aircraft radios

BNN123 · Post by **BNN123** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:32 pm

i am intrested in buying a aircraft radio, just to monitor the aircraft am band.

my experience with scanners is that the rx is not as good as a real radio.

i understand it is illegal to talk on the band which i have no reason to anyway.but do i need a license to buy one.

i was wondering if anyone on here monitors aircraft and if the use a real rx for the band, if you do can i get some feedback as to what is good to monitor the am aircraft band

thanks

RKG · Post by **RKG** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:01 pm

1. You do not need a license for a receiver on aircraft frequencies.

2. Take a look at the ICOM aircraft product line; it is rated pretty highly.

3. Be aware that aircraft radio is AM in the VHF-Hi band, and nothing akin to PL is used, so interference can be a problem if you try to hook up a "powerful" receiver. In use, aircraft VHF radio is only employed for short-range use.

EPC_1111 · Post by **EPC_1111** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:30 pm

I agree, the Icom line is the way to go. I have had no problems at all in 3 years.

chipjumper · Post by **chipjumper** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:01 pm

Just buy a scanner; they will receive the AM transmissions just fine. Remember, these radio stations are broadcasting from high above the ground.

If you are dead-set on getting the "real thing", browse eBay. I bought an older model of the Sporty's SP200 for $42 plus shipping. I use it as a backup and to triangulate my position on cross country's. Works awesome and you can't beat the price.

The nice Icom's go for about $100-150 on eBay.

bellersley · Post by **bellersley** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:15 pm

Oh here we go with the scanner bull$:o.

The fact of the matter is that a "real" radio will kick the crap out of a scanner anyday. I have a Technisonic Industries Limited airband radio and it works amazingly well. Audio is FAR superior to any scanner.

chipjumper · Post by **chipjumper** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:28 pm

If you can pickup a scanner that has 8 gazillion memory channels with alphanumeric display and all you plan on doing with it is listen and you find it for sale cheap, GET A SCANNER.

Most aircraft radios put out "only" 12 watts. An aircraft at 1000ft Above-The-Ground (AGL) will have a range of at least 45 statute miles. At 3000ft AGL expect 80 statute miles. At 20,000 ft AGL expect 200 statute miles. I don't think range is an issue here.

Thats just what we need; some non-aviation system user possessing a key communication tool that could wreak havoc if it fell into the wrong hands. Anyone ever see Die Hard II?

bellersley · Post by **bellersley** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:23 pm

Everyone likes to be a kilocycle cop these days, huh?

If you buy an aircraft radio, don't plug the mic into it. Problem solved. Infact, I got rid of the mic to mine, so I couldn't TX, peroid.

That movie was so unrealistic

The outer marker...it isn't beeping, it's talking!

Bruce1807 · Post by **Bruce1807** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:32 pm

bellersley wrote:Everyone likes to be a kilocycle cop these days, huh?

If you buy an aircraft radio, don't plug the mic into it. Problem solved. Infact, I got rid of the mic to mine, so I couldn't TX, peroid.

That movie was so unrealistic

The outer marker...it isn't beeping, it's talking!

The Outer Marker, which normally identifies the Final Approach Fix, is situated on the same line with the localizer and the runway centerline, four to seven miles before the runway. It is typically located about 1 nautical mile (1900 m) inside the point where the glideslope intercepts the intermediate altitude and transmits low-powered (3 watt), 400 Hz tone signal on a 75 MHz carrier frequency. Its antenna is highly directional, and is pointed straight up. The valid signal area is 2,400 ft by 4,200 ft ellipse (as measured 1000 ft above the antenna.) When the aircraft passes over the outer marker antenna, its marker beacon receiver detects the signal. This is shown for the pilot by blinking the blue outer marker light of the receiver, and by a continuous series of audio tone morse code 'dashes' in his headset. Some countries, such as Canada, have abandoned marker beacons completely, replacing the outer marker with a non-directional beacon (NDB). In the United States, the outer marker will often be combined with an NDB to make a Locator Outer Marker (LOM). Some ILS approaches have no navigation aid at all situated at the outer marker, but use other means, such as radial intersections or distance measuring equipment (DME) fixes, to identify the position.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:21 pm

chipjumper wrote:Thats just what we need; some non-aviation system user possessing a key communication tool that could wreak havoc if it fell into the wrong hands. Anyone ever see Die Hard II?

You're kidding me, right? Please tell me that was tongue-in-cheek?

If Osama wants an aircraft radio, he picks up the phone, calls Sporty's, and orders one on his VISA.

BNN123 - If you're looking for a used unit, PM me. I've got an Icom IC-A110 radio which is designed for ground use... it looks just like one of Icom's public safety radios, but airband. 20 channels with alpha, plus VFO.
http://www.icomamerica.com/products/avionics/a110/

I've also got a Bendix-King KY97 14VDC TSO'd radio available, which was configured for mobile use.

mancow · Post by **mancow** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:45 pm

There a couple of Icom IC-A21 portables in ebay right now. I have one right here scanning and I love it. They have all the features of a King KX-99 but I think the receiver is a bit better, especially on the Vhf weather channels.

Compared to a scanner, well it's just like any other dedicated single band unit and performs better all the way around as far as sensitivity and audio goes.

chipjumper · Post by **chipjumper** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:24 am

tvsjr wrote:You're kidding me, right? Please tell me that was tongue-in-cheek?

No kidding here. If a non-system user can be pursueded into getting a scanner, the better. I'm not his father so I only have a minimal influence on his decision making if any. It is a free country and there is no law saying that he must be a user to own an airband transceiver.

I doubt he'll shell out a ton of cash for a new transceiver with all of bells and whistles. He'll probably end up with a old 16 channel unit whereas with a scanner he'll have the capability of hundreds of memory channels.

I would say that it would be more options per dollar spent. A scanner will receive the AM signals just fine.

Jim2121 · Post by **Jim2121** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:39 am

Theres a couple of Radio Shack Pro-43 Handheld scanners on ebay! This way you can cover the VHF (108mhz-137Mhz) band And you can cover the 225 & 389Mhz aircraft band.... too bad the rad-shack stopped making the Pro-43...
200 channels hyperscan.... the prices are not bad

RadioSouth · Post by **RadioSouth** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:18 pm

I'm with Jim. I used the Pro-2006 (pretty much the base/mobile model of the Pro-43) and the Pro-43 to monitor aircraft among other things for years. If you live close to an airport as I did other scanners I had would always get front end overload from passing aircraft while monitoring VHF-hi. The triple conversion receivers of the 2006 and 43 beat this overload problem and were stellar receivers.
Unless you live close to an airport to hear the other side of the conversation air monitoring can be quite dry. On a side note if you do live close to an airport try 123.45, it's allocated to flight schools but it's also the unofficial airport/aircraft BS channel which can be entertaining.

chipjumper · Post by **chipjumper** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:30 pm

Pro 43 on eBay, currently at $19.95

http://cgi.ebay.com/Radio-Shack-Pro-43- ... dZViewItem

Some Icom airband transceivers for $150 range.

Choose your poison.

Go for the Icom if you might dive into getting your Rec,Sport, or Private pilots license in the near future.

fogster · Post by **fogster** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:44 pm

tvsjr wrote:If Osama wants an aircraft radio, he picks up the phone, calls Sporty's, and orders one on his VISA.

I'm a big fan of buying 'the real thing' when it comes to 2-way radios, and use Motorola gear for a lot of my listening. However, a big concern of mine is that some idiot's going to pick up one of my radios and think it's funny to key up somewhere they shouldn't be and make a fool of themselves with my radio. (Or to keep me from making a fool of myself... How many of us have accidentally driven around with an open mic? Or, my personal favorite, an old friend who didn't bother setting things RX-only, and one day threw out his ham call on the local repeater... Only he had selected the PD repeater, not the ham repeater...)

I don't think anyone's saying you can't buy a 'real' aircraft radio, just that it opens you up to the potential for a lot of trouble. (Especially with all the paranoia surrounding aircraft after 9/11...)

bellersley · Post by **bellersley** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:28 pm

In any radio of mine that has public safety frequencies, they're all set for RX only. The aircraft radio I have can be programmed for RX only on a per-channel basis. This is how I've programmed it. That, and not having the mic makes transmitting pretty much impossible.

Yeah, I've heard of more than one person keying up on a PS frequency thinking it was a ham repeater. I'll never forget the time I heard a ham keyup on the local police repeater mistaking it for a ham repeater... "This is VE3ABC listening" then the dispatcher's reply "This is XJF933 answering" The dispatcher (a friend of mine) is a ham. Funny, the ham that was calling didn't answer

BNN123 · Post by **BNN123** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:20 am

Picked up a vxa 300, going to block the transmit, which can be done on the radio..

anyone ever use the vx radio in this area..also seen a write up on the icom 2200h mobile, great review for the aircraft ban portion. sounds like a good radio. which is also a 2m radio

thanks for all your input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hightower · Post by **Hightower** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:00 am

chipjumper wrote:Just buy a scanner; they will receive the AM transmissions just fine. Remember, these radio stations are broadcasting from high above the ground.

If you are dead-set on getting the "real thing", browse eBay. I bought an older model of the Sporty's SP200 for $42 plus shipping. I use it as a backup and to triangulate my position on cross country's. Works awesome and you can't beat the price.

The nice Icom's go for about $100-150 on eBay.

Apparently you have not put a scanner next to a real aircraft tranceiver chipjumper and compaired the diff. Even the BCD396T and BCD996T scanners don't even come close to a Vertex VXA-700 in sensitivity, audio clarity, audio intelligelibity.

A $70 CB has a better AM discriminator section than scanners AM section. Look real close at circuit design AND parts selection in the detector stage back to the last IF filter.

I completely understand why people want to program 800Mhz radios to their local PD's trunked system. Even the best scanners on the market can't come close to a dedicated radio specially made for a specific purpose/band. Don't program a 800 trunked radio, it's illegal...bla.....bla...

Most aircraft HT's can have their TX disabled, so if your really into air monitoring, get a real radio.

chipjumper · Post by **chipjumper** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:43 pm

Interesting; my advice for the poster to purchase a scanner was more aimed toward his or her possible budget constraints and practicality within the budget. Numerous scanners that are capable of the aviation band were going for the $20-50 range compared to the $250-300 unit that the poster apparently purchased.

I used a bearcat scanner for ATIS info to save $$$ on the Hobbs for years without any problems. Sure picked up the the radio traffic just fine with the rubber duck antenna. When I hooked this scanner up to my bud's "christmas tree scanner antenna" sitting inside of his apartment, we could hear USCG boats on the Detroit River and Lake Erie (from about 25 miles away).

So, in reflection to the original poster:

my experience with scanners is that the rx is not as good as a real radio.

My experience with scanners is that the rx was fine.

I will though agree with what you said 100% and that you are a real stickler. I now change my initial recommendation from a scanner to a General Dynamics ATC CM-200 rack-mount transceiver ($7000?).

http://www.gdc4s.com/documents/D-CM200-6-0706.pdf

aircraft radios

aircraft radios

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VXA 300