Listen to ATC courtesy of Virgin FM!

[Bluebeard2]

Hello all

I'm a PPL who has the pleasure of waking up to Virgin Radio here in North London with a free extra - I can intermittently hear ATC! I can't quite catch the name of the ground station but I can frequently hear aircraft call signs, flight levels and headings quite clearly.

I've never noticed this before anywhere else, and in fact its only been happening for the last 6 months or so. Is this a frequent occurrence, and how does it happen? I can't believe there's an ATSU on 105.8...:eek:

Cheers

[Bev Bevan]

It may well be whats called an "IF image" on your radio. add 21.4 to 105.8 and there may well be an ATC unit using that frequency (127.2 or very close to it if my maths is correct!).

To try and put it simply.. basically in the conversion process from radio wave to sound, an "intermediate frequency" of 10.7Mhz is commonly used in radio recievers and the image frequency is suppressed by several thousand times.. but occasionally there may be breakthrough if a transmitter on the image frequency is very close by and the signal from it strong enough.

There was a similar problem at times in the Bournemouth area and Radio One (98.2 +21.7 = Bournemouth Radar), and I would often hear aircraft breaking through on R1 frequency.
The Bournemouth radar frequency has moved now, but I dont know if that was a reason behind it.

[Bluebeard2]

Ta for that Bev (good to see a fellow ELO fan...or maybe the real deal?:) ).

I don't suppose anyone knows who uses 127.2? I've done a search on a Google and had a quick flick through my Pooleys but have had no luck.

[Buster the Bear]

127.1 is a high level sector roughly from Brookmans Park/Hemel to Nottingham, they come right over, or to the east of my bear palace.

[Bev Bevan]

No.. not the real Bev Bevan!!

Ah - 127.1.. given the selectivity (i.e the ability to reject, or otherwise, adjacent signals frequency-wise) of most radios.. 127.1 would do it!

[A Very Civil Pilot]

Lucky you.

When I try and get Radio 4 v. early in the morning 93.2 is being over ridden by a pirate gangsta-rap station from the local estate:)

[Departures Beckham]

Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have claimed they have heard ATC while listening to regular radio on their Nokia phones.

It is also possible to listen to the Stansted ATIS (127.175) on Virgin Radio's frequency (105.8) on certain parts of the airport.

[Bev Bevan]

Becks..

Yep.. classic example.. see my first post on this subject assuming you havn't already.

[Not Long Now]

When living in Laleham in the early nineties frequently used to get breakthrough from LL air on Virgin. Still do very occasionally now relocated further west.

[parkfell]

Probably it all comes under the heading of harmonics.

1/4 : 1/2 wavelength etc - I think !!:confused: