Looking for something simple and cheap (very) for a beginner?

Luco Zademann

Hi, just wondering, would something like this let me listen into aircraft, emergency services etc. Totally confused Aircraft are often flying overhead near here. It's a "baofeng radio station BF-888s 5W 16CH UHF 400-470MHz portable radio Two-Way Radio", just looking for something cheap. Just looking for something fun and cheap and don't know what exactly I need? It's certainly cheap but would it pick up anything? What exactly could that do? Thanks.

martinedwards

air band you say......

124.7...Shannon.
131.15...Ryanair.
135.6....Shannon
Belfast City Tower 122.8250
Belfast City Approach 130.8500
Belfast City ATIS 136.6250
Belfast City Emergency 455.5000

Belfast International Tower 118.3000
Belfast International Approach 128.5000
Belfast International ATIS 128.2000
118.6000 Dublin Tower
118.7000 Shannon Tower
119.0750 Shannon Control

121.5000 Air Distress

122.1000 Sligo Tower
122.5000 Galway Tower

123.4500 Air-Air Common (Pilot chat)

130.7000 Connacht Tower
Cork:
119.3000 Tower
119.9000 Approach
121.8500 Ground

Dublin:
118.6 Tower
119.925 Approach
121.1000 Approach
124.6500 South Sector
129.1750 North Sector
136.15 Radar

Shannon Low:
124.7000 Low Level
118.7000 Tower
121.4000 Approach

Baldonnel
122 Approach
123.5 Tower

Other Irish Airports:
129.8500 Waterford Tower
123.3250 Kerry Tower
122.5000 Galway Tower
130.7000 Knock Tower
122.1000 Sligo Tower
129.8000 Donegal Tower
123.6250 Derry Approach
128.5000 Aldergrove Approach
130.8500 Belfast City Approach
122.8250 Belfast City Tower

Shannon High Level:
119.0750 Oceanic Clearance
122.9750 North OTA
125.8750 North OTA
127.5000 Cork Sector
131.1500 Cork Sector
132.1500 Mayo Sector
134.2750 Shannon Sector
134.6250 OTA
135.2250 OTA
135.6000 OTA
135.7250 High Level
136.2500 OTA
120.0050 High Level
127.1300 High Level

Shanwick
120.3500 Glasgow Outbound
123.9500 Planes West of 30W
124.1750 VHF Backup
127.6500 Planes East of 30W
127.9000 VHF Backup

London:
124.6000 FIS East
124.7500 FIS West
126.0750 Berry Head
126.78 North Sea South
126.8750 North Standby
127.1 Daventry Northbound
127.43 London Upper East
127.7000 West Standby
127.825 Hurn/Wothing Standby
127.88 Daventry Northbound
129.2000 Daventry Southbound
129.3750 Bristol/Strumble
129.425 Hurn West
131.1250 Daventry Southbound
132.1300 Lakes North
132.45 Dover High
132.8400 Upper West
132.8600 Lakes South
132.9500 Lands End
133.6000 Bristol/Brecon
134.7500 Bristol
135.2550 Bristol/Brecon Upper
135.425 London Upper West Standby
135.5400 Berry Head Upper
135.5800 Wirral North

Manchester:
118.7750 Trent
119.525 Area Radar
125.95 North Upper Sector
128.0500 Wallasey
133.0500 Isle Of Man
133.8000 East
134.4250 STAFA

Scottish:
123.7750 Antrim Low
124.8250 Galloway West
125.6750 Rathlin East
126.3000 Talla
126.9250 Montrose
127.2750 West Coast
129.1000 Rathlin West
132.7250 Central
135.5250 Dean Cross South
135.8500 Dean Cross North

Brest:
124.675 High Level
129.5 High Level
132.025 High Level
132.51 High Level
132.765 High Level
133.615 High Level

Company Ops:
129.7 Company Ops
130.6000 Servisair
131.4500 Servisair
131.5000 Aer Lingus
131.5500 Ryanair
131.6250 Aer Arann
131.8000 BA Ops
131.875 Company Ops
131.9000 BA Ops

Miliitary:
127.45 Swanwick Northwest Initial Contact Frequency
128.7 Swanwick West Initial Contact Frequency
133.9 Swanwick Primary
135.15 Swanwick Southwest Initial Contact Frequency
135.075 East ATC Primary
142.775 Valley
251.25 Scottish ATC East/South
252.875 Swanwick Central Initial Contact Frequency
264.8 Aldergrove Military Ops
277.625 Swanwick Northwest Initial Contact Frequency
278.6 Swanwick Southwest Initial Contact Frequency
280.35 Swanwick West Initial Contact Frequency
296.7 Valley
339.875 Valley

Other:
121.5000 Emergency
123.4500 Pilot Chat
128.55 Parachutes

N.Ireland is 131.825 mhz.

so a radio that covers 400-470MHz aint gonna get ANY of those!!

you can get receivers on ebay for under a tenner that'll allow you to monitor those frequencies, but I don't know how encrypted they are......

RadioRetro

A two-way is no good as you need a cheap airband receiver. Or a general receiver with a wide spread of frequencies including the airband (108 to 137 MHz). I've bought both handhelds and base stations second hand for little money by browsing through Adverts.ie (affiliated to this site). I got a nice Yupiteru handheld for €40 from there.

watty

The two way VHF or UHF or VHF/UHF need a licence and not as good for general listening as a dedicated receiver.

Quaderno

I think the cheapest (by far!) way to receive radio signals nowadays would be through SDR. You can pick up an SDR USB dongle like this one for less than €10 and using a free software like SDR# you get access to the full vhf/uhf spectrum and more.

watty

Those have terrible dynamic range and no input tuning. Only 8 bit ADC. You need 12 to 16 bits for ADC, RF tuning on input and AGC/RF gain control.

Great fun for experimenting though (I have similar).

Needs quite reasonable power Linux or Windows Laptop/PC.

You need an outdoor aerial really. A discone is a good start.

Quaderno

watty wrote: »

Those have terrible dynamic range and no input tuning. Only 8 bit ADC. You need 12 to 16 bits for ADC, RF tuning on input and AGC/RF gain control.

Are they really that bad? I never actually tried myself, but I keep reading good things about them and actually considered buying one a while ago.
I am still amazed by how much it changed the whole experience to have a visual representation of the band conditions, especially on the shortwave ham bands. But then I've only ever seen that on HRD with my IC-7200 hooked up to the notebook (at probably 100x the price...). I wouldn't expect anything like that from a stick like the one in the link, but then you must keep in mind that they cost next to nothing and even a few strong signals from a nearby repeater or airport would probably be enough for any interested beginner to catch the radio bug

watty

Yes, they are.
It's designed for TV. 6, 7 or 8MHz channels on bands with most of the signals at same level. Because the ADC is "exposed" they added software to do FM Radio and DAB.
But other than local FM & DAB stations (150Kz bandwidth and 1.7MHz) it's poor as there is no tuned RF Amp, no pre ADC gain control and only 8 bits, so about 26dB range at the most optimistic. Even the FM is poor compared to a €10 analogue set. But it's less than €8, though needs a relatively decent computer.

The designed coverage is 42MHz to 862MHz approx, but some can tune 28MHz to 1400MHz approx, well outside design parameters.

Fantastic introduction to basic ideas of SDR without building anything.

You can improve it hugely with decent band pass ( a low pass followed by high pass), RF tuner per band, preamp and attenuator. Make each band about 1.8:1 ratio
so approximately
28 to 51
49 to 88
87 to 156
153 to 275
270 to 480
475 to 865
860 to 1540


Use a 35 MHz low pass and 50MHz crystal on an SA612 to have 30KHz to 30MHz on the 49 to 88 MHz band as 50.03 to 80MHz

So for HF:
RF Tuner, variable attenuator, RF preamp, 35Mhz low pass, SA612 ic with 50MHz crystal, [50MHz high pass, 90MHz low pass, 49 to 88MHz tuner ] USB stick.

If it's a stick that's poor below 50MHz add a converter for 25MHz to 50MHz band.

You can add converters down to 470 to 860MHz band for higher bands such as 1.3 to 1.7, 2.2 to 2.6,
An old MMDS will convert 2.3 to 2.7 down suitably as it converts 2.5 to 2.6 to Band III and will receive about 2.3 to 2.7 ... Some use 12V on cable and others 18V I think.

martinsvi

Luco Zademann wrote: »

Hi, just wondering, would something like this let me listen into aircraft, emergency services etc. Totally confused Aircraft are often flying overhead near here. It's a "baofeng radio station BF-888s 5W 16CH UHF 400-470MHz portable radio Two-Way Radio", just looking for something cheap. Just looking for something fun and cheap and don't know what exactly I need? It's certainly cheap but would it pick up anything? What exactly could that do? Thanks.

1) Aircraft and ATC communicate in VHF AM, this Baofeng, doesn't do either (it's UHF FM)
2) most emergency services now use TETRA, you wont be able to pick it up by any device currently available