© Frankljunior | Dreamstime.com – Air Traffic Control Tower And An Airplane Photo
This has become a popular question with our CC Skywave™.
According to Wikipedia, Airband, also referred to as Aircraft or Aviation band, is a group of frequencies in the VHF radio spectrum that are allocated to civil aviation radio communications. VHF is a short range, line of site transmission. Our radio covers 118 – 137MHz for Airband. In most countries a license is required to operate airband equipment but that appears to apply only to transceivers, not receivers. In some countries it is illegal to listen to or monitor the Airband without authorization (even in the UK).
The language that is used to communicate on this band can be a challenge to follow. Ken Hoke’s article on Stuff Pilots Say, gives some great insight into the meaning of the seemingly cryptic language used on Airband.
The primary purpose of Air traffic control worldwide is to prevent collisions, organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and provide information and other support for pilots. It was difficult to find any “history” of airband but it appears that it was first used extensively after World War I and after 1921 at Croydon airport in London. Navigation and air traffic control have changed over time and many areas use higher frequencies and RADAR and other more sophisticated systems. The Airband radio frequencies still continue to play a part though, especially in ground communication with pilots. It is used almost exclusively in small airports that don’t have control towers. We have one customer who plans to use the CC Skywave for monitoring the ground to pilot communication at the local air races.
As to why we decided to include Airband in our radio? Here is Bob’s answer:
“When you are in a big airport you are sometimes subject to the whims of security and circumstance. TSA does a great job but when the process gets a little tense I yearn for more information. I want to know everything that will affect my tiny domain. When you listen to aviation band you can usually figure out more by reading between the lines on what pilots and the control tower are talking about. Sometimes you gain a sense of power and wisdom as you do with any knowledge.”
For more information on what you might hear or how to listen, visit the links below.
http://radio-scanner-guide.com/radioscannerguidepart3c-civilaircraft.htm
http://www.wikihow.com/Listen-to-Your-Local-Air-Traffic-Control
Tell us your best airline story in the comments below.
Back in the Sixties, we trained Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) Pilots in the USA. This was heard at Keesler AFB:[VNAF Pilot is Blue 1]. Keesler RAPCON, request U Do Approach. [Keesler RAPCON] Blue 1, say again? [Blue 1] I can’t see coast line; you say “turn right”, “descend”, YOU DO APPROACH!! Happy ending; he successfully landed his craft.
I like to figure out what tower the planes are speaking to. I live equi-distant from Kennedy, Atlantic City and Newark, so I never hear the tower. I live close, but not close enough, to Maguire AFB. Only the planes all around.
We fly our little RV9A several times a week from our local ATC controlled airport. ATC enhances the safety of everyone coming and going by clear communication of their instructions and we likewise respond and acknowledge their instructions with clear communications. That way there are fewer surprises and we can safely come and go from our airport. Listening to ATC on a small aircraft band radio helps us become safer pilots.
Used to Fly regularly for work from 1999 to 2009. Flying primarily in/out of Bradley International (BDL) Between business trips, I loved to get back to Cleveland (CLE) to see my folks as often as possible and flew on Continental Embraer regional jets mostly. Bradley Int. (Windsor Locks, CT) used to always get some severe crosswinds over their runways. I really enjoyed numerous sideways approaches/landings those days!
On a flight into ORD, I was listening to the cockpit radio on the plane’s headphone system. During the approach the pilot was instructed to descend to 2,500. Pilot acknowledged and continued approach. Moments later,
ATC: What’s your altitude?
Pilot: 2,500
ATC: I don’t know who told you to go to 2,500, maybe it was me. Go to 3,500 NOW.
The plane shot up like a roller coaster ride. Everyone in the plane took a deep breath. It’s always nice knowing what’s going to happen on the plane.
There’s a story of a man who had trouble hearing and thougt that he heard the flight for Oakland was leaving from gate 5.
The departure was for Auckland. When he got off the plane, he was in New Zealand!!
During the time when airplane hijacking was happening we we on our way to dinner in San Diego. We passed the SD airport and saw a crowd in the park across the street from the taxiway. A plane was pulled out to the edge of the airport. We sat in the park listening to all the activities of the skyjacking on scanner radios.
thanks.They threw my shoes on the floor to see if they would explode ( I guess) the arch supports came loose….
In the spring of 1966 I was waiting at the old Willow Run airport in Ypsilanti, MI for a flight back to college in Ohio. The flights were usually on DC-3 planes, my favorites because you really felt that the plane was working hard to get you in the air. While waiting I spied a favorite high school teacher. We talked. He had just been to Annapolis, MD to inspect a sailing school operation. A group was planning to open a similar school in my home town. Would I like a summer job? That turned into 4 years of summer jobs, but better still, it made me a sailor. I’ve always been grateful for that chance meeting. Sailing has enriched my life in uncounted ways.
Chris Campbell
McCaren airport in Las Vegas…I could gamble right there and it sure was the best way to fill all the waiting time in an airport…LOL…
I remember flying to Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcaster’s convention and the entire cabin full of
passengers erupting into applause upon landing. I’d never heard of airline passengers applauding upon landing. Perhaps it’s a tradition with Las Vegas flights.
Two launches and three traps as a passenger in a C2 Greyhound off USS Coral Sea. Also got to help push Hueys overboard from USS Hancock during the evacuation of Saigon. One launch in a Gruman S2F without cats from USS Kearsarge. They call this a “spinout” from behind the island. F4 Phantoms used to take off regularly from the waist cat right over my office on Coral Sea.
as an rcaf pilot instructor flying beech 18s in the 60s, we were able to fly on training weekends to calgary to allow my student to visit with his family.on saturdays we would go skiing in banff, party that night, and return to portage on sunday. we almost had our own airline !!!!! after bob died accidentally, about five years later his wife and i are now partners. ahhh- life, love, and flying.
Too many flights to count thanks to the US Army [yes, we flew civilian airlines as well as Air Force]. I consider any flight I walk away from a good flight so all my flights have been good. ;}
Alway curious like to know why aircraft are flying over my house, not around my house, and the weather info, is always now and correct.
Long before 911… (1980’s) my family was seeing my sister-in-law and her husband off to a short missions trip to Africa. Even though we were not passengers for this flight, my 12yr old son was invited by the piliot to inspect the plane’s exterior (ie. wheels, flaps, etc.). It was very special AND something most 12yr olds today will NEVER experience.
I,m not a frequent flyer but my best airline experience is that sweet sound of the plane wheels touching down on the runway at your destination. I always feel a sigh of relief!
When I worked for an Airline in Baltimore, I witnessed a hijacking of an Eastern Airlines jet. Everyone got off the plane except the stewardess. An FBI agent had to go out tot he plane in his boxer’s and get on board so that the hijacker would release the stewardess. Which he did, and the FBI agent also got his man. Weather conditions, cold and snow on the ground.Good guys 1 Bad guys 0
Arriving NRT on fumes.
Awoke on a 747-100 from SFO to announcement that only packaged beverages would be available.
On the in fright entertainment audio aircraft communication channel heard a fuel emergency declared.
Fastest approach ever!
I have several good air travel stories. Probably my favorite funny one is when a colleague of mine and I were on a connecting flight into Butte, Montana for business. My friend was on the aisle and I was by the window. Shortly after we were airborne, my friend said “look at that turkey in front of us”. I quickly asked him to be quiet since I thought he was referring to Evel Kneivel (whose home is Butte) who I had seen boarding and was being fussed over by the flight attendants. My friend laughed and said no not him, look in the seat next to him. When I did I saw this huge stuffed turkey in its own seat. I’ve seen other passengers who I thought were turkeys, just not literally.
Favorite airport story is when my son and I got expedited through security in a LA airport. Great time saver. Sometimes being a senior citizen AIN’T so bad!
Unfortunately my most vivid aviation memory was from July 1990, I was going to school at the Univeristy of Buffalo and went to watch an air show from the shore of Lake Erie. A couple planes had pulled a maneuver where they went up, appeared to stall and, headed for the water before coming back to life, recovering in the nick of time … unfortunately the next plane to do this never recovered – it crashed nose first into the Niagara River near it’s mouth at Lake Erie. The pilot died on impact – his name was Giff Foley – he was 43 at the time and was flying a WWII era AT-6.
I have to get one of these………………….
The new radio is a great idea!! Need to purchase one!!
It’s been over 45-years since my parents brought me home on a jet to the U.S. after being born overseas. I can still recall siting on my mother’s lap, and wondering what those weird looking, diagonally cut and stacked sandwiches were all about that some woman in a colorful outfit was bringing to us. And the clouds out the window. I remember staring at the clouds. To this day, I have never ridden in an aircraft since–but I discovered the fascination of their radio communications many years ago. Radio in general is my #1 source of entertainment, and has been since I was a small boy. And I don’t imagine that that will ever change.
I see airport with his ways, radars and lights from my window. Often early in the morning heavy fog fully cover Vilnius airport. You cannot see anything. You can only hear airplane engines and feel vibration in the air. It would by nice to hear air traffic control voice early in the morning in the fog.
THE STORY FOR AIRCRAFT STARTED WITH THE CAR RADIO.
THE CAR RADIO HISTORY
One evening, in 1929, two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset.
It was a romantic night to be sure, but one of the women observed that it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car. Lear and Wavering liked the idea. Both men had tinkered with radios (Lear served as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy during World War I) and it wasn’t long before they were taking apart a home radio and trying to get it to work in a car.
But it wasn’t easy: automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electricalequipment that generate noisy static interference, making it nearly impossible to listen to the radio when the engine was running.
One by one, Lear and Wavering identified and eliminated each source of electrical interference. When they finally got their radio to work, they took it to a radio convention in Chicago.
There they met Paul Galvin, owner of Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. He made a product called a “battery eliminator”, a device that allowed battery powered radios to run on household AC current.
But as more homes were wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers made AC-powered radios.
Galvin needed a new product to manufacture. When he met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention, he found it. He believed that mass-produced, affordable car radios had the potential to become a huge business.
Lear and Wavering set up shop in Galvin’sfactory, and when they perfected their first radio, they installed it in his Studebaker.
Then Galvin went to a local banker to apply for a loan. Thinking it might sweeten the deal, he had his men install a radio in the banker’s Packard.
Good idea, but it didn’t work – Half an hour after the installation, the banker’s Packard caught on fire. (They didn’t get the loan.)
Galvin didn’t give up. He drove his Studebaker nearly 800 miles to Atlantic City to show off the radio at the 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention.
Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that passing conventioneers could hear it.
That idea worked — He got enough orders to put the radio into production.
WHAT’S IN A NAME
That first production model was called the 5T71.
Galvin decided he needed to come up with something a little catchier.
In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix “ola” for their names – Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola were three of the biggest.
Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola.
But even with the name change, he radio still had problems: When Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression. (By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.)
In 1930, it took two men several days to put in a car radio — The dashboard had to be taken apart so that the receiver and a single speaker could be installed, and the ceiling had to be cut open to install the antenna.
These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery. So holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them.
The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions. Selling complicated car radios that cost 20 percent of the price of a brand-new car wouldn’t have been easy in the best of times, let alone during the Great Depression.
Galvin lost money in 1930 and struggled for a couple of years after that. But things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola’s pre-installed at the factory.
In 1934 they got another boost when Galvin struck a deal with B.F. Goodrich tire company to sell and install them in its chain of tire stores.
By then the price of the radio, with installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running. (The name of the company would be officially changed from Galvin Manufacturing to “Motorola” in 1947.)
In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios.
In 1936, the same year that it introduced push-button tuning, it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts.
In 1940 he developed the first handheld two-way radio – The Handy-Talkie –
for the U. S. Army.
A lot of the communications technologies that we take for granted today were born in Motorola labs in the years that followed World War II.
In 1947 they came out with the first television for under $200.
In 1956 the company introduced the world’s first pager; in 1969 came the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon.
In 1973 it invented the world’s first handheld cellular phone.
Today Motorola is one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in the world.
And it all started with the car radio.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO
the two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin’s car?
Elmer Wavering and William Lear, ended up taking very different paths in life.
Wavering stayed with Motorola. In the 1950’s he helped change the automobile experience again when he developed the first automotive alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and, eventually, air-conditioning.
Lear also continued inventing. He holds more than 150 patents. Remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented that.
But what he’s really famous for are his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot, designed the first fully automatic aircraft landing system, and in 1963 introduced his most famous invention of all, the Lear Jet, the world’s first mass-produced, affordable business jet.
(Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.)
AND It all started with a woman’s suggestion!
Southwest Dia
Favorite airport: ABQ. Terrific views and food…and Santa Fe is only an hour away.
Once when on a flight the PA system was stuck on and everybody heard the pilot humming showtunes
Flying on a DC-8 from Phoenix to Chicago, we descended through some pretty nasty thunderstorms on approach. It felt like being inside of a washing machine strapped to a roller coaster. I was just a kid, and this was only my second flight. I’m scared to death. I remember my dad mimicing the Captain’s voice, “This is your Captian speaking, I’m afraid we’ve lost our right wing and we’ll be crashing now. Thank you for flying with so-and-so Airlines. Cracked me up.
A true nightmare, my wife and I were flying to Maui sometime around 2004, the in flight movie was “from Justin to Kelly” Does not get much worse than that!
It was 1978 and TWA still existed with their packaged Getaway Tours; so five of us spent a suburb 7 days in London, UK with travel, hotel, gratuities, two theater shows and two day excursions included for only $500.00 WOWZER WOWZER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Amature radio buddy was also an airline pilot. I was listening on my air band radio and talking on 2 meters. I heard his voice and told my friend I hear Jim flying over and I see his airplane. our voices momentarily broke through the aircraft radio, the other pilot asked. what was that? He replied “Tom and Ike in Lake Geneva”. He never did explain to the other pilot how he knew.
I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall, England. My wife qualified us for emergency leave to return to Atlanta, GA. The bus stopped in front of a big green camaouflaged painted jet and the only thing my wife asked was, “We going to get on that thing?” We boarded that big green “thing” and as soon as we took off we were informed that we would be taking a slight detour departing England and become part of a local air show. We were informed we would be dropping down low, going very slow, tilt the front up, wave the wings at the crowd, then we would be going full throttle and as straight up as fast as we could. We were given brown paper bags, “Just in case!!”. The nylon strap seats were very similar to those in the old black and white movies and we were alittle nervous but things went ok and we made it back across the pond and hour quicker than the commercial flights would have. My wife enjoyed the box lunch.and my son and I enjoyed a long tour of the cockpit.
The return trip was not without incidence either. Our son acquired an ear infection and the military doctor at Charleston AFB would not allow him to fly. A hurricane was approching from the south and 4:45 am the phone in our room in base billeting was ringing. We were informed that a base taxi would be waiting us in 15 minutes to take us back to the air terminal. They were evacuating the planes. We boarded another cargo plane and around half way across the ocean we were informed that we would not be landing at our home base as planned. We landed instead at Terrehome, Spain around midnight. We spent the rest of the night in the terminal and kept watching the boards for the morning flights out. Mildnehall – England was posted departing 2pm and a 1 hour flight time. Shortly after the posting I was paged to the flight desk and informed that since I was on emergency leave and had to depart on the next flight out. I pleaded to just wait for the short hop flight home later that afternoon but was politely denied. We boarded a plane with the seats in backwards (facing the rear of the plane). We landed at Aviano, Italy and waited the next flight in the passengers terminal which consisted of a 20 foot square chain-linked fence, a picnic table, and a coke machine. The next flight took us to Frankfurt, Germany. Later we boarded another flight to Mildenhall, England. Many sleepless hours and 5 countries from the phone call at Charleston we were glad to be home.
As bad as it may seem, the planes with the strap seats along each wall were the best flights we ever had. We salute the men and women serving our military.
On my way to the St. Louis tornado aftermath flying into Texas, the weather got uglier and uglier, with cells forming around us as we flew. Made it to Dallas and spent the night as then all flight were cancelled as one cell after another passed through, a foretaste of going to Joplin, following St Louis, in the coming week. Nothing built by the hand of Man is stronger than the wrath, and patience, of Nature.
Since I was a child I fell in love for the aircraft my first experience to fligh in was espectacular especially when the plane takes off , I love it fills really good , that I wanted to became a flight attendant but it did not worked out for me because I was short and in that time the requirement was taller .Iberia was my first plane landing in Spain
When I was a boy, pre 1970 we used to go to the Philadelphia Airport to watch the airplanes take off and land. There was even an area on the roof for spectators to watch the planes. Can’t even imagine what it would take to do that now.
My best listening was when my son, who was too young to get a learner’s permit to drive a car, made his first solo flight around the airport. I was able to listen in to the tower and to him. He had practiced with his instructor on Runway 028 and was all set to go, so his instructor got out of the plane, and my son was ready to take off, but was stopped by an commercial airplane reporting smoke in the cockpit, that was instructed to land on a runway that crossed 028. After that plane landed and was moved to a safe area, the wind shifted, and the active runway moved from the one my son had practiced on to Runway 004. The tower understood that this was his first solo landing, so talked him along the entire route around the airport and congratulated him on the landing. I was very glad to have brought a receiver with me that day.
I remember as a child watching in awe how the airport worked…… now i just wonder ahhh? how does this work?
Is it just me or have the seats gotten smaller in the last 40 some years since my first flight? Any way I still enjoy the flights and my wife hates them. The only thing worse for her is staying home.
My most delightful airport experience was actually leaving LaGuardia for Cleveland OH on time very close to Christmas in 2006. I was supposed to meet my sons at the Cleveland airport, but warned them repeadtedly that I would surely be late due to holiday traffic. I flew in and out of LaGuardia every week for several months in 2006, and this was one of the few on-time departures.
best airline…….Virgin America, they have never let me down……joeKennedy….there the ccrane of quality flying.
Used to work for a travel agency, learned a lot of airport codes and seating of the planes. can be an interesting industry at times. Have not listened to aircraft bands in a while, maybe if I win the radio.
I have always liked flying Southwest Airlines. Before 911, the flight crews and captains used to do fun things like rap, sing, or act out safety instructions and use much humor and jokes. 911 took the fun out of flying;(
A number of years ago, while flying out of Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I was listening to the onboard audio from the flight deck.We were flying on a United Airlines “Heavy” in bound to Dulles. We had just got off the ground and were climbing toward our cruising altitude when I heard our pilot exclaim “Holy cow, that was close!”. Apparently we had had one of the classic “near misses” with another aircraft. For the rest of that specific trip I elected to switch to a music channel! ha ha
Listening in to the airband aviation band is sure to provide the listener with interesting (and at time very serious) information. Here’s my brief description of a very tragic day …
I flew out of Columbus, Ohio the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, en route to West Palm Beach, Florida, on Delta. Departed just after 9:00 AM. We heard of the twin towers attacks shortly after they occurred, and were instructed to remain seated and calm. The flight attendants were definitely shaken and watched all passengers closely. After the Presidential order had been given to ground all domestic flights we soon landed in Atlanta. Sat on the tarmac for about an hour, talking with the pilots of our flight. Eventually we were led off the plane (with no baggage) and into the airport. WOW – the terminal and airport looked like a movie set – with armed soldiers guarding every corner and thousands of panic-stricken passengers filled with questions and confusion…
After many, many, many hours I eventually made it home safely. And I am thankful to be alive.
On some air bases the Air Force is on one side of the field and civilian aircraft use the other side of the field, with the control tower in the middle. One day the tower received a call from an aircraft asking, “What time is it?”
The tower responded, “Who is calling?”
The aircraft replied, “What difference does it make?”
The tower replied, “It makes a lot of difference. If you’re an American Airlines flight, it is 3 o’clock. If you’re an Air Force plane, it is 1500 hours. If you’re a Navy aircraft, it is 6 bells. If you’re a Marine Corps aircraft, the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3. But if you’re an Army aircraft, it’s Thursday afternoon and 120 minutes to “Happy Hour!!!”
Made radio contact with a airbus going from Nevada to Canada at 30.000 feet with my ham radio. I’m in Minnesota.
About 15 years ago, I was returning from Phoenix. Visited my mom for Christmas. At sky harbor, someone ran through the security scanner. The had set it off and sprinted. They couldn’t find him, loaded our plane and we took off for Detroit. Had a horrible flight, literally kissed the ground when we landed and have never flown since.