... So you don't have to be real far to miss that. But if you're within 15 miles, you should be hearing the planes in the air on those first two tower freqs and also the app/departure ones, pretty much non stop. Even just on a handheld antenna. You can leave out the UHF freqs because those will rarely be used. Make sure you don't have the priority turned on, and make sure you have just the bank of the freqs you want to hear turned on. Otherwise it takes a long time for the radio to come back around to those. Only other thing I can think of is if you're in some kind of building that's shielded.

I also just thought of this... Make sure you don't have the attenuation switched on.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, Aviation, MURS, GMRS, Marine & Ham Antennas -

 

[Tbonesteak]

Hi Trainman111
I am actually is right off the run way 1/2 miles away and using the standard antenna that came with the unit.

Hi Dave
I am looking for the tower frequency for non-stop radio to keep me busy of listerning , I will try to relocate my unit by the window to see if that's getting better.

Thanks all, any more help ?

 

[N9JIG]

Go to http://www.carmachicago.com/profiles and download the O'Hare Profile. It has all the freqs, diagrams, and charts to help you make sense of the thousands of radio freqs to listen to at ORD.

The author (Ted from CARMA) has been studying the radio systems at ORD for decades and no one knows it better than he does.

If you are interested, CARMA is having an informal "Friday Nighter" get together at the O'Hare Oasis this Friday night. We start showing up around 6 or so in the evening at the west side of the Food Court at the Oasis, look for a bunch of overweight geeks with laptops and handheld scanners. That would be us.

We would be happy to help you program your scanner and decipher some of that O'Hare stuff for ya!

Enjoy!

 

[trainman111]

The frequencies you listed in your first post are the correct frequencies for O'Hare. If you're 1/2mi. from the runway, you should have no problem at all receiving both aircraft and ground comms. Consider yourself lucky that you're so close! Try putting the antenna by the window like you said and if that doesn't work, you might be having some problems with the receiver. Like DPD said, make sure the attenuator is not on, because that might hamper your results too. Good luck and let us know how everything turns out!

 

[chgomonitor]

Bct-8

This Uniden is the flagship of their highway radios. It is really geared more toward road travel and searching than scanning, but it does have a "private" bank in which you can store scannable frequencies.

This procedure is covered in the owners manual starting at page 21. When you are programming the Private bank if you enter:

1 2 7 . 9 2 5 (E)

It should go in the radio. Review the owners manual to confirm you are actually set up for entering frequencies into the Private bank and scanning them. This radio does not cover 225 - 400 MHz frequencies like 390.900.

If it is like other Unidens an entry like this should also take:

1 2 1 . 9 (E)

You should not have to include the trailing zeros, but I am not certain about this particular radio.

Some flight guides list frequencies like 121.72 or 122.77. These may need to have a "5" added to the ending as they actually represent 121.725 and 122.775. Make sense?

123.0 123.000 123.0000 123.00000000 - all the same frequency

O'Hare tower will usually be heard on 126.900 North, 120.750 South or 127.925 or 132.700. The last two are overload or alternate channels.

The O'Hare approach and departure traffic is actually performed at a Tracon facility located in Elgin, Illinois. They employ a fairly large network of remote transmitters and receivers, some of which are located on the field at O'Hare or Midway airports.

http://www.carmachicago.com/profiles/OHareAirport.pdf

Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[chgomonitor]

O'Hare Trunking

And for all the air traffic control frequencies you do not have to worry about the trunk tracking features on the radios - they are not trunked systems.

There are about a half dozen different trunked systems located at O'Hare for various trypes of ground, airline, business and city operations, so you may want to learn how to program a trunked system into the radio in general. But you do not have to worry about trunk tracking when programming in aeronautical band frequencies at all.

 

[chgomonitor]

O'Hare Activity

Late at night you may have an hour go by with little or no Tower activity. During the day you might hear some 5 or 10 minute periods of silence at slow periods. But during busy times - early morning, afternoons and early evenings the action can go on almost non-stop for hours at a time.

If you can do so, any type of outside antenna will greatly improve your reception of the ground side of the transmissions.

Hope for the future - there is a new air traffic control tower under construction right now at O'Hare as part of the O'Hare expansion construction project.