Hi Scott. You don't "tune in" to your local airport as ground stations are not involved with this device; the equipment receives Mode S transmissions from aircraft, decodes them and plots them on a PC monitor. The result is representative of a basic radar display and it is very effective, especially now that more aircraft are Mode S equipped. Depending on the sighting of your house and the type of antenna you might use, aircraft from considerably further away than your local airport could be seen.