Airband Scanners

[Banny_42]

I'm a student PPL, and I'm looking for a reliable, reasonable quality, good receive sensitivity, good audio quality, and good range airband radio scanner. Needs to be light, portable, battery operated, usual standard features like frequency lock, auto scan, etc. Would be nice to be able to pick up FM radio as well. Don't want to pay too much (£80 max) because this is only really to get me through my PPL. Does anyone have any recommendations?

[maxdrypower]

Yeh mate spend your 80 quid on another lesson , you really dont need a scanner , I assume its to listen in to atc exchanges? More ofetn than not you can only pick up direcctor/approach atis etc's anyway not much use to you really youll confuse yourself. If your at a nice small friendly airfield you would do just as well sitting in the tower for a while and listening in to whats goes on . Your PPL flying training will be more than enough to help you with the radio , and youve got the RT exam too, if all else fails try ebay

[magpienja]

Got mine on e/bay for less than £20.00 its an old tandy/realistic model very sensitive, I find it very useful.

Nick.

[BroomstickPilot]

Banny 42,

I, like you, once bought a scanner as a tool for learning radio speak. It cost me £70 and was the worst purchase I ever made.

First of all, I found the owner's handbook had been written by a techie for techies, so it was useless to me.

Secondly, I found that you needed, either a permanent aerial going up to first floor level (which I could not have as I live in a ground floor flat) or you had to take the scanner to some high place for it to pick up anything even from local airfields.

Spend your money on a decent R/T course, you'll find it very much more effective and far better value for money.

Broomstick.

[Shunter]

Some "interesting" responses there. I bought a scanner when I was learning. It was a cheap Maycom (you can get them on eBay for about £50). I equipped it with a 12" whip antenna from Maplin (£10) and sat it on the window sill in my kitchen.

I live 10 miles from the airport, and definitely not line of sight, yet I can receive Tower/Approach/ATIS and the vast majority of ground comms. I found it easy to use, and just having it sat there burbling away in the background for a couple of months I found quite useful.

I would certainly agree with the RT course however. The 2-day course I went on was probably the best money I spent during the whole PPL learning experience. I finished it with my RT written and practical complete, and my standard of RT 1000% better.

[BroomstickPilot]

Mine was an ICOM IC-R2.

Crap!

Broomstick

[Slopey]

I've got a little Maycom AR-108 (about £60-70), and aside from being handy at airshows, it's very handy to get the ATIS before a 20 min drive to the airport to find out the wind has just picked up :) It's also handy for when sitting around the club on a less than perfect day waiting for the weather to clear/wind to die down - at least you get to hear what's going on.

[sternone]

I have bought the Icom IC-A24 with the VOR function.. it's not that special but does the trick, i rather have a descent tool that i can use for some years while flying.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I've got a Sony Air 7 which is fine for listening in to what's going on locally (OK I can only hear the aircraft's side of the conversation unless I go upstairs and turn the squelch off, but no big deal).

But I mostly use it for listening to Radio 4. Oh, and it was nowhere near your price point, but electronics are vastly cheaper now than they were then.

[sternone]

:uhoh::uhoh::uhoh::uhoh:

[sheesh123]

I am currently studying for my RT exam and i think its useful to listen to the radio from the ground. I have a low budget (£70) and i found the maycom ar-108 airband receiver which looks quite good. anyone have this reciever and how good is it?

[L-Band]

The Maycom is a good scanner. But takes a bit of learning how to program it.

L:ok:

[Founder]

I use that one as well and it works well,... but the range is very limited... about 10-15 km at maximum for tower. Aircraft on the ground is about 5 km with a minimum of obstacles.

[777fly]

Sheesh123, I have a surplus scanner which I purchased a few years ago and have never used. It is mains or battery operated and scans 29-54Mhz, 108-174Mhz and 380-512Mhz. It is not a hand-held but is intended to sit on a table. It measures about 8" x 6" x 2" deep. I can't remember what it cost me, but you can have it for £30.

[sheesh123]

Is there any way of increasing the range?

[muffin]

The range is almost nothing to do with the radio but everything to do with line of sight. If you are on a hill you will hear loads - if in a valley only airborne stations. The only way of increasing the range at home is to put an outside aerial on a chimney.

[PTR 175]

As Muffin states VHF is a LOS comms system, if you ignore the earth hugging bit at certain freqs.

What you can do with a scanner, is to get an antenna that covers your main band of interest.

I have an ICOM R5. The standard antenna is a rather weedy affair. It has to cover the range of the unit which is from Medium wave i.e. in the upper KHz band up to about 1200 MHz.

Because I listen mainly to V/UHF freqs I bought an antenna that is tuned to that frequency band. Cost about £20. It improved my listening no end. Still need a good LOS though. It will improve the S/N ratio.

[Charley B]

I have a yupiteru hand held scanner which does give good reception,a maycom 108 which we also take to LGW to use when by the end of the runway,it still gives quite good reception here 30 miles away, but the best scanner I have is a Signal corpn one-it is home based, has a dipole aerial attached to it on our chimney-we are very high up and it picks up loads of freqs and it can get the LHR approach sometimes both sides of the transmissions,and the LGW tower--if you see one on ebay that is in good nick buy one-it is an elderly scanner but fab-saw one go recently for 275.00!
Good Luck

[SQUAWKIDENT]

I have a Yupiteru MVT-7100 - best scanner I have ever used (for airband).
Available from eBay. Not made any more unfortunately. Fantastic reception on VHF airband. I use it to pick up the latest Met from London Volmet before I go aviating. At other time it is tuned to the "comedy channel" on 124.6
If you want to increase range - move to the top of a tower block or buy a base station antenna and mount it on a mast on your roof:)

[muffin]

The Signal 528 is the best airband scanner that was ever produced - not been made for about 15 years now unfortunately. The Japanese firm that made them were airband specialists and when wideband micro controlled scanners became available, nobody wanted airband only ones and the market dried up. They still command a premium price on the second hand market.

[FlyerFoto]

I agree about the Maycom - not the easiest one to set-up, but a fgreat price and the 'Dual Watch' facility is really useful.

As a photographer I certainly find it useful to keep a check on what's happening - just use lithium batteries with it (NOT alkaline!) and they'll last ages

[Charley B]

Thanks for the tip about the batteries for the Maycom--will get some of those now as it has been eating batteries quite well lately!

[Garrie]

Hi all,

Sorry to bump an old thread but Maplin currently have the Maycom AR108 at 39.99 till the 22nd of this month, thought it was a good deal :)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=32156&doy=16m1&ma=Airband%20Scanner#overview

Cheers
Garrie

[take-off]

hi guys , just quick question, live in blackpool and up into a couple of weeks ago not had trouble picking up overflying aircraft, have/has their been a changed of frequiences, been scouring ebay looking for new scanner a few for sayign frequencies gone digiital . ??? any ideas?

[magpienja]

No not gone digital you must have a prob, dont remember reading anything re-freq change at blackpool, should be 119.950am bpl app.


Nick.

[davidatter708]

I have a maycom ar108
and brought this aerial
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&ModuleNo=29616&doy=20m1

and have never had a problem the original aerial that comes with the maycom is too small but this one is great and works very well

David

[Whopity]

Unfortunately by listening to RT and then copying it, you are more likely to pick up all the bad habits that prevail. It can be of use listening to what people actually say, and learning to interpret it, but you need to know what they should be saying in the first place.
Everyone copies poor RT, very few copy correct RT!

[llanfairpg]

Using an air band radio together with a copy of CAP 413 and reviewing the mistakes of others is very useful but talking into a recorder and reviewing your own mistakes is even better.

[BackPacker]

I have a scanner which isn't handhelp. In my room can hear Dublin Airport + airplanes no problem. Can only hear some of Westo planes. But in My attic Theres a skylight, where you can see weston... Is there a way of putting the aerial up there and runing it through a cable or something for the 20m to my room/??

If your scanner has a "BNC" connector (that's the type which requires about a quarter twist before they slide off) then you can buy a decent antenna and put it in the attic or on the roof.

You can also make them yourself quite easily. Find some RG-58 coaxial cable with a BNC connector at one end. Ask around: RG-58 coaxial cable used to be used for "thin ethernet", the main LAN standard half a dozen years ago, so computer shops or companies with a half-decent IT staff might have miles of the stuff lying about, if they didn't throw it out.

One end goes into your scanner. The other end you need to create a "dipole" antenna with. A dipole is simply a bit of metal sticking straight up, and another bit sticking straight down. Household electricity wire will do, or a clothes hanger, or something. One bit is connected to the outer mantle, the other to the inner core. I don't think it matters which is connected to which as long as you don't short circuit the core with the mantle. If you fancy fiddling, you can even pry the core wire out of the mantle at the appropriate spot and stick it up, while letting the mantle hang down.

What does matter a lot is the length of the bits of wire. For best reception, each wire needs to be a 1/4 of the wavelength of the frequency in the middle of the frequency band you want to listen to. For VHF COM, that means approximately 60 cm each.

From some experimentation I have found that the exact location of the antenna doesn't matter so much, as long as it is not surrounded by reinforced concrete. But if you have a proper dipole, tuned more or less to the frequencies you want to listen to, it makes a lot of difference compared to the tiny whip antenna that most handhelds come with. But at the end of the day, VHF signals are more or less line-of-sight so if you can see an airport from the skylight, chances are that reception in your room 20 meters away will be just as good.

[Asrian]

There are also free live ATC streams on the internet: live ATC net (http://www.liveatc.net)

[liam548]

I bought a new AOR8000 and discone antenna many years ago cost me £349 for the scanner and £59 for the antenna..

[vintage ATCO]

There are also free live ATC streams on the internet: live ATC net (http://www.liveatc.net/)

But not from the UK . . . ;)

[SkyToddler]

Please dont bite me for asking this but, are airband receivers allowed on commercial aircraft?

[llanfairpg]

Not switched on, on most UK airlines that I know of.

[IO540]

I wouldn't waste money on a receiver to learn radio for the PPL.

The great majority of people you hear on the radio don't know how to use a radio and some of the stuff one hears makes one wonder who the hell taught these people.

The way radio is taught in the PPL (mostly during flying, which for a novice is hard enough) is hard due to pilot workload, but after a while it clicks.

[magpienja]

I found it useful using a scanner at home and with the help of CAP413 lets you see what a poor job some pilots make of it,

Learn by mistakes as they say.

Nick.

[SkyToddler]

Not switched on, on most UK airlines that I know of.

Ta, i thought that but just wanted to confirm, anyone know why?

[liam548]

no idea. They dont transmit anything ive used mine a few times and followed the flight right along..

[PPRuNe Radar]

no idea. They dont transmit anything ive used mine a few times and followed the flight right along..

Presumably when permitted by the airline for inflight use, and outside UK territorial waters .... :ok:

[BEagle]

Any superhet radio receiver will have a local oscillator running a few MHz way from the tuned frequency. This will most assuredly cause interference to navigation receivers operating on similar frequencies to the local oscillator.

You must NOT use ANY radio receiver on board an aircraft unless it is part of the aircraft's equipment schedule.

[ex jump pilot]

Is it worth using a receiver to help "learn" pilot speak?
I got hold of an airband radio whilst I was obtaining my PPL. I felt it was useful to hear the chatter on the radio. OK - most of it was airline as I lived in West London but I sorted out an external aerial (antenna to some) that meant I could hear the ground stations.

After a while, I felt quite comfortable with the radio as I had heard enough of it to know the phrases used. Talking to a recorder would have helped in the sense of being forced to speak the necessary words.

It takes time for some people to gain confidence with the radio. Possibly realising that, for most PPL flying, it's the pilot who is in charge - not the person on the ground operating the radio. We don't need to "ask permission" to change frequency when talking to "Estuary" Radio or Information. We tell them. OK, Information does have the final say on the ground in the long term but we are in charge of the aircraft and have a big say in what happens when things to get difficult (such as engine failure only to be told that "sorry but you'll have to give me lots of facts whilst you are trying to land the 'plane" - yes, it really happens and I heard it when a Tiger Moth was plonking itself down in a nearby field after the engine stopped).

So do spend a few GB pounds on a radio after having established that you can hear aircraft where you live (a basement flat in a big town really won't be any good...).

PS - someone asked about using an airband radio in flight. I've lifted this from the BA web site...
"Electronic games, iPods, iPaqs, small radios, tape and disc players, miniature television receivers, GPS receivers and similar entertainment equipment have negligible effect on aircraft systems and may be used during flight, but must be switched off during take-off, approach and landing."
Hope that reassures the questioner.

[beatnik]

I tried using a scanner on a long haul flight recently from Heathrow. It worked fine landside and even airside whilst waiting to board - I was flicking between ground, approach and tower. However on the aircraft itself - I could get nothing. Don't know if the aircraft is shielded or if the shape of the fuselage requires that you need an external aerial (as aircraft have)

Perhaps someone can shed some light for me?

[Keef]

Don't know if the aircraft is shielded or if the shape of the fuselage requires that you need an external aerial (as aircraft have)

Perhaps someone can shed some light for me?
Yes.

The aircraft fuselage is effectively a "Faraday cage" (see Google for more detail) that prevents radio signals from passing. The windows leak a bit of RF through, so holding your radio up against a window will allow some reception.

But as said above, the local oscillator in your receiver may interfere with the aircraft equipment. Or it may not, but I wouldn't risk it.

[mark sicknote]

I bought a Vertex Standard Pilot VI (VXA-220) Transceiver from pilot mall. It was 115 quid plus shipping.


Now I KNOW its a transceiver but for the extra 30 quid why not?

Its waterproof and has great sound. I figured it would double up as an emergency radio in case of coms failure...but previous threads lead me to believe otherwise.

I am happy with it regardless.

Best,

Sicknote:ok:

[FullyFlapped]

This is a tip for preserving the condition of seat buttons in light aircraft.

I didn't read this thread the first time around, so my advice is probably too late for the OP. However, for what it's worth ...

If you're going to buy a scanner en route to a PPL, why not save/spend a bit more and get a transceiver instead ? Make sure it's one that you can jack your headset into via an adapter, and then make sure you take them with you on every flight.

Then, when you experience a complete electrical failure in flight, at least you can then continue to talk to someone on the ground. Despite all the other problems you may still have (flaps, Dunlops, nav etc) this can help prevent your nether regions trying to remove those seat buttons ! :eek:;)

Just remember to keep the battery charged ... ! :ok:

[liam548]

where can these be purchased from though? surely not anyone can simply go and by an actual transceiver? Do you have to already own a PPL?

[BRL]

Liam, you can buy one right now if you like.........

http://www.transair.co.uk/icom_transceivers.asp?SID=1&Category_ID=1936

[Keef]

Agree absolutely with the "buy a transceiver" advice. It may save your life some day. Otherwise, you may find yourself selling your scanner and buying a transceiver in a year or so.

Ideally, you need the "old model" Icom, which appears from time to time in "for sale" ads. There are serious problems with headset adapters with the later Icom models - Icom know about the problem, but either don't care or don't know how to fix it. (Unless there's new news in the last couple of months).

You absolutely do need a headset adapter - you'll never hear what's being said otherwise, if the engine's running.

Some transceivers are "legal" for use in aircraft, and some aren't. There's mostly no difference in performance - only in whether or not the manufacturer paid to have them approved by the CAA. For normal use (eg in a homebuilt or a microlight), you'll want to be legal. If it's only ever going to transmit in an emergency, it's up to you. Better in court for using an unapproved radio, than at the bottom of the sea.

[eharding]

Some transceivers are "legal" for use in aircraft, and some aren't.


As it so happens, I had just dug out the radio licence for the Yak in preparation for the documents all present and correct exercise to enable the CAA to tell us it is still built like a brick exterior convenience.

It states on the front;

"The license also authorises the use of Aeronautical VHF hand portable radio equipment operating in the frequency band 118 to 137 for use on the above named aircraft"

No mention of 'CAA approved'....I just need to be able to carry it by hand.

There is a lot of small print below that though.

[Keef]

I'm not an expert "quoter of the ANO etc" (there are a few of those around). I'm pretty sure you're not "allowed" to use any radio equipment that isn't CAA approved while airborne over the UK. Maybe that's EASA-approved or JAA-approved now, I dunno. My Icom is approved anyway, so that's not an issue.

Many years ago, I asked the CAA for permission to use my amateur radio equipment in the aircraft, outside controlled airspace and inside the UK etc. They were very positive, and explained that all I would need to do would be to submit the necessary forms, samples of the equipment, etc plus the requisite fee for approval of the equipment. They sent me the precise wording of the regulations at the time - it was very clear indeed. I just didn't feel like investing something like £15k (then) in the exercise.

[liam548]

im surprised that anyone can just go buy a two way airband radio, i wouldnt want just anyone being able to transmit on important frequencies.


Wonder when airband will go digital like the emergency services and global rather than the old FM VHF and HF... mind you thats a whole new topic.

Liam

[HeathrowAirport]

Hi all,

Sorry to bump an old thread but Maplin currently have the Maycom AR108 at 39.99 till the 22nd of this month, thought it was a good deal :)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...anner#overview (http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=32156&doy=16m1&ma=Airband%20Scanner#overview)

Cheers
Garrie

It's also on sale again in Maplin and i am looking to buy it.

I live 15 miles from EGLL and 5.5 from CITY and 11 from biggin and 23 from gatwick. What can i pick up with the Maycom AR108?

Regards,

Robbie


P.s: Any tuts on making a quality aerial for it that can be placed in my House or outside?

[DenhamPPL]

I really would not recommend the Maycom AR108.

I used to own one a few years ago and sold it on ebay recently.

The audio quality and level is very poor and the sensitivity of the receiver is pretty rubbish.

I also bought a Yupiteru MVT-7100 from ebay and it is superb for airband using just the standard BNC telescopic antenna.

From what you say Robbie it sounds as though you live either in or v near to central London in which case you would need a quality receiver to pick up all the airfield ATC that you mention.

I live in Chelsea and can pick up ATC at Heathrow, Gatwick and City quite easily. I couldn't hear them on the AR108.

If you have an ebay account it really is worth searching on there for either a Yupiteru scanner or you can possibly pick up a really cheap (£5-£10) AR108 (if you really have to!).

DenhamPPL

PS: It wouldn't be worth making an external antenna for the Maycom. The sensitivity and selectivity is poor and any external antenna would most likely overload the receiver.

[HeathrowAirport]

Hey Thanks.

My mum won't let me buy something of Ebay.

So i am stuck with Maplin or any other London Store that sells scanners for cheap.

What Aerial can i get for that Scanner to make it better than what you said it was?

Regards,

Robbie

P.s Is this one good?
Product: Bearcat UBC-30XLT
200 channel air, marine and public service scanner with FM broadcast receiver

The compact new scanner from Bearcat that covers the popular air, marine and VHF public service frequencies – and includes FM broadcast as well!

Featuring 200 memory channels and selectable 8.33kHz memory steps, the UBC30XLT gives you everything you need for listening in to the action whether you’re on the coast, at an airport or miles from anywhere. With Uniden Bearcat’s legendary ease of use, the UBC30XLT is perfect whether you are a beginner or an advanced user.

Price: £59.95 (€78.18) Including VAT at 17.5%
Ex-VAT Price: £51.02 (€66.54)

[jammydonut]

Buy the best transceiver you can afford - when you get your PPL/RT you can use it for emergency back up.