VHF

[DoNotTurnBack]

G'day

I need some expert advise as I'm not so sure what I need.

Basically I want to be able to recieve airband VHF in my car!


What stuff do I need to get myself??


And lastly would I expect good reception??


Cheers

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

If you will be using good quality equipment in the open, away from built up towns, you might have some success. However, if you use one of the cheap "scanners" in built up areas you will probably experience a great deal of interference from various transmitters - pagers, emergency services, local FM stations, etc. Airband is pretty well "line of sight" so you may not hear ground stations. Make sure you have a good antenna, properly earthed to the car to reduce electrical interference..

I am not aware of any dedicated mobile airband equipment here in the UK, apart from expensive aeronautical equipment and other professional gear. Some amateur radio equipment covers the airband but, like scanners, it is something of a compromise situation and far from ideal. Maybe dedicated gear is available in Oz?

Over here it is illegal to listen to the airband so it would be worth checking your own government regulations to avoid aggro with the law!

[coldair]

Probably one of the most usefull items is a good antenna / ariel.
You should be able to buy a reasonable magnetic mount (mag mount) feirly cheaply. Obviously ensure that the coax connector will fit your radio.
You can buy dedicated magmounts for the airband frequency ie. the correct length of the whip but in practice for casual listning a cheap ham radio mag mount for the two meter band (145 MHz) quarter wave length will do ok unless you are very serious about your hobby.
Search around the ham & aviation stores some radios will actually fit into your vehicle and will recieve broadcast as well as aviation bands.
Also condider buying a little converter ( as used with MP3 players etc ) you plug this into the earphone socket of your scanner and it re-broadcasts the signal into the VHF broadcast band, at VERY low power so you can hear the RT via your vehicle's loud speakers.

Good luck, have fun :)

[aflyer100]

Disclaimer: you should check on the legality of listening in your country. Here in the US it is no problem, different story in the UK. Not sure elsewhere.

Many scanners will work, the performance varies greatly. One thing that I don't think was mentioned before is to be careful about both the frequency range supported by the receiver as well as the mode. Most scanners are market to allow the monitoring of amateur radio, emergency services, race car teams, etc These are just about always narrow band FM these days.

Aviation voice is one of the few things still on the air that is AM. It would be easy to find a wide-range scanner that includes the aviation band but is FM only. That won't do you any good, you need an AM scanner or receiver.

I am aware that ICOM (a Japanese communications equipment manufacturer) makes a number of programmable receivers and transceivers that are nicknamed "DC to daylight" because they cover such a large range of frequencies. These can receive narrow and wide band FM and AM. Unless licensed, you probably want to stay away from a transceiver (transmitting would be illegal, possesion probably varies from country to country) but I believe they have receive only/scanner models.

A second similar manufacturer Yeasu offers similar equipment. So do many other people but I have experience with these two (I own an ICOM and no, I don't work for either company). You might want to use your favorite search engine and check out those company sites.

For mobile use, antennas for these frequencies are no problem. A 20 inch peice of wire will do pretty nicely. If you want to mount a professional looking antenna, I'd look at the 2 meter amateur antennas. They are almost the ideal length (You would want to adjust them at the long end of their length adjustment since the airbands are lower frequency than the 2 M band). These are usually inexpensive and easy to find. While mobile air band antennas are made, they are usually harder to find and, like anything aviation, more expensive.

My last thought is about location. With VHF it matters a lot. VHF is "line of sight" it does not bend well and follow the curve of the earth. This means you will only hear the ground stations if you are very close. In many cases you will only hear the airplanes. This can be fustrating if you are trying to figure out what is happening and don't live near the airport. Not much can be done about this. Of course with a car mounted unit, you can drive to the airport vicinity and listen.

Good luck. :ok:

[DoNotTurnBack]

thanx for all the feedback. atleast i now know where to start.

with regards to the legality, in australia its perfectly fine to listen to atc.

I wonder why your not allowed to do this in the uk???


Anyways thanx again on the feedback it was just what i was looking for!



Cheers
DNTB

[minstermineman]

I always thought it was illegal to record, but not illegal to listen in the UK ?

[frostbite]

It is illegal to listen to any transmission on a band for which you don't hold a licence in the UK. (except general broadcast and amateur bands)

Having said that, I don't think anyone bothers unless you either broadcast it loudly enough for others to hear, or pass on information you've overheard.

[raffele]

re listening to air traffic transmissions in the UK:

http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/206063-listening-uk-atc-communications-law.html