Wanting to start out in the world of aircraft monitoring

[Crofty101]

Hello All ,
Please bear with me and I apologies in advance if this is an age old question posted yet again by a newbie .

I live in the UK , Cheshire . I want to buy a radio/ scanner so I can sit in my man cave ( wooden shed in garden away from wife ) and listen to aviation etc. .
I have Manchester airport close and also being ex rotary private pilot I miss the chatter .
My question is what would be a choice to make for equipment for a base station .

Warmest Regards
Martin

 

[morfis]

Many people in the UK seem to like the Bearcat UBC125XLT handheld. One of those will likley get most Ringway traffic from Sandbach (unless your shed is in a hole). There is affordable (donation requested) software to program it (not that the freqs will be changing much after initial setup) should you want to do that.
To improve things spend a bit of money on an external antenna (or make your own...easy enough and cheap) and get it up a bit higher to give a clearer view of the sky.

Note there are online receivers South of Ringway (Holmes Chapel has two) which are using ultra cheap rtl devices. An rtl device would be an option but you would then need some kind of computer (Raspberry/Orange etc would be fine...need not be some ultra-gaming spec beast).

Each option has it's pros and cons.

 

[Crofty101]

Hi morfis ,
Many thanks for your reply , I do have a pc in my man cave for work and sometimes vr simulator with my son who live in louth so i have that base covered .
What type of external antenna would you suggest ? I could mount this to the gable end of the shed and route inside .
Again thanks for your support . Martin

 

[morfis]

I'm sure there are other people who could better advise on specifics but if you wanted to buy rather than make - a popular choice seems to be the Diamond D777 (covers milair as well as civil). If you wanted to save a bit of money you could look at a 2m/70cm amateur band type (amateurs are known to be less keen to part with their money so there isn't the same grift on prices).
If wanting to make something thena simple dipole made from stripped coax is only going to cost a couple of quid but would do fine for airways traffic. More complicated but still easy enough would be a 'slim jim' or J-Pole (made from ladder line they will roll up and are easily transported (or place inside white pvc conduit for support. J-poles are easy to make from standard copper pipe too if you want a self-supporting version

*NB. Antennas are mostly a compromise and some people will get anal about a single dipole not being able to cover the whole of civil airband,,,,it will do just fine for receiving what you want (not transmitting over the whole band though!)

Back to radios for a moment. A possible advantage of an rtl tpe device is that you can dip your toe into all the other radio stuff around you very easily and for very little cost. Some of this is aviation-related - ACARS, ADSB, VDL2 even some SATCOM but there's a world of stuff out there besides aircraft.
Obviously the main advantages of the bearcat is that its simple and easy to carry about with you...including taking it up to Louth to listen to the Sparrows practicing or the multitude of civil aircraft the UK Government call the RAF

 

[Crofty101]

I obviously need to do lots of research , but would like to do more than just aircraft I think. RTL devices , could you recommend a unit ?

 

[majoco]

I use a Uniden BCT8 from our local auction website for my aircraft band reception fed from a cut-down low band TV folded dipole antenna. It was surplus after we all went to digital UHF TV broadcasts. Centred on 125MHz, each arm is about 600mm long and I kept the balun to match 50ohm coax. It's mounted on a TV barge board pole on my single storied house. I hear aircraft when they change over to the next control zone - over 100km away.

 

[AM909]

I was going to suggest LiveATC as an alternative, thinking Manchester is big enough to likely have a feed, but found this instead, which I see @morfis wrote about previously. I know nothing about it – just pointing it out.

 

[morfis]

I obviously need to do lots of research , but would like to do more than just aircraft I think. RTL devices , could you recommend a unit ?

Generally speaking something like one of the nooelec models (which one would depend to some extent on what you actually wanted to do with it as there are some significant differences) or the rtl-sdr.com V3 - in all cases buy from official source as there are a lot of fakes around.

If you ended up enjoying the use of such a device and the opportunities it provides a step up would be to then upgrade to something like an Airspy mini or R2. These are more expensive...there are also other options and again pros and cons related to each. Your chepaer device could easily then be devoted to some specific purpose rather than collecting dust.

Also forgot to mention that another advantage of the 'SDR' route and computer is the ability to monitor some of the digital traffic at the airport (and elsewhere) . All a bit of an open-ended subject area!

 

[AM909]

Generally speaking something like one of the nooelec models (which one would depend to some extent on what you actually wanted to do with it as there are some significant differences) ...

I just got a couple of the NooElec v5, which are in stock at AMZN (ASIN B01HA642SW). Well-made with metal enclosures, 0.5ppm TCXO, stable like its predecessors, small cross-section to fit up against other connectors, etc.. Setting up and using SDRs definitely requires more computer and radio skills than a scanner designed for consumer use.

 

[Scan125]

Hello All ,
Please bear with me and I apologies in advance if this is an age old question posted yet again by a newbie .

I live in the UK , Cheshire . I want to buy a radio/ scanner so I can sit in my man cave ( wooden shed in garden away from wife ) and listen to aviation etc. .
I have Manchester airport close and also being ex rotary private pilot I miss the chatter .
My question is what would be a choice to make for equipment for a base station .

Warmest Regards
Martin

As mentioned many in the UK us the UBC125XLT and UBC75XLT scanners.

If you go for one of these portable hand held scanners (as opposed to a desktop base station scanner) then you can with Scan125 / Scan75 programs turn them into fully PC controlled scanners. Real time control, programming, recording, etc.

See:

Scan125 Control Program
Scan75 Control Program

Note! Both programs are Freeware with a Careware/Charity status and objective. (Careware - Wikipedia). The chosen/preferred charity DEBRA should you wish to dontate.

 

[kb5udf]

I'll put in a suggestion to consider a decent little SDR like an airspy mini. There can be a little learning curve, but once properly set up you can do amazing things, like scan the entire civil aviation band in a second or less. Instead of programming frequencies in, you can just skim the band, and watch traffic nearby in real time. Or you can program in frequencies if you like. Depending on your location your SDR may require additional filtering, such as a bandpass specific aviation filter and/or a filter to block broadcast FM. Either way it can be a blast, and can also augment a more traditional receiver, at very limited cost.

Regards

 

[majoco]

Thumbs up for the UBC125XLT which unlike the US version has no frequency gaps, and another thumbs up for Nick's Scan125 control program.

 

[bearcatrp]

Uniden has new models coming out that may be good for air band. Just saw Icom possibly coming out with a new handheld too. Go to Icom forum to see it. Looks similar to the 52A.