East Lancashire ATC Frequencies

I have had a request for information on frequencies in use in East Lancashire. If you live here you will have no less than 5 different sectors above you! They are as follows: (incidentally 'FL' means flight level eg. FL290 means 29,000ft on the standard altimeter setting of 1013.2 millibars or 29.92 inches of mercury)

The first three sectors are Manchester controlled sectors as follows:

NORTH LOW surface to FL165 Freq: 125.1
NORTH HIGH FL165 to FL195 Freq: 125.95
S29 (or sector 29) FL195 to FL285 Freq: 118.775

Any or all of these may be 'bandboxed' together on any of the frequencies quoted when traffic is light.

The Swanwick controlled sectors above these are as follows:

S3 FL290 - FL330 Freq: 129.1
S4 FL340 and above Freq: 131.05

again these could be bandboxed together depending on traffic levels.
Hope this info is useful, please keep the questions coming, however I am off to the sunshine of Rhodes on Saturday 15th October for 1 week so after Friday I will not be posting next week. Thanks all.

Re; Atmospherics

Dave F. has posted the following comment:
'I have just read your comments on atmospheric conditions last year sometime (one Sunday morning I recall), I experienced the same type of reception from Heathrow, and in fact could hear delivery and ground frequencies in Staffordshire. Well, a strange coincedence, because early this morning (3/10/05)I was receiving the same high clarity reception,but only down to tower frequencies. Could a contributing factor be associated with the QNH ? pretty high today 1031.My radio equipment is Signal R535 ,Yupiteru 7100 , and AR8600 Mk11 for VHF linked to a external discone and dedicated Airband antenna.'

Thanks for the info Dave, have not listened much myself today so haven't experienced todays conditions. Thanks for info on your set up. I wonder how you find the R535 next to the Yupi? personally I find very little difference in their sensitivity. I've never owned an AOR receiver so would be interested to know how this performs alongside your other radios. Please get back to me if you have time.

Air Traffic Where You Live

If any readers are reletively new to airband listening and would like to know what frequencies are in use where you live, hit the comments button and give me an idea of your location and I will provide as much information as I can on the traffic and frequencies in your area.

An Interesting Frequency

One frequency I scan regularly is 313.0Mhz. This is the Wash ATA (Aerial Tactics Area) frequency. It is a Swanwick frequency set aside for aircraft operating in this area only and you can regularly listen in to aircraft such as Lakenheath F15's and Coningsby Typhoons practicing aerial combat.

Just A Note To Say....

I have turned on 'word verification' now, when you want to comment & hit the 'comments' button at the bottom right of any message you can leave your message as normal but you will be asked to enter the letter combination shown in a seperate box. This is to help stop the automated 'spam' messages that I seem to be getting of late, thanks all.

Best 'On Site' Scanner

Hi all, apologies for the delay in replying, I have been a bit busy with work of late. I have been asked by Pete Turner which might be the best 'on site radio' for use at airshows etc.

Well, my favorite at the moment is my little Icom IC-R2, its very robust and truly fits in your pocket. Connect a good earpiece and it's ideal. I know there is now an Icom IC-R5 (which I have owned), but there is very little difference between them (more memories & alpha tagging with the IC-R5). Because the IC-R2 has been superseded, you can get them quite cheap on ebay, I bought mine for about £70 and Im sure it was actually brand new! The only thing I would say is that, because there are very few buttons on these tiny scanners, it can be difficult at first to remember the key combinations needed to enter frequencies into memory etc. and you may find yourself constantly referring back to the manual to start with.

Br warned! the Icoms don't scan nearly as fast as scanners such as the Yupiteru MVT7100. I have measured it at about 10 channels per second (Yupi around 25 channels p/s) but how many frequencies do you scan particularly when your at an airfield anyway? maybe 20 or 30 at the most right? so, It shouldn't be a major problem.

I noted that you would like to listen in on your visits to Donna Nook range Pete, for your info the frequencies I have for Donna Nook are as follows:

Primary Hold: 340.15Mhz

Primary Join: 342.175Mhz

My Airband Listening Set Up

Just thought it worth mentioning my exact set up at home at the moment. I have a Signal R535 which is connected to about 4m of coax cable and that is connected to the antenna from my Yupiteru MVT 7100! (this set up works very well) which is strategically positioned in the corner of my bedroom bay window. It is always worth experimenting with positioning for maximum performance, you'll usually find windows and chimney breasts seem the best place for your scanner or at least the antenna to be positioned. I live just outside Leicester on fairly high ground (city of Leicester is in a bit of a valley) but I get very good results. 6am this morning I was listening to aircraft receiving there final clearance to land at Heathrow on runways 9 left and 9 right. Not bad! Click on 'comments' to share your set up details and any hints and tips you would like to contribute, and thanks for stopping by!

Bruntingthorpe - A Unique Experience

Bruntingthorpe airfield is quite local to myself being an ex USAF base (closed in the 50's). It is home to quite a few ex cold war jets, many maintained in flying condition, although many are not allowed to be flown anymore. About once or twice a year they hold an open day where you can go along and watch aircraft such as the two lightnings and also the likes of a Victor tanker, Buccanneer, Comet and many more carry out full power taxy runs down the 2 mile runway.(the most notable resident aircraft being Vulcan XH558 which is due to return to the air in 2006). It's a unique experience as you can stand right by the runway, much closer than at a conventional airshow. I believe the next open day is going to be August bank holiday Sunday. For more info check out: www.ColdWarJets.co.uk

Very often other aircraft will visit on these open days and there is also sporadic weekend flying activity. Seems a shame it doesn't see much flying activity these days with such a huge runway. The owner, a dedicated enthusiast has put forward plans for a freight airport in the past but to no avail.
By the way, their air/ground frequency is: 122.825.

Air To Air Frequencies

I don't want to go into a list of military air to air frequencies right now as there are hundreds of them. These are generally allocated to individual squadrons, however its always worth checking the following VHF frequencies that are frequently used for civil air to air and they are: 118.0, 122.65 & 123.45. I have heard all of these in use in the last week or so.

Atmospherics & The Civil Airband

Whilst I definitely don't claim to be a radio expert, I do know from experience that atmospheric conditions can drastically increase reception from time to time. These atmospheric effects are most prominent on the short wave bands but can effect the civil VHF airband also. I understand there is some relation to sunspot activity which apparently runs in seven year cycles. Anyway enough of that, if your still reading, thanks for bearing with me! As far as I'm aware the UHF military band never experiences this but I have experienced it on the civil VHF band. The last occasion was probably over a year ago for me. At the time I was able to clearly here the controllers at: Gatwick (126.825) , Brize Norton (various) and Mildenhall tower on 122.55. Pretty amazing from my location in Leicester! I wonder if any of you readers have experienced this also?