I've always been a keen aircraft enthusiast, but have only just got my first
scanner (PSR282 from Maplin) for Xmas, having had my interest re-awakened by
watching the final Concorde museum flights.

In the first week or two I've picked up various overhead airband
transmissions from home in southern England, but had begun to question if it
was going to fulfill my expectations. That was until yesterday when I
spent a *great* few hours listening to and watching arrivals and departures
at Heathrow, from what appeared to be common vantage points with others.

I could work out the general order of frequencies that arriving and
departing planes used, and have a database found on the web of country-wide
frequencies, but would appreciate some thoughts/help on a few aspects....

1) is there anyway that you can "link" the call-signs that planes have,
with other details about them - eg. registration; destinations etc? Thus
"Speedbird 16" or "Shamrock 21" were a little meaningless to me, except
clearly describing the carrier. Are these flight numbers as per
timetables - i.e. BA016 etc?

2) is there a list somewhere of the call-signs for each carrier, as some
seemed a bit obscure, as did the markings on some less common airlines from
abroad.

3) can anyone recommend a good book to read as a starter? Not necessarily
for frequencies, but more in explanation of navigation, air traffic control
handling; where named beacons are geographically etc? i.e. anything to help
me understand a little more about it all.

4) the Heathrow Visitor Centre advised me that the old Observation deck at
Queens Building is now closed. That's sad. I can imagine this for
security reasons, though don't quite understand what the issue with security
could be there that wouldn't be far worse elsewhere? Is there
anywhere else apart from the HVC or the runway ends/sides that makes a good
vantage point at Heathrow? Or in fact, where is the best airport in the
"South" for GOOD viewing of fairly frequent takeoffs/landings?

cheers
Neil.
UK