What to listen to? Airband noob questions

[Skyd]

Hey all - I'm interested in putting together a list of frequencies to program into a scanner for listening to some aircraft stuff. I'm not sure what to look for. Here's the basics of my situation:

Where I live, the closest commercial airport is about 75 miles as the crow flies. You have to go out to 100 to hit the next one. There are also some small municipal airports that are closer to me. However I know it's fairly common to hear aircraft 100 miles away when they're in the sky, line of sight is greatly improved obviously.

I also know alot of frequencies aren't phone, they're data, presumably telemetry and what not? For the time being I'm not interested in decoding transponders or anything like that I just wanna hear some talking for now.

So what types of frequencies should I look for, and what should I avoid? I could go nuts and easily program 100's of frequencies but that's alot of work for a large number of things I either can't hear (radio towers in Boston for example) or data I don't want to listen to.

Can anyone point me in the right direction? If you're curious the closest large airport to me would be Burlington, VT. After that Manchester, NH is next closest. I'm location in the White Mountains of NH.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[jtwalker]

Air traffic control for the centers around you. These should be listed in your county, maybe under statewide section. I don’t think you’re going to receive the tower at those airports unless you live in shack at top of Mt Washington.

 

[zkorner]

What makes the towers so hard to listen to?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

So what types of frequencies should I look for, and what should I avoid?

Start by reading here & here

I program all of the common civilian airband frequencies into one bank/FL on my receivers (only 42 of them, no big deal for most receivers) and this will cover any civilian (non-commercial, non-military) air field I visit. For commercial airports, go to Airnav.com, search for the airport(s) you want to listen to and you'll see all associated frequencies for that airport (RR database is not always 100% accurate in this respect)

 

[dave3825]

You do not mention what scanner you have but you may be able to set up a search or the scanner may have a predefined airband already in it. This is from the database for your area followed by Boston Air Traffic Control Center. NH is about half way down

​

Airport (Grafton County) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Airport (Grafton County)

www.radioreference.com

Boston (ZBW) Air Route Traffic Control Center Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Boston (ZBW) Air Route Traffic Control Center

www.radioreference.com

 

[jtwalker]

What makes the towers so hard to listen to?

Distance & geography and I believe their antennas radiate upward.

 

[GadgetGeek]

123.450 MHz can be interesting. It's an informal chit chat air to air frequency.

Edited to add 121.500 MHz, the emergency frequency.

 

[morfis]

You do not mention what scanner you have but you may be able to set up a search or the scanner may have a predefined airband already in it.

^^^^
This

Whatever 'scanner' you have: set up a band edge type scan from 117.000 to 136.975 AM with 25kHz steps (if you can't do that then add all 720 channels into memory and scan them).*

Run the search whenever you have time (and do it again regularly rather than just once this week) and note the frequencies you get hits on (if you use scanner software the chances are you can automate this process and get it to log 'hits') - if you can identify who it is that's great...if not, make a brief note of what it sounded like (controller, aircraft, both) as it will help you later.

Armed with your notes you can start referring to the various bits of online data to positively identify the frequencies and start to build up scanner memory 'banks' with the ones you want, organised how you want.

There is no point in looking at long lists online first as they won't tell you what YOU can hear with YOUR setup.

As for comms from the airfields - unless they are within 15 miles or so forget it

sdr is the way to go for searching really - can do it pretty much automatically, unattended and faster

* If you want military as well you'll want to do similar for 225-400 (plus a couple of other bits that will be harder work). To do the military stuff it's far better to split it into smaller chunks and concentrate on one chunk at a time.

 

[Skyd]

Start by reading here & here

I program all of the common civilian airband frequencies into one bank/FL on my receivers (only 42 of them, no big deal for most receivers) and this will cover any civilian (non-commercial, non-military) air field I visit. For commercial airports, go to Airnav.com, search for the airport(s) you want to listen to and you'll see all associated frequencies for that airport (RR database is not always 100% accurate in this respect)

Ok I'll check those out and edumacate myself on that stuff. Good to know on the airnav site also.

You do not mention what scanner you have but you may be able to set up a search or the scanner may have a predefined airband already in it. This is from the database for your area followed by Boston Air Traffic Control Center. NH is about half way down

Sorry (it's in my signature ) it's a PRO-106 currently with plans to add a new scanner soon. But I can setup searches, haven't done it in a while I'll have to break out the ol' manual.

Whatever 'scanner' you have: set up a band edge type scan from 117.000 to 136.975 AM with 25kHz steps (if you can't do that then add all 720 channels into memory and scan them).*

Run the search whenever you have time (and do it again regularly rather than just once this week) and note the frequencies you get hits on (if you use scanner software the chances are you can automate this process and get it to log 'hits') - if you can identify who it is that's great...if not, make a brief note of what it sounded like (controller, aircraft, both) as it will help you later.

Armed with your notes you can start referring to the various bits of online data to positively identify the frequencies and start to build up scanner memory 'banks' with the ones you want, organised how you want.

There is no point in looking at long lists online first as they won't tell you what YOU can hear with YOUR setup.

As for comms from the airfields - unless they are within 15 miles or so forget it

sdr is the way to go for searching really - can do it pretty much automatically, unattended and faster

* If you want military as well you'll want to do similar for 225-400 (plus a couple of other bits that will be harder work). To do the military stuff it's far better to split it into smaller chunks and concentrate on one chunk at a time.

Great tips here, thanks! I guess my mistake was trying to discern from the lists in the database what I MIGHT be able to hear and also which ones to avoid as they're not voice. I already figured getting tower comms wasn't going to happen, but I get plenty of planes flying overhead and I'm sure there's something going on up there. LOL

Maybe I'll get me an SDR dongle and do some exploring that way as well.

 

[doctordialtone]

Maybe I'll get me an SDR dongle and do some exploring that way as well.

You can use this site as a companion to listening on the scanner:

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

Enjoy!

 

[dave3825]

Maybe I'll get me an SDR dongle and do some exploring that way as well.

Dongle is an awesome way to do it. Airband scans real fast.

 

[zkorner]

You can use this site as a companion to listening on the scanner:

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live

ADS-B Exchange - track aircraft live - aircraft flight history

globe.adsbexchange.com

Enjoy!

This is pretty rad

 

[iMONITOR]

^^^^
This

Whatever 'scanner' you have: set up a band edge type scan from 117.000 to 136.975 AM with 25kHz steps (if you can't do that then add all 720 channels into memory and scan them).*

Run the search whenever you have time (and do it again regularly rather than just once this week) and note the frequencies you get hits on (if you use scanner software the chances are you can automate this process and get it to log 'hits') - if you can identify who it is that's great...if not, make a brief note of what it sounded like (controller, aircraft, both) as it will help you later.

Armed with your notes you can start referring to the various bits of online data to positively identify the frequencies and start to build up scanner memory 'banks' with the ones you want, organised how you want.

There is no point in looking at long lists online first as they won't tell you what YOU can hear with YOUR setup.

As for comms from the airfields - unless they are within 15 miles or so forget it

sdr is the way to go for searching really - can do it pretty much automatically, unattended and faster

* If you want military as well you'll want to do similar for 225-400 (plus a couple of other bits that will be harder work). To do the military stuff it's far better to split it into smaller chunks and concentrate on one chunk at a time.

The problem with that method is that it takes so long to scan through them all and you miss so many while you're doing that.

 

[iMONITOR]

Can anyone point me in the right direction? If you're curious the closest large airport to me would be Burlington, VT. After that Manchester, NH is next closest. I'm location in the White Mountains of NH.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Start here:

Civilian

Aircraft - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Military

Aircraft - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[sflmonitor]

Although you may not be close enough to an airport, don’t rule out the RCAG (Remote Communications Air-Ground) frequencies for Boston Center located in NH. You may be close enough to hear the ground side on some of those, maybe. You may also enjoy 128.825 - 132.000 and 136.500 - 136.975, officially referred to as Operational Control frequencies, are company frequencies used by aircraft to contact ground operations for admin-type traffic. They use these while airborne as well as when on the ground. Here is a good FAA reference sheet indicating frequency usage. It’s old but still useful. Lastly, keep in mind that most aviation radios transmit at relatively low power (5 - 55 watts) compared to land mobile radio equipment and are designed to be used with aircraft in flight. Because of that, ground to ground communications distances are generally very limited.

 

[imonitorit]

123.025 is another one to keep programmed. It's a common helicopter chit-chat and coordination frequency.

 

[mass-man]

I’m gonna +1 the guard frequency, 121.50! It’s called that cuz practically all ATC facilities and airplanes, if possible, keep a radio tuned to it…guardians of the frequency!
You may go months and nothing, then it gets interesting quick!

 

[rrobinso84]

Also check out ATC Live. There's lots of good stuff there fed from folks who are near the airfields. I use that to free up my physical sdrs and scanner for other stuff.

 

[AirScan]

I'm location in the White Mountains of NH.

I'd start with these Boston Center frequencies.

135.700
134.700
123.750
128.325

Depending how high you are up on the mountain you might be able to hear a controller on some of these. If you're down in a valley your reception range will probably be very limited.

If you are interested in military air monitoring that location is right under a Military Operations Area (MOA) that is often used by F-35s from the VT ANG and F-15s from the MA ANG.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Distance & geography and I believe their antennas radiate upward.

Generally almost never are ATC antennas made to do that. Allthough close in aircraft will be near vertical, they will be close so no special directed antenna is needed. Farther away aircraft will be near horizon like another ground station would. what make ground monitoring heard is the ATC transmitter do not need much power or height as the aircraft is line of sight. Monitoring from the ground is heard when terrain gets in the way.