What to listen to? Airband noob questions

[GROL]

I didn't see that anyone explained ARTCC frequencies. Air Route Traffic control Centers provide services to aircraft flying IFR flight plans between airports. High altitude and easy to monitor at very long distances.

There are 21 ARTCC in the US and the RR database under each state has frequencies for routes covered by the ARTCC's.

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

ATC, ATCT, TRACON, ARTCC -- Who are We Talking to and Why?

Air Traffic Control assists pilots in different phases of reaching their destination utilizing different specialties and methods.

www.globalair.com

Sometimes you will find useful information in NOTAMs. Notice to Air Missions contain anything the FCC needs to communicate to controllers, pilots and facilities. They may contain temporary changes or permanent changes. Information about obstacles, special events or circumstances among others.

Federal Aviation Administration: NOTAM Search

notams.aim.faa.gov

Darn FAA, not FCC. Too many three letter agencies.

 

[kny2xb]

123.45 is still used for Air to Air over the water, I work for United Airlines, and it is still very much used over water. Wonder which bulletins you are using. The longer answer is that such use is permitted over the oceans and outside the range of VHF ground stations, but that this will almost never be the case in the continental US.

That's what I stated in my post, I just didn't get into all the details, so, per the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual dated June 17th, 2021:

Over the Continental United States and Coastal Waters 123.4 MHz and 123.45 MHz are reserved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for stations individually licensed to commercial aircraft and accessory manufacturers to use as flight test frequencies. Aircraft may only communicate with their associated company ground stations and these frequencies may not be used for air−to−air communications of any sort. In order to bring attention to the proper usage of 123.4 MHz and 123.45 MHz, this change adds these frequencies to TBL 4−1−3, Other Frequency Usage Designated by the FCC, along with the description of their use and the note that they are not for air−to−air communication.

TBL 4−1−3
Other Frequency Usage Designated by FCC

Use	Frequency
Air-to-air communication (private fixed wing aircraft).	122.750
Helicopter air−to−air communications; air traffic control operations.	123.025
Aviation instruction, Glider, Hot Air Balloon (not to be used for advisory service).	123.300 123.500
Assignment to flight test land and aircraft stations (not for air−to−air communication except for those aircraft operating in an oceanic FIR).	123.400 [1] 123.450 [2]

[1] This frequency is available only to itinerant stations that have a requirement to be periodically transferred to various locations.
[2] Mobile station operations on these frequencies are limited to an area within 320 km (200 mi) of an associated flight test land station.

73

 

[majoco]

nd5y said"

The civilian aircraft band in the US is 118-137.

Yes it is, but there is also the band 108 to 118MHz which is used by the navigational aids such as VOR's (VHF omni range) which are often paired with a DME (distance measuring equipment) so the pilot can find his bearing and distance from the station. An ILS (Instrument Landing System) gives the pilot guidance on to the centreline of the runway and the glideslope which show him the true angle to the landing point on the runway - the slope is usually 3 degrees. There used to be marker transmitters along the centreline at three points on the approach, 6 miles, 3 miles and 1.6miles but these have all largely been replaced by DME's at the glidepath transmitter site. The only control that is required is for the pilot to dial up is either the VOR or the localiser frequency, the DME and G/S frequencies have to be paired with the dialled up frequency according to ICAO. - so a selected ILS frequency of say 109.9MHz also dials up the G/S of 333.8MHz and the DME channel 36x which is 1060MHz transmit/997MHz receive.
You are not likely to receive any of the these transmissions - they are not high powered and radiate in narrow pattens except of course the VOR which is all round and of course all of them are at ground level!
Non-directional Beacons (NDB's) are down in the band 200 to 400kHz so you can hear them on a long-wave radio but all you'll hear of them is a carrier and repeating two or three letter identification tones. Sometimes in good conditions they will be received at some unexpected distance - on a good day I can hear Norfolk Island which is 891miles away and very occasionally Port MacQuarie which is 1410miles.

 

[WA4A]

I would suggest looking up, on-line, or purchasing, an FAA aviation sectional chart for your area. Then, learn about the VHF radio frequencies printed for each airport within your area of interest, including tower and UNICOM frequencies. If listening to commercial airline traffic on VHF is your main interest, go online and find the frequencies used for the larger centers, Atlanta, Washington, for example, controlling aircraft on specific routes between major airports. Each route sector will have specific frequencies.
On VHF, even with simple equipment, you'll hear plenty of aircraft but unless you are very close to a ground station, you won't hear who the aircraft is talking to!

Now, if you have an HF-SSB receiver, you can find lots of interesting listening on frequencies in the assigned 3, 6, 8 and higher mHz aircraft bands used by major centers, like New York or Shannon Ireland, controlling overseas flights. On HF, the frequencies will change depending on the time of day, but both aircraft and ground stations, out to thousands of miles, are easy to hear with simple antennas. Listening to radio traffic and actually watching the live "Flight Aware" display of the aircraft's path is always very interesting, too!

 

[BC2001]

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!

I love this site! It's very useful and I'd highly recommend it

 

[n4jri]

I've found it handy to keep a bank or search range with frequencies from 121.500-123.600. It's a good starting point for playing by ear

121.500 - continues to be the 'distress' freq, but in recent years, you hear it used more often by pilots who may be 'lost' in terms of what freq to use with ATC, TRACON, FSS, etc.

121.600 used to be used for 'practice ELT's' by the Civil Air Patrol in their direction-finding exercises. Unknown to me if this is now obsolete.

Ground Control at controlled airports is often on 121.9 or a nearby freq. Pilots changing to other frequencies will 'read back' the freq they're being asked to change to, so this is a great starting point at a controlled airport. Note that they frequenly describe them in a 4-digit shorhand. "2192" would be shorthand for 121.925, or 2307 would be 123.075. I think you can probably see the pattern used.
Flight Service Stations tend to be between 122.000 and 122.675. It's not exclusive AFAIK, and you could hear something else in there as well. Can't remember the highest FSS freq I've seen, but am thinking it was 122.500.

122.700-123.100 contain most of the CTAF & Unicom freqs for uncontrolled airports, as well as some dedicated air/air simplex channels. In fact 123.1 is used for SAR & often special events such as airshows. Pilots landing at super-desolate or private fields may use 122.900 as CTAF.

123.125-123.575 - contain a number of 'Flight Test' freqs that are often bootlegged outside of the flight testing arena. 123.4, 123.45 and a number of nearby freqs are often used for informal air/air chit-chat. 123.3 & 123.5 are for flight instruction & 'aviation support' which could include gliders & balloons. Two gliderports near me use 123.300 as their CTAF not sure if that's totally legal.

123.600 - Used as an FSS freq at some airports, and may be used as an after-hours CTAF for airports that don't have 24-hour towers.

You can find some more detailed info from the Airman's Information Manual, or maybe the RadioReference Wiki. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of why this is a good frequency range to target.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[MiCon]

Skyd: Sorry about the delayed response. I just moved to another state and haven't had much time for RR.com.

Most of the responses so far have been reasonable for your situation: don't spend much time programming from lists; do frequency searches; log what you hear so you can refer back to that info as you progress.

The frequency searching is tedious, but if you have the time, it's what will get you the starting list of freqs you can hear. Program those in and scan them. Most of them will be ATC, and you will hear the pilots verbally confirm what freq they're switching to. That's another frequency to add to your program. Soon you will have built a respectable base list of frequencies to monitor.

As a heads-up, eventually you'll want to do some specific searching. One of these areas is 122.0 ~ 123.575. In this spectrum you'll hear mostly General Aviation air-to-air chatter, but it's also used for pilots to contact Flight Service Stations, airport Field Business Offices, and aviation contractors like Boeing. Law enforcement, fire department, and military a/c are also heard here. The second area to search would be 128.825 ~ 132.0. This spectrum is used mostly by the commercial airline and freight pilots to talk with their dispatchers. Although much of the normal traffic is sent via data (ACARS), there's still a good amount of voice traffic.

Do an Internet search of airports within a 100 mile radius of your location. Then check airnav.com for the frequencies they use. Some of the more rural airfields will be controlled by the local ARTCC, and that will be noted on their page.

One of the fun things to do is look on ADS-B or FlightRadar24, or any other flight tracking site, and find the aircraft you're hearing. After awhile, you'll become familiar with where the a/c are when you hear them on a certain frequency.

Good luck.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Distance & geography and I believe their antennas radiate upward.

They do not radiate upward in general. They generally use typical antennas favoring the horizon. Aircraft overhead is generally close and would not require an antenna favoring it. Aircraft towards the horizon are more likely to have ground cover obstructions likely farther away and typical comms antenna would be find for that. You are right about geography - hills, buildings, etc are an issue. Actually distance is not all that much of an issue compared to obstructions (but distance can mean more of them). You left out power. These transmissions are relatively low power. To compare, a weather balloon (in the clear in the sky), is easily heard at 50 miles. But even stuck in a tree several miles away, may not be heard at all.

 

[Colin9690]

122.000 Flight Watch (Updates on current and forecasted weather while enroute)

122.200 / 122.300 Flight Service Stations, or FSS. They provide pilots with weather updates, NOTAMS, creating or canceling a flight plan, amongst other things.

Flight Watch and the FSS frequencies aren’t used nearly as much as they were 15 years ago, with the advent of modern technology and cockpit avionics.

Concerning the 121.500 emergency frequency (Guard), all commercial aircraft actively monitor this frequency on a 2nd radio. Aside from relaying emergency communications to ATC, this serves as another way for ATC to contact an aircraft if they end up on the wrong frequency. For example, when handing off an aircraft to another controller the crew might accidentally enter the wrong frequency and be unable to reach the new controller. The next controller who is expecting the crew’s call, will realize they have not been contacted yet. On 121.500 they will transmit something like “UPS1300, Atlanta Center on guard, contact Atlanta Center on 135.8”. Aircraft Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) transmit a continuous sound that sounds like a burglar alarm on 121.500, and the military equivalent of 243.000. An ELT detects the impact forces created by an airplane crash, and automatically activates, similar to a car’s airbag system. SAR aircraft can then home in on the signal. In the case of a suspected aircraft accident, ATC might ask airborne aircraft if they are picking up an ELT on 121.500.