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

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!

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

Cheers
Garrie

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?

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.

I have a maycom ar108
and brought this aerial
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...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

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!

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.

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.

There are also free live ATC streams on the internet: live ATC net

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

But not from the UK . . . ;)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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:

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.