Aviation Frequency Scanner - Recommendations

[Jeff D. Welker]

Hey Folks;

My dad is in his 80's and his health won't let him get around like he or I would want. I took him to Willy the other day and got him on top of my ladder for a few photos - both a scary and funny experience. Unfortunately, he can't do that very often. I've seen some of you guys using scanners to monitor tower/aircraft traffic. I'm thinking that might be a great diversion for my dad on the days he can't get out. Another side benefit would be to keep him busy/occupied when I can take him out but he can't move around much to take photos. He could sit in a lawn chair, watch the planes and enjoy monitoring air traffic. Heck, he could become my air boss and have me spinning in circles with marching orders.

Any recommendations on hand help units would be appreciated.

Thanks;

Jeff

PS - Is this something he could use at his home in addition to at the airport? What kind of range do those things have?

[jslugman]

Freq of Nature is a good place to start for frequencies at various airports.

http://www.freqofnature.com/

Scanner signals are line-of-sight so your terrain and surrounding buildings can affect which side of the conversation you'll listen to. I've had decent success with the Radio Shack scanners (Pro 164) but if I had the bucks I'd go with a Uniden/ICOM. You could erect an antenna at home just to listen (police/fire as well) but I don't have any experience with base stations and the like. Get educated before plonking down your cash.

[Chris Kennedy]

Jeff,

I have a lot of experience with scanners, having fooled around with them since the 60s.

What to buy depends on what you want to listen to.

If you just want to monitor civilian air traffic, almost any of the hand held scanner will pick up the VHF comm frequencies of 118-136 mhz.

If, on the other hand, you want to be able to monitor the military air UHF frequencies of 225-400 mhz, it gets a little more expensive. Pretty much only the most expensive hand helds pick up these frequencies.

If you also want to listen to police, fire, and other types of activities, most large cities, including the Phoenix area ones are now using digital trunking radio systems. To listed to those you need one of the more expensive scanners that are designed for monitoring those types of systems.

As far as listening to aircraft radio from home, unless you are very close to the airport (usually within two to four miles, depending on what is between you and the tower), you probably won't hear the tower half of a conversation. The plane side can be heard from much farther away. If you put up an outside antenna at home, you can extend the range of reception of the tower.

I hope this has helped you some. I have a couple of older portable scanners that I don't use much. I would be willing to let you borrow one of them to see how well they work for you if you want. They will only pick up the VHF air frequencies though.

Sent me a private message if you want to discuss this more.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Thanks Chris - PM Inbound.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Freq of Nature is a good place to start for frequencies at various airports.

http://www.freqofnature.com/

Scanner signals are line-of-sight so your terrain and surrounding buildings can affect which side of the conversation you'll listen to. I've had decent success with the Radio Shack scanners (Pro 164) but if I had the bucks I'd go with a Uniden/ICOM. You could erect an antenna at home just to listen (police/fire as well) but I don't have any experience with base stations and the like. Get educated before plonking down your cash.

Good stuff James - Thanks.

[cpasley]

Ok heres my issue, I just bought a brand new Radio Shack Pro-106, well I bought about 3 weeks ago, I decided to go all out and get a digital one and it looks real pretty but thats all it does for me right now, looks good collecting dust since I cant figure out how to program it, I have been told I need the "programming cable" a nice little USB for $35 but ah ha that doesnt work without a good programing software and thats another $35 on top of that a subscription to radio refference to direct link to the codes avail.............
im about ready to chuck it out the window but before I do and waste over $400 can anyone help me?

[Chris Kennedy]

It is possible to program modern scanners without using a computer, but it's difficult and time consuming. The radio systems are so complicated these days that it takes forever to program for them manually. For strictly aviation use, you could probably do it, but then you wouldn't need quite so expensive a scanner.

You will need a cable.

There might be some free software available for that unit, but I'm not sure. One of my scanners is a Radio Shack Pro-96 and there is a free program available for that, but the newer models may be different. Take a look at this page.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Object_Oriented_Scanner_Software

You don't actually need a paid subscription to RadioReference to use their data. It's just a little easier if you do. I don't have one and I'm able to get along fine.

[jslugman]

You can do it manually but as already stated it will take a little time. I assigned the different bases I frequent to a bank (group of channels) so DM was bank 1, TIA bank 2, etc. If you're doing it for a small handful of areas I'd bet you could do it in less time than finding the cable/software, installation and learning curve for the new software.

My $0.02 and worth half that due to inflation....

[cpasley]

well I broke down and bought the cable and am moments away from buying the software and a subscription to radio referrence ,I would really like to have Luke loaded on this thing as well as the thunderbirds before this weekend ,btw im getting pretty desperate ,if anyone has experience with this and wants to make a buck let me know

[Chris Kennedy]

well I broke down and bought the cable and am moments away from buying the software and a subscription to radio referrence ,I would really like to have Luke loaded on this thing as well as the thunderbirds before this weekend ,btw im getting pretty desperate ,if anyone has experience with this and wants to make a buck let me know

Sent you email.

[Chris Kennedy]

For those who might be interested. GRE (a Chinese company that makes Radio Shack's scanners, but also markets them under their own name) has brought out a new hand-held scanner called the PSR-310. It covers both the civilian and military aircraft bands. However, it is not digital, so if you want to be able to listen to police and other agencies in the Phoenix or Tucson areas, you will not be able to do so with this unit.

Most of the scanner sellers are selling it for $200, but Amazon is currently listing it for $160.55.

If you want to program this using your computer, you would need a USB cable and some programming software, which is extra cost. For exclusively aircraft use, you could probably program it manually without too much trouble, although if you want to add alpha tags to identify the channels, it can be pretty time consuming using just the scanner's keypad.

I don't know anything about how well this one works, although GRE has a pretty good reputation. Most of my extensive scanner experience is with Uniden Bearcat scanners. You might try to find some reviews if you are interested.

http://www.greamerica.com/PSR-310.html

[cpasley]

Listen to this guy ,I have not met anyone with a more exstensive knowledge of scanners

[cpasley]

did anyone who went today or yesterday happen to catch what frequency the t-birds were opperating off, or any other performers for that matter

[Chris Kennedy]

did anyone who went today or yesterday happen to catch what frequency the t-birds were opperating off, or any other performers for that matter

I wasn't there but here is some data from the ArizonaScanner Yahoo group. It's from yesterday and today.

126.25 - Air Boss/Air show Control
133.175 - Ship to Ship

Thunderbirds
SOLOs- 235.2500 am
Diamond- 141.0750 am
? 322.950

The air boss is also probably simulcasting on a military frequency for the aircraft that don't have civilian radios installed.

Here is a list of T'birds frequencies that I found from last year. All three of the above are included here. I would advise programming all of these in, just in case they change. Better to have too many than not enough. You could also use your service search feature to try to scope out more if they aren't on any of these, but that can be kind of tricky if you are also trying to take pictures.

139.8000 Diamond formation <Victor 2> (AM)
139.2250 Diamond formation <Victor 1> (AM)
Noted at a West Coast air show
140.7000 Diamond formation <Victor 1> (AM)
141.0750 Diamond formation <Victor 1>
(AM) Appears to be the primary VHF
frequency used in 2009.
143.7000 Diamond and Delta formations <Victor 1> (AM)
148.1250 Diamond formation <Victor 1> (AM)
225.1750 Thunderbirds <Uniform 1> (AM)
235.2000 Thunderbird Control/ComCart (AM)
Also used for cross country air-to-air.
235.2500 Pre-Engine Start and Solo aircraft on/
off show center/ linked to PA system
(AM) <Uniform 1>
322.9500 Engine Starts/Solo aircraft (5-6) Airto-Air (AM) <Uniform 2>

[cpasley]

Thanks Chris ,I sorta figured out how to program my scanner now I just need to learn how to organize so in the mean time I just loaded Luke frequencies and ill do the rest later but I added the codes you gave but since im too far from base ill have to wait till tomorrow to see if I did it correctly, so wish me luck