"Brian Sturges" ) writes:
Hi Steve, the kit uses varactor tuning for the range of 118 to 136 Mhz. It
has AGC and squelch controls. It's surprising that aircraft would be using
AM- especially at these high freqs. Ramsey's website is www.ramseykits.com
I built the shortwave converter SC1C a couple years ago to catch a few sw
stations as I come home late from work once in awhile. It works ok as far as
converters go...
But how much of this is because you want an excuse to build a kit, and
how much because you want to listen to the air band?

They aren't all that costly, and they aren't really complicated. If
it was the fun of building, and then having an opportunity to sample
the air band, I suspect it is a good choice. It probably isn't a good
choice, if for no other reason than that it's got analog tuning, if
you see it as a receiver for serious air band reception.

People forget, but up until 25 or so years ago, if you wanted to listen
to the Air Band or the Public Service Bands, you had the choice of tuneable
like that Ramsey, or crystal control. And since crystals cost real money,
those limited you to a handful of frequencies.

Michael

A scanner might be a good idea for this anyway. I had a Bearcat years ago,
and used to accidentally hear conversations from the early cell phones. Is
that still possible? It was fun- and made me feel guilty (I must be a good
citizen).
"N8KDV" wrote in message
...


Brian Sturges wrote:

Well, I just got my new Ramsey catalog this week, and I've been thinking
that the AR1C Aircraft Receiver kit might be a fun project. I live in a
fairly large city, so there is lots of air traffic around. I was
wondering
if this would be fun to listen to? Would the receiver still be usable
these
days- or are the channels now scrambled- or using some other technology
that
would make them un-listenable? Is anyone using this particular kit?
Thanks!

The aircraft band is still using AM and not scrambled. Is this a scanner
type of
radio, or basically a tuable receiver that only receives one frequency at
at
time?

You might be much better off with a scanner that receives the aircraft
band.

Steve
Holland, MI
Drake R7, R8 and R8B

http://www.iserv.net/~n8kdv/dxpage.htm