The CC Skywave™ has prompted a lot of curiosity on “what might I hear 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 to 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.
The Airband radio frequencies play a critical part for all civilian aviation including every flight you have been on. All flights use radio to be cleared for takeoff, landing and changes during the flight to avoid accidents or conflicts. Conversations can be dry, lively, funny or dramatic. We have one customer using the CC Skywave to monitor the ground to pilot communication at the local air races.
Navigation and air traffic control have changed over time and many areas use additional sophisticated systems to help prevent accidents.
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. His tips on a few basic phrases will really help you understand what is being said. Another great article by Ken is “How Pilots Communicate”
Why we decided to include Airband in our radio… Here is Bob Crane’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
As someone who’s being flying since the 1960’s, I remember the days when peanuts and flat soda was not the food in-flight! Proper metal spoons, forks and napkins for everyone on-board was the norm, not the exception. Food was really good too, even in coach. It’s normal these days to see people bring 3rd-party food from the terminal into the plane to eat…probably too burned-out on peanuts I guess! It’s a sad turn for the industry!
I would never go on a camping trip with out a portable radio it helped me a few times due to weather .
My best travel story is to listen to short wave radio at night, while on deck of a cruise ship, weather is has been on the Inside Passage in Alaska. the Panama Canal or Barge cruising, I have always something new and interesting to listen to.
Best or most interesting: Flew back into NYC metro area during a TS on a high wing turbo-prop. During final, ride became an “E-Ticket. Rather rough. My GF became rather air-sick (which may have helped her not to be scared) and other helped out by passing bags back to us. The flight crew stuck the landing. Not hard, just nailed it. Not a single bounce at all. And then told us that the Airport just closed the runways to all traffic. To this day I still think that they had to have been Carrier landing qualified. Never got the chance to ask them.
I’ve had great radios from CCRANE, also purchased the pocket radio for my wife for Christmas and she loves it, and listens to it every night.
Hope it will work 40 miles from ATL.
I’ve had great radios from CCRANE and also purchased the pocket radio for my wife for Christmas and she loves it and listens to it every night.
I have a scanner in my work truck, and when I am parking near airports I always tune in to air traffic control. I once heard a near collision between a passenger jet and a small cargo plane, they got within 1 mile, and the passenger jet had to make abrupt change of course. I was amazed that this mistake could still be made with all of the navigation aids available.
I wish I had had airband years ago. I was with my wife in Cincinnati, waiting to board our flight and fly to Milwaukee. The weather was bad, thunderstorms had passed through and the sky was still dark and scary. Our flight was delayed, the airport was stuffy and uncomfortable, and the lights were flickering. There were obviously problems, but we never given information. We did eventually board. The plane took off, started to ascend, then made a shark banking turn and landed right back at the airport within a couple of minutes after liftoff. We were told that the flight would leave again after another delay. We decided not to wait,we had had enough. We rented a car and drove to Milwaukee. To this day we don’t know what happened. If we had had airband, we may have known more. I suspect that we would have known that something serious was amiss, we would have rented a car right away and not have had to go through the turmoil.
California at 18. Young love, beautiful women, sun, sand and surf. And great radio.
Riding on vintage motorcycles(in the sidecar) in China was a travel experience that I think will take a lot to be topped for me personally.
I lived in Alaska for 10 years and used VHF on my boat for ship to ship and ship to shore communications.This is an invaluable tool to find out where the fish were biting and for other emergencies.
I have taken many plane trips in my life thanks to my job as a state trooper but the best was my trip to Alaska. The scenery was beautiful and the airline had ARTCC traffic patched into one of the inflight sound system channels. What a great ride listening to the handoffs from the ARTCC regions. There was also a lot of Milcom traffic on the civil aviation channels in the northwest. I have an aircraft discone at eighty feet on my tower but it is nothing compared to 40,000 feet!
My best trip was flying from Portland, OR to Portland, ME! It was my hearts desire to go to Maine and eat Maine Lobster. To my delight, when we got there, the Lobster Festival was happening! My reason to go to New England was because, my ancestor was William Peabody, who married John and Priscilla Alden’s daughter, who had the first white child born in New England! Thanks for letting me share this wonderful trip! (I also have enjoyed the radios I’ve gotten from you!)
Flying from Nome, Alaska to Unakaleet, Alaska aboard a Cessna 206 Caravan during March should be enough? The flight over Norton Sound was uneventful until we were nearing Unakaleet, of course. The snowy whiteout conditions over the airport were similar to driving a car with a sheet of plain paper in front of your eyes. So easy to slip into vertigo because your senses have no reference points except for the flight instruments. After 45 minutes of circles above Unalakeet, I kept lookingfor the fuel gauge on the dashboard, never managed to find it. I asked could we approach from the village side of the airport? At least the pilot would be able to approximate were was ground level. A couple of practice approaches then we were able to safely touchdown. Now it was time to locate the airport terminal entrance. Flying in Alaska during the winter is always an adventure 🙂
When I came back to JFK in New York from Tampa Florida in 2006, my plane arrived about one half hour early, and we had to sit on a runway for a while before they let the plane taxi up to the terminal. As I watched other planes coming and going, I wished I knew more about what was going on at the airport. It would have been great to have this radio with me that day!
travelin to chews ridge in my 1979 bronco & ran into snow on the trail & almost went over the cliff, some of us got out of the vehicle to push it back up the cliff & slowly gave it gas to get back on the road, phwew that was a close one, my mom & dad would have been a little MAD…lol…”O), steve y…..
Found myself in my trailer trailer in the middle of a large flat field during a big thunder strom. Hoping that the wind, rain and lighting to leave the trailer in the same place that it started. I watched the movie ‘A vs P’ with head phones. Best time ever.
I was on the way to a “business” meeting on the island of Montserrat in the Carribean, back in the days when you could actually go there. We had to fly into Antigua from Miami — small airstrip on a very small airplane. Our flight to Montserrat left early the next morning. We got to the airport at 6:00 in the morning (we thought it was 6:00). We weren’t aware that Antigua was not only in a different time zone than Miami, but was also not on daylight savings time. Of course, there we were at the abandoned airport “terminal” two hours before our flight. Dark as could be. No lights in the terminal and no airport employees — they showed up about 10 minutes before the flight touched down to pick us up. We had surmised that we had not accounted for time differences — and boy, as we were waiting did we hope that we had presumed correctly! No Starbucks back then either 😉
In the mid 90’s I had a job of short duration for my company in Toronto, Canada. I would fly out of Cincinnati, OH, early Tuesday AM, work long hours thru Thursday PM of the following week, 10 days with only Sunday off. Be home for 4 days, then fly back to Toronto for 10 days. I kept this schedule for about 4 months until the job was finished. The big enjoyment was my 15th floor hotel room facing the runway. Everynite, with the curtains wide open, I’d watch the airplanes taking off, many times the landing lites shining onto my bed. I have many good memories of Toronto, but my best were of those midnite landing lites shining on my bed. I had 30 years with my company, retiring from them in 2001.
My best international flight was when our three children were all old enough to carry their own luggage and keep themselves entertained on the 12+ hour trip from the US to Asia. Any flight without fussy infants to care for is a good flight 🙂 .
I remember flying to and from Israel, THey really have their acts together. Their security guy came up to me and my wife and started talking—asking questions about who we are and what we do. We told him our Hebrew names. and “schmoozed.” He knew what his job was—and it was to protect his country from muslim terrorists. HE was great. No stripping of clothes, removal of shoes, no removal of belts. I was so proud of him, and felt that the TSA guys in America, had a lot to learn!
Mackinac Island honeymoon.
Got fogged in at O’hare many years ago and actually ended up sleeping on the floor overnight in the terminal. Next day while waiting for fog to lift the band KISS showed up waited with us for a while (they were in normal clothes). Ended up renting a car with several other people I met in the terminal and driving several hours in the fog to Waterloo Iowa. It was a long but interesting weekend. A CC Skywave would have been helpful to monitor what was going on.
I have two stories.
I’ve been flying since I was 5. That was 1962 I flew on a couple of the last commercial prop driven planes at that time.
The first story was when I was about 17. I was flying from Salt Lake to Oakland to work over the summer at my grandfathers business. The plane was on its decent to the Oakland airport when the co-pilot came out of the cockpit and was looking at the wings. On his way he passed two women that had Radiation Warning buttons on their shirts. One was in the aisle set and the other in the center seat. Both on the left side of the plane, about four rows ahead of me.
After the co-pilot went back into the cockpit, the pilot came out a few minutes later and did the same thing. Since I had also flown with my uncle in his private plane from the Hayward airport many times, I deduced that they were looking to see what position the flaps were in. They did this routine twice before we landed.
As the plane landed at the airport, the woman with the Radiation button in the aisle seat jumped up and opened the over head bin. The plane was now in full reverse thruster mode to help slow the plane down.
One of the flight attendants jumped out of her seat and hit that woman like a line backer telling her to put her seatbelt back on and not get up again.
The woman was if full on panic mode and said in a loud voice, “I’ve been badly frightened”
After we departed the plane, I was able to talk to her. She said that when she saw the co-pilot and pilot look out the windows she thought the plane was going to crash. She had not flown very much and I assured her that if that were the case we would have been instructed to take precautionary measures.
The second was just this last Sept. 2015. I was flying from Burbank to Salt Lake on a SkyWest flight.
After we had been in the air for about 15mins, I noticed the plane making a left bank which is not the way to Salt Lake. I mentioned it to my row mate in the seat next to me and said we were going back to the airport. A few minutes later the pilot came over the speakers saying that they were going to do a flyby of the LAX tower to look and see if the landing gear was still down.
It wasn’t, but they couldn’t tell because the light on the instrument cluster never said that the gear had retracted.
We were informed that we would be going to LAX to land and would have to switch planes. A passenger behind me and on the left, got VERY vocal about what was happening and that it didn’t make any difference that we should just keep going to Salt Lake. He obviously didn’t understand. He was so vocal about it that after we departed the plane at LAX he was met by security which took him away I’m guessing for questioning.
My well worn Grundig G3 has been with me during a few of my wife’s classes at college that only took an hour so there was no point in going home and then running out to get her. So i sometimes took my Grundig with me to listen to whatever i could find interesting on airband, shortwave or medium wave.
One morning i was lucky enough to hear a single engine plane flying over the college several times and i got to wondering if they were talking, after what seemed like forever, i eventually caught some chatter in the airband though the radio’s sensitivity in that band is lacking and i was only using the telescopic whip so they came and went as the plane flew near the mountains here in Eastern Ky.
It sounded as if they were looking for someone or something and sure enough another voice joined in, it was a helicopter from the Ky State Police and apparently the two aircraft were looking for someone who had been eluding the law for a few days.
I never heard it they caught the person or not and nothing was said on the local news but it was interesting to hear how they coordinated their search. I hated to leave the spot but my wife and I had things we needed to do after her classes and we were on a tight schedule that day.
My Grundig seems to have an issue with the keypad now and i can only guess it is from being outdoors, in the car and then back into the house. It shines in some areas but the air band is not one of them.
hint hint lol
Thanks for reading
A few years ago, my wife and I were on our way to Florida from Connecticut pulling our travel trailer. Nearing New York City, I accidentally got on an expressway that did not allow travel trailers. The officials there quickly escorted me off the expressway but unfortunately dumped us in the middle of a congested area full of high rise apartment buildings and congested streets. I had no idea of how to get to the Geo. Washington bridge from this spot when I thought that perhaps using my ham radio might help. It sure did! With just one call for help a nearby ham replied and gave us perfect instructions to get out of this fix. We were soon on the bridge and on our way to Florida. (this is not the first time my radio came to my rescue).
I have traveled vicariously with Art Bell to outer space and Coast to Coast with George Noory. My dear Solar Freeplay Plus radio has taken me to faraway places with strange sounding for many years. All the while, I was snuggled up in my cozy bed! I love traveling with my radio!
Love it!
Is Air Band the band that plays a short “they are on instruments” scene in the movie Airplane?
I never travel without a radio. I even enjoy airchecking the local stations in the places I go to. And C Crane makes some fine radios.
THINK IT WAS MARCH 1965 WAS IN US ARMY GUESS BEST TRIP MEMORY EVERY TOOK WAS GOING FROM ABERDEEN PROVING GROUNDS TO FORT KNOX ,KY TRAVELED BY PASSINGER TRAIN TO NEW DUTY STATION AT FORT KNOX . TOOK A DAY AND OVERNITE TRIP THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS OF WEST VIRGINIA ,KY. THEN ARRIVED AT LOUISVILLE,KY. WAS AN EXPERIENCE I REMEMBER. A RADIO WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE BECAUSE BACK THEN YOU DIDNT HAVE THE AIR INTERFERENCE OF RECEIVING THE STATION ALONG THE WAY
Traveled to Garmisch-Partenkirchen a mountain resort town in Bavaria of southern Germany. This was the site of the 1936 winter Olympics that Adolf Hitler presided over. It was very interesting to see this very simple stadium with a very large ski jump. Also traveled up to the top of the AlpspiX mountain, what a great location for an antenna. The scenery is very impressive with mountains in every direction.
I live near a small regional airport and would be very interested in which private jet whines all day while they wait for the CEO or movie star to get there.
I remember camping near the Dayton Hamvention when it was still in April. We had tent campers and froze our tu-tu’s off. Was a great time!
I love CCrane products they have out performed all other radios i have a Twin Coil Ferrite AM Antenna myself and I am always so amazed bye the reception of this wonderful product and I never go anywhere without it .
Hearing the communications between aircraft and the control tower can be quite interesting. The Skywave is a great way to listen to these communications, as well as world band shortwave and AM/FM.
CC Radios are the best value and I take my radio everywhere I travel.
A great place and time to listen to Airband is at the annual Osh Kosh EAA air show… Tons of stuff going on!
We went to west Texas on a trip in the Davis Mountains my father had a C Crane radio close to McDonald’s Observatory in his cabin wow what a reception. We listened to FM from El Paso TX and shortwave from all over it was amazing.
I was flying to Atlanta from Orlando when the pilot announced that we were changing our flight plan due to tornadic activity below. It didn’t help much. The plan was swaying and bouncing like a roller coaster. Several passengers raised their arms as if they were on a roller coaster as I was squeezing the armrail to death. The scariest moment of my life. I expected the plane to crash. We finally get close to Atlanta and they won’t let us land due to tornado warnings at the airport. We circled the Atlanta metro area 5 times till they gave us the ok to land. I was so happy to be on the ground.
I was on this flight where the flight crew got sick from the fish dinner and the doc who looked a lot like Leslie Nielsen, asked me if I’d fly the plane to which I replied,” Surely, you can’t be serious?” Then he said,” I am serious…and don’t call me Shirley!”
My best air travel began in February 1969 when, after a year in Viet Nam, I was waiting and listening for my “Freedom flight” to arrive and take me home to my family. My bride had sent me a tunable analog air traffic portable receiver (high tech for the era) that helped me pass the time, and count down the hours while I was getting “short”.
A WELCOME HOME TO YOU MY VETERAN FRIEND LONG OVER DUE . I WAS IN FROM 1965 -1968 DIDNT SERVE OVER SEAS BUT HAD TWO BRO. IN VIETNAM. THANK YOU FOR YOPUR SERVICE
My best trip and every vacation is to Cape Cod MA. I always bring a small AM/FM/SW radio with me to DX…I remember sitting out on the balcony of the place I was staying…listening to the waves and looking at the starlit skies..and listening to my radio…total bliss.
IN thde 60’s I was in the USAF & was flying back from leavewhen the plane was trying to take off from a stop in Knoxville Tn. when on way to runway from terminal the plane made a noise It turned out we hit a bird with port engine just as it turned from taxtway to runway & had to change planes as engine was damaged
mckarin airport in vegas lost my luggage
Since I worked for the FAA for 30+ years I am acutely aware of what “airband” radio is, and that having been said, I only had one bad flight in all the years that I traveled by air, and that was a flight from Oklahoma to Santa Barbara. If you have ever landed in Santa Barbara, you know that the runway was not overly generous in length. We were in a relatively small airplane, (a Boeing 727), and the pilots were flying in pretty poor weather. They approached the runway and were high and fast, so when they hit the deck it bounced about 25 feet high on the first bounce and then a few more bounces to a fitful stop. I was sort of surprised that the wings didn’t break off, but they seemed to stay on the airplane. It was an experience that I don’t care to repeat. My Father was also an experienced pilot and he fell asleep on approach to Van Nuys Airport and we hit the deck hard, the plane nosed over and the prop struck the runway, (dug a little divot in it), and then we had to be towed off of the runway to our Dad’s great embarrassment! There was a licensed pilot in the right seat, but he didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late to stop it. I think that it was my Dad’s worst experience in an airplane although he also had some pretty hairy experiences while flying for the Civil Air Patrol in Great Falls, MT! He flew search and rescue and also blood missions for them, and it was sometimes very chancy. On one occasion, the Sheriff had to pull all of the cars off of the highway and line them up along the runway in order for Dad to see the runway since it was not lit and they had an emergency blood flight that had to land there. Interesting, and interesting to recall as well.
A few years ago, my wife and I were flying from Moline, IL to Fort Myers, FL in February. It was cold and a little snowy in Moline, but nothing too bad. Bags were checked, we were checked, and a bit later we were called to board. We got on the plane and were all excited, as it was our first flight together. We got settled in our seats, and patiently waited to leave the gate. And waited. And waited. And waited. People on the plane were started to get cranky. The old guy behind us was complaining something about not wanting to deboard us, because they’d have to deboard us all if anyone wanted off; it got old kind of quickly. After some time, the pilot finally came on the PA and told us what was going on. A flight into Minneapolis, MN was having trouble due to worse weather there, and that pilot had fewer flight hours in that kind of weather. So, it was decided that the flight, that was already at Minneapolis, and had made a few attempts, was going to fly south to Moline, and that pilot was going to switch with our pilot. Our pilot would then fly them BACK to Minneapolis (did I mention they were alread there once), and the other, less experienced pilot would be flying us to Florida instead. Really good confidence builder there for us. The new pilot did a great job, though, and was fairly aggressive on takeoff and landing, so I enjoyed the flight. But it definitely would have been nice to have access to the air band on that flight to hear the chatter back and forth about that whole situation.
My best travel story is too long so here’s this one. When I was 8 parents flew to Mex in a 747, BIG deal back in 71. We went early so I could see the 747. Just walked right thru the AP down the ramp all around the inside of the 747. Parents seats were in the first row in First class which oddly didn’t have windows as it was so far forward into the nose!
In the mid-60’s, I served in the Coast Guard. Our mission was to work transatlantic aircraft. We would speak mostly to pilots, but some commercial flights would put on the stewardess to talk with us. They knew we had been out to sea for a while and it was refreshing to hear a female voice. Our favorite comment was when they would offer to drop down a 30,000 ft ladder and climb down and visit us. TWA flight crews were always the most fun to talk to. (remember TWA?)
In the seventies and eighties I travelled around the world, west to east, four times, on round-the-world tickets, with KLM. Houston, LA, Melbourne, Bangkok, Copenhagen, Stavanger, Houston. Those were the hay-days of flying! Today, I don’t care if I ever fly again. The Skywave is a great radio. Have one. Hope to win another one! Thanks for your great products!
The best travel is the effort that holds the least stress and the most fulfillment, so I would prefer a kayaking in offseason New England with glistening paddles and an April birthday face, and to return to a radio at night to find relaxation with the genius of Art Bell, both of which are travels, indeed.