Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

I recently bought a Uniden HomePatrol scanner and I love it. However, I don't
get much aircraft on it. Actually, I don't get any, and I live right under
approach and departure lanes for three major airports, LaGuardia, Kennedy and
Westchester, NY. There's planes overhead constantly, and I'd love to hear the
chatter from both the planes and terminals, towers etc. Unless I'm missing
something on this HomePatrol, it's about useless for air traffic., Any
suggestions for a scanner for aircraft, that won't break my wallet? Handheld or
desktop, really doesn't matter. Thanks.

Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

wrote in
:

I recently bought a Uniden HomePatrol scanner and I love it. However,
I don't get much aircraft on it. Actually, I don't get any, and I live
right under approach and departure lanes for three major airports,
LaGuardia, Kennedy and Westchester, NY. There's planes overhead
constantly, and I'd love to hear the chatter from both the planes and
terminals, towers etc. Unless I'm missing something on this
HomePatrol, it's about useless for air traffic., Any suggestions for a
scanner for aircraft, that won't break my wallet? Handheld or desktop,
really doesn't matter. Thanks.



With so many systems going to digital, and a lot of people upgrading their
scanners, you should be able to pickup used A/C band sacnners fairly cheap.

Bearcat 2020 ( 20 channels )
Bearcat 220XLT ( 200 channels ) handheld, BNC connector
Radio Shack Pro-2021 ( 200 channels )

among others.

NOW Some personal observations from years of scanner & radio use.
*** YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY ***

since the aircraft radios are AM band, the range for a ground based
listener are not good without an good outside antenna. unless you are
fairly close to the tower, your not likely to hear the tower.

and since aircraft transmissions are usally very brief, the use of a
scanner in scan mode, makes it very hard to catch one.

best to find out which freqs are in use for your local airport. and set one
freq , and listen to only that one. say the
John F. Kennedy Approach/Departure 127.40000

That will give you an idea what is going on..
Then work from there.

trying blind to scan all the possible air band freqs will just prove
to be an excercise in frustration.

Kennedy page
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=1171

LaGuardia page
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=1172

All info:
http://www.n2nov.net/nycaero.html

*** YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY ***

Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:17:09 -0500, wrote:

I recently bought a Uniden HomePatrol scanner and I love it. However, I don't
get much aircraft on it. Actually, I don't get any, and I live right under
approach and departure lanes for three major airports, LaGuardia, Kennedy and
Westchester, NY. There's planes overhead constantly, and I'd love to hear the
chatter from both the planes and terminals, towers etc. Unless I'm missing
something on this HomePatrol, it's about useless for air traffic., Any
suggestions for a scanner for aircraft, that won't break my wallet? Handheld or
desktop, really doesn't matter. Thanks.

To what has already been said upthread, I will add this: Also check that the
squelch is set properly so that the signals can open the squelch. This detail
often gets overlooked; on some scanners I've seen the AM sensitivity be a third
of what it is on FM. For example, my PRO-2045s have a sensitity of about 0.5
microvolt on VHF-FM but need 1.5 microvolt on AM to get the same 20 dB S+N/N
ratio for an AM signal in the same frequency range.

The other thing I can't emphasize enough: The antennas supplied with most
scanners are better than nothing - but all too often, not all that much better
than nothing, and some of them are absolute garbage. If the antenna's your
problem, you can get a better antenna for less than it would cost to buy another
scanner, even at a hamfest or garage sale - and that might still need a better
antenna once you've purchased it.

For indoor/portable use, I like the Diamond RH77. I have four of these and they
flat out rock! For an outdoor antenna, almost anything more sophisticated than a
coat hanger outside will work better than anything inside, but for maximum
frequency coverage in an omnidirectiona antenna it's tough to beat a discone.

Hope this helps..

John, W2PIO
Tonawanda, NY

Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

John Kasupski wrote in

but for maximum frequency coverage in an
omnidirectiona antenna it's tough to beat a discone.



John, W2PIO
Tonawanda, NY





Agree , ABSOLUTLY..

Looking for an aircraft scanner
 

On Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:17:09 -0500, wrote:

I recently bought a Uniden HomePatrol scanner and I love it. However, I don't
get much aircraft on it. Actually, I don't get any, and I live right under
approach and departure lanes for three major airports, LaGuardia, Kennedy and
Westchester, NY. There's planes overhead constantly, and I'd love to hear the
chatter from both the planes and terminals, towers etc. Unless I'm missing
something on this HomePatrol, it's about useless for air traffic., Any
suggestions for a scanner for aircraft, that won't break my wallet? Handheld or
desktop, really doesn't matter. Thanks.

I just read a review of that scanner in the new QST. Seems like it ought
to do everything you want. Can you look at the list of frequencies it is
scanning in the aviation band? You might want to go to a pilots' shop
in the area and get the latest FAA airport/facilities directory for your
area, which will list the tower and other frequencies for airports, and
also the approach/departure control and and center frequencies. Also
you pick up some of these by listening on the ones you already know about.
e.g. if you listen to control tower for departures, they will tell a pilot
to contact departure control on xxxx, and then if you listen on that
frequency you may hear them telling the aircraft to contact center on
xxxx. Also note that the last digit of the frequency is not mentioned,
so it could be zero or five. If the controller says 123.27 that is really
123.275.