ORD Reception

[ChgoHam]

I've been having trouble recieving entire conversations at ORD on VHF am freqs.

I'll get either the aircraft and not the control tower, or on some freqs i'll get the control tower and not the aircraft. I don't have any 200mhz or 300mhz capability, and am wondering if i'm missing something because of this.

I don't live terribly far from ORD although i'm in the city. I've considered all the usual stuff from weather conditions to anything electrical that would interfere with reception.

Any ideas?

 

[GrayJeep]

Missing air xmsns

I've been having trouble recieving entire conversations at ORD on VHF am freqs.

I'll get either the aircraft and not the control tower, or on some freqs i'll get the control tower and not the aircraft. I don't have any 200mhz or 300mhz capability, and am wondering if i'm missing something because of this.

I don't live terribly far from ORD although i'm in the city. I've considered all the usual stuff from weather conditions to anything electrical that would interfere with reception.

Any ideas?

Tower doesn't really use very much power because they are truly line-of-sight to the planes.

I'm assuming that you aren't scanning some other channels while the conversation is going on. If you stay on a single channel and are missing part of it the answer is that you don't have enough antenna or there are obstructions.
Tower doesn't really use very much power because they are truly line-of-sight to the planes.

I've been amazed at how I can hardly hear an AWOS that I drive within 1/2 mile when using my scanner in the car (and magnetic roof antenna). Yet I can hear that same AWOS when flying my buddy's airplane at better than 20 miles. The AWOS may be putting out 1/2 watt or so.

Ron

 

[chgomonitor]

ORD Transmissions

Virtually all of the ORD airspace comms will be heard on VHF, so you probably aren't missing much civil aviation wise. (There are some Milair comms within a couple hundred miles but you'll need an outside antenna.

I suspect some of the ORD transmitters / antennas may be running at/from backup sites due to ongoing field construction.

An outside antenna will help quite a bit.