Aircraft receiver?
 

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

Brian Sturges wrote:

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.

There is a reason for that. AM is still used primarily for it's safety factor.
With FM there is what is known as 'capture effect' in which the stronger station
obliterates the weaker one.

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...
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

"Brian Sturges" wrote in message ...
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!

I haven't seen the kit, but if it's not a digital type scanning radio,
I wouldn't bother. There is plenty of traffic, all on AM, but I
recommend a cheap police scanner that also covers the aircraft band. I
think it would work out a lot better. I wouldn't bother with anything
you have to manually tune, as you need to cover quite a few different
freq's, and a scanner is more practical. You can get a scanner that
covers air band pretty cheap. I've got a cheapy rat shack scanner that
is 20 ch, and covers air band. It probably went for $100 new...
Of course, a higher quality radio is even better, but more costly. A
scanner is pretty good for "gov work"...Just connect a decent antenna
to it...MK

"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

I have the kit. Built it in an evening and it works great. It drifts a bit
on warmup but once it warms up it's solid as a rock. It's a neat little
radio that does the job just fine.

Ken

"Brian Sturges" wrote in message
...
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!

I like all the Ramsey kits I have built (I've built 4 of them). The
instructions are clear and easy to follow and the kits themselves are of
very good quality.

I just built the Ramsey Kits' AA7C active antenna kit for myself
(http://tinyurl.com/22glw), and it works pretty well on the bands I have
tried it on. I live in an apartment, so I cannot have an outside antenna...
this is better than nothing.

Another place that has some fun kits is Vectronics:
http://tinyurl.com/2g6xh. I've built a number of these kits for friends and
family, and they are fun to build and to use.

I LOVE kitbuilding. My goal is to eventually build an Elecraft K2 100, but
that's expensive and will have to wait until I have some spare cash laying
around... as if...

Jackie

In article ,
says...
I have the kit. Built it in an evening and it works great. It drifts a bit
on warmup but once it warms up it's solid as a rock. It's a neat little
radio that does the job just fine.

Ken

I've also built this kit. It's very well designed for the
inexperienced builder and mine worked perfectly the first time...no
hassel. The radio works quite well, but you do have to experimentally
calibrate it...find out what frequencies are most in use in your local
airspace and then go looking for other active channels as you accumulate
known frequency points on the dial.