Is it legal to listen to air traffic control?

Trotter

Hi all,

Just a quick question. Im living on the final approach to Waterford airport and I'd love to listen in to ATC as the planes are arriving.

Can anyone tell me first of all if this is ok to do, and second of all point me in the direction of a very cheap and cheerful receiver/handset that would let me do that?

If its not legal, apologies, and mods feel free to lock this up or move it to aviation if necessary.

Thanks!

Slippin Jimmy

Trotter wrote:

Hi all,

Just a quick question. Im living on the final approach to Waterford airport and I'd love to listen in to ATC as the planes are arriving.

Can anyone tell me first of all if this is ok to do, and second of all point me in the direction of a very cheap and cheerful receiver/handset that would let me do that?

If its not legal, apologies, and mods feel free to lock this up or move it to aviation if necessary.

Thanks!

To the best of my knowledge it is legal, however listening to the likes of emergency services is illegal. There should be no problem listening to the atc, there are plenty of places on the net that you will be able to get frequencies for it, if not you can just do a quick scan and get them.

I bought my scanner in CQ in Dublin(www.cqcomms.com). I found them to be very helpful and would do business with them again, so thats why im recommending them to you. I bought my scanner a couple of years back and still have it now. You will get a very good one for a little under €200.

Trotter

Duffff-Man wrote:

To the best of my knowledge it is legal, however listening to the likes of emergency services is illegal. There should be no problem listening to the atc, there are plenty of places on the net that you will be able to get frequencies for it, if not you can just do a quick scan and get them.

I bought my scanner in CQ in Dublin(www.cqcomms.com). I found them to be very helpful and would do business with them again, so thats why im recommending them to you. I bought my scanner a couple of years back and still have it now. You will get a very good one for a little under €200.

Excellent.. what would I pay for one thats very simple and lets me just listen to the local ATC? Am I talking €200 ish for a basic one?

RoundyMooney

Listen away Trotter, ATC isn't a problem provided of course that you don't cause interference yourself (which 'aint the case here).

Airband receivers (in some cases little more than extended Band II/FM broadcast band) can be had for small money, but personally I'd up the ante a bit, not only will you get more interesting frequencies to listen on (and possibly progress to a license down the line to interact yourself), but you end up with a better piece of kit, and better performance for your buck.

Over a ton or so should get you to this level, an external antenna will ensure even better performance, if you deem it necessary down the line. Practically all scanners will have this facility anyways.

Be sure to let us know as you investigate further and we can advise you on the pros and cons.

Trotter

RoundyMooney wrote:

Be sure to let us know as you investigate further and we can advise you on the pros and cons.

Well for now I'd like to just get something simple that I can listen to as many different things as possible by switching it on and standing it up on the desk here. If I got further into it, I could do more deeper investigations.

Could anyone recommend a handset that I could buy over the net that would do the trick? Clear reception of ATC and whatever else is floating around?

I'd be surer of your recommendations than wandering around the net looking for something that looks small and neat. I have no knowledge of frequencies or bands etc.. I just want to listen to the planes I can see for starters.

Please send your recommendations my way! The credit card is ready and waiting No pressure!

RoundyMooney

And no comebacks either

I'll do a bit of digging later for you (may be tomorrow) and see what I can come up with.

Trotter

RoundyMooney wrote:

And no comebacks either

I'll do a bit of digging later for you (may be tomorrow) and see what I can come up with.

Excellent stuff. Thanks a lot. Have a relative in the UK having a look for me too.

deRanged

I bought a Maycom Ar-108 scanner on ebay a few weeks ago. it picks up both air and marine transmissions. I was even able to hear some of the Ariss transmissions from the ISS last week - just using the arial supplied with it! I got it for about 90 euro on ebay. Maplin sell them here for about 115 euro.

watty

If you have a 1.6Mhz to 30Mhz SSB receiver you can hear on VHF AM (110 .. 137MHz) which channel on HF they are going to and sometimes here them talking to Gander in Canada. 5Mhz to 6MHz band popular for Marire and Aircraft.

RoundyMooney

An extra €15 or so to Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk) will get you a PSR255.

I'm not sure how it would be performance wise in comparison to the AR-108, but it certainly would have better frequency coverage.

CrowdedHouse

RoundyMooney wrote:

An extra €15 or so to Maplin (www.maplin.co.uk) will get you a PSR255.

I'm not sure how it would be performance wise in comparison to the AR-108, but it certainly would have better frequency coverage.

But that one doesn't have Airband !(according to the specs)




Search ebay etc for a second hand Yupiteru VT 125/225 - excellent but not made any more AFAIK

RoundyMooney

Oops! Misread the spec there.

watty

Orbitron from www.stoff.pl to know when ISS and satellites are whizzing past. A discone can be fine.

cast_iron

I'm not overly convinced about those discones. Performance wise, I'm sure they are fine, but build wise, they are very flimsy.

All is good and well until a big lump of a crow starts landing and taking off every hour. Especially aftyer a year or 2 of weathering.

Trotter

watty wrote:

Orbitron from www.stoff.pl to know when ISS and satellites are whizzing past.

The link seems to be broken!

<link fixx0red in quote-Roundy>

watty

Fixed. He is Sebastian Stoff, not Steff. My Bad.

watty

cast_iron wrote:

I'm not overly convinced about those discones. Performance wise, I'm sure they are fine, but build wise, they are very flimsy.

All is good and well until a big lump of a crow starts landing and taking off every hour. Especially aftyer a year or 2 of weathering.

The one I have from Maplin is fine. On the Chimney complete with large ominous black birds. Nice heavy rods.

For satellite / ISS (i.e. Weather satellie 137MHz), it's an advantage that the performance is rather poor, i.e. almost omni-directional. A higher gain aerial only works for one band and also needs two motors to track the ISS or satellite in Real time.

If you live somewhere with a corrosive atmosphere, rinse the assembled aerial with weak salt water and leave outside for a few days (so to get a good protective oxide film on the Aluminium, then dry and varnish with Yacht or other exterior varnish to protect.

Trotter

Thanks for the suggestions so far! Im after a walkie talkie size thing.. if she who must be obeyed saw me heading for the roof with an arial, I'd be taken down like an escaped prisoner.

RoundyMooney

They're funny that way, wimmens

deRanged's scanner seems to be a good bet.

watty

handheld with Rubber duck: 10 Miles
Same handheld with roof aerial: 120Miles

The aerial looks smaller when it is on the roof...


The big aerial in the middle on Gable end is 4.5m long 13 element for 144MHz, on rotator. I'm adding a vertical polarised 10 Element VHF, 2 x 18 element 430MHz and 1 x 1.2Ghz yagi to that, lower just above rotator, and a modified sat motor (broken controller) to tilt the main horizonatl 13 Ele yagi for Moon Bounce. A Small B&W video camera on th aerial boom will allow pointing at moon.
The 25Mhz to 1500MHz discone on pole on chimney to left of it is hardly visible.

End fed 66ft long wire goes about 10ft to 15ft above ground from near right edge of house to front gate. For 160m to 10m TX/RX up to 100W.

The guyed pole is nearly 40ft. It has a dual band Watson 300, for 145Mhz & 435MHz bands. 5W on it works the Limerick to Mt Lienster 70cm repeater. Also does Seefin and Limerick 70cm repeaters.

On VHF with 5W, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Helvick Head (Dungarvan) Repeaters.

The roof of the "Radio Shack" just visible above the wall.

Barely visible is UHF TV aerial and Metro Broadband "aerial" just at corner of Radio Shack roof on the Gable end. Just above top of back door height.

Behind the viewpoint is 60ft/70ft row of beech trees, The Metro and TV aerials see UNDER the trees for LOS of Woodcock Hill Mast.

You can see my 3 sat dishes to extreme right. One has 3 x TV sat on Quattro LNBS to distribution system + 2way Internet, 2nd has motor (1.1m) and 3rd feeds dual o/p C-Band LNB into distribution system.

There is also a 144mHz packet Node and 5/8th aerial (made of copper waterpipes) in the attic, but it's not running right now.

The faint cross near dishes / right pole is actually an HF trapped vertical 10m to 80m (the cross is a capacity top hat), not actually mounted, but lying against the shed wall.

The long wire is supported by the big rightmost pole, but only starts near radio shack, for ease of feed/tuning and to get correct length.

watty

I recommend adding aerials / dishes one at a time after asking neighbours and gradually over the months and years increasing height of masts / number of dishes etc.. After 5 years I don't think you can be made to remove any...

IRISH RAIL

What you want is a bearcat, look at the buy and sell or e bay dont pay more than 150 euro brand new. you will have no probs getting atc with it if your in a car id reccomend a magmount aswell check out gary o hanlon in south east comms hes in waterford and is one of the best value retailers as well as longs in donegal. id keep out of dublin for buying stuff as you wont have any money to get home !!!

watty

Gary is often a lot Cheaper than Longs though.

Trotter

I ordered this one from Maplin yesterday lads.. thanks for your help!

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=N04AA&DOY=16m8

OKenora

On a side note......true story

A m8 was on HF one day on a non-ham band or near it (bold i know).
He called CQ on the frequency and immediately got a reply asking him to leave the frequency it was in use.
He replied "no you qsy, I was here first"
to which they replied "this is ATC (somewhere) we suggest you qsy, and quickly"

IRISH RAIL

Trotter
Never used one before but im sure you wont be disapointed plenty in waterford between 160 and 180 to keep you going when the planes arent flying around
do a search on google for irish freqs and you will come up with quite a few things

Trotter

Well this little baby arrived today.

Can someone give me the crash course here.. Im guessing the airport is Airband right? I've been scanning that all evening and only picked up a couple of taxis so far. Im guessing that when I do hear something involving a plane.. I write down the channel and store it. Is that correct??

VHF then I havent really used yet. I tried it for a few mins but heard nothin. I had visions of it being like an aircraft carrier bridge in my little office here.. nothin of the sort lol

Just wondering.. Can this radio scan airband and vhf at the same time or do I need to choose which to listen in to?

watty

110MHz to 137MHz AM for airband

Weather Satellited (137..138Mhz) FM

Taxies etc FM.

144MHz ..145 MHz any mode Amateurs, CW, SSB, WSJT (moonbounce), FM packet / FM APRS approx 144.600 .. 144.850
145MHz .. 146MHz Mostly FM. 145.800..145.990 is Satellite / ISS

Trotter

watty wrote:

110MHz to 137MHz AM for airband

Weather Satellited (137..138Mhz) FM

Taxies etc FM.

144MHz ..145 MHz any mode Amateurs, CW, SSB, WSJT (moonbounce), FM packet / FM APRS approx 144.600 .. 144.850
145MHz .. 146MHz Mostly FM. 145.800..145.990 is Satellite / ISS

Great.. I'll keep playing around with it and see what I can find. I started by scanning the whole range and seeing what turned up.. and writing down the frequencies as people talked. If they're used regularly, I've saved them.

Is that the way to go? Sorry for the newbieness..

RoundyMooney

Ask away Trotter. As far as I'm concerned, even the most elementary of questions can throw up some interesting discussion or fire up some long forgotten thought process-in my noggin anyway

Trotter

Well not that I would EVER listen to the Gardaí by accident.. but If I WAS to do that.. I'd be bloody shocked to hear scummers on the net taking the p!ss out of them and roaring abuse by radioing into the HQ of the radio net!!!!! Amazing that its possible to do that in this day and age.

Emphasis on the would be.. never happened for real....

Apart from that hypothetical realisation.. nothing to report from me today. I'll be in touch should something interesting pop up.