Apologies if its in the wrong section but the Father in Law has asked for a aircraft band radio for Xmas, so he can listen in to the aircraft flying over his house into MANCHESTER. Could you learned chaps recommend a basic easy to use radio that will do the job, and isnt too expensive. Also Am i correct in thinking that, say for example Manchester will have several different frequencies that he could tune into, as in MANCHESTER APPROACH and MANCHESTER TOWER etc etc…THANKS GUYS 🙂
By: AlanR - 18th November 2012 at 10:27
Also a pair of lightweight headphones, for use in public areas.
As not everyone wants to listen.
By: viscount - 18th November 2012 at 00:23
For use at Manchester, I feel a VHF scanner is an absolute must. Being limited to just one frequency misses many interesting tranmissions. As already noted on an earlier post, a scanner does need setting-up initially (some instruction leaflets with receivers I’ve had have been very difficult to follow), however the flexibility of selecting what frequencies to listen to far, far outweigh the frustrations setting up the pre-sets.
VHF Airband transmissions work best when you don’t have hills between where you are listening and the airport transmitters. Depends how distant and the intervening topography as to how useful the gain provided by an external aerial would be. For reception close to the Airport then a flexible ‘rubber’ aerial is far more useful than a telescopic extending one (which is so easily snapped off!).
The aviation bookshop in the AVP at Manchester Airport are usually willing to demonstrate and discuss the merits (and prices) of the various airband and aerial options.
By: atr42 - 17th November 2012 at 23:27
If you can I’d also suggest an externally mouted aerial. Makes a huge difference.
By: Arabella-Cox - 8th November 2012 at 18:48
Air band radios are fairly easy to obtain, and indeed, I modified a transistor radio years ago by simply soldering a capacitor across the tuning capacitor. I daresay it was more by luck than by calculation. What was surprising however, was that aeronautical radio is AM, but I was picking it up with an FM radio, I cannot explain that to this day. It served me for a long time, and I would still have it today if I hadn’t lent it to someone who never gave it back.
VHF frequency bands are allocated as follows :
87.5MHz – 107.95MHz is commercial radio (FM)
108 – 111.95MHz is for ILS Localizer
112.0MHz – 117.95MHz is for VOR
118.0MHz – 136.975MHz is for VHF comms (AM)
The international distress frequency is 121.5 MHz
Military aircraft also use a dedicated UHF-AM band from 220.0–399.95 MHz for air-to-air and air-to-ground, including air traffic control communication. This band has a designated emergency and guard channel of 243.0 MHz
By: Tartan Pics - 6th November 2012 at 16:31
If your father in law is only really using it for MAN, or mainly civil airports a decent easy to use one can be found in your local Maplins there is an airband radio (not a scanner) like an old tranny very easy to use costs about £20
or a scanner (a wee bit harder to operate…at first) the AR 109 at about £60 hardest part is setting it up (inputting frequencies) once thats done they are fairly simple to use.
HTH
By: AlanR - 3rd November 2012 at 10:43
I would go for something which covers UHF as well as VHF. It “may” cost a
touch more, but worth it in the long run. You’ll be able to listen in to the Red
Arrows for example.
Not so much to hear on scanners these days, as a lot of communications have gone digital,
and many military aircraft use “frequency hopping” radios.
By: Flying-A - 3rd November 2012 at 03:26
These websites list the frequencies for Manchester (MAN or EGCC):
http://ivao.aero/db/ss/airport.asp?Id=EGCC
http://www.edendale.co.uk/maip/charts.1.html
As for a radio, you might start by searching Amazon’s UK site under “airband radio”.
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November 2, 2012 at 11:29 pm