C141 Starlifter vs C17!

Thanks to one of our readers who pointed out my 'deliberate' mistake regarding a c141 starlifter which of course in now retired! Actually the aircraft I saw was longer than the C17 so I have to assume it was probably a C5 Galaxy rather than a C17. Most often, they are actually C17's but I believe there are still C5's in service.

Latest Air Traffic Report

It was a lovely clear but cold day yesterday and this allowed me to do a bit of spotting for military traffic crossing the north/south civil corridor over Leicester. A USAF C141 Starlifter at FL340 flew eastbound towards Marham then 'NAVPI' earlier in the morning (to the south of Leicester). Later, 3 Typhoons at FL360, one after the other came across westbound out of Coningsby no doubt heading for Wales to go low level training. All aircraft were working 'Central sector' on 252.875Mhz. That's all for now, Mark.

New Post Regarding The UBC3500XLT

A reader has submitted the following:

'I have just bought a ubc3500xlt but I'm having trouble picking any signals up.Do i need to attatch a different aerial than the one supplied? I live in the Wirral and I can get John Lennon airport air traffic controll but thats about it.Do you have any recomened frequencies for my area?'

I do find the telescopic aerial supplied with the UBC3500XLT very good but of course it all depends on your location etc. with regard to radio reception.

With regard to frequencies, you are directly under sector 29 operated by Manchester (FL195 to FL285) frequency: 118.775.

Above this are:

sector 7 (london FL285 to FL335) frequency: 135.580
sector 4 (london FL335 to FL660) frequency: 132.860

hope this helps, Mark.

Vulcan XH558 Flies Again!

Vulcan XH558 was airborne again just after midday from Bruntingthorpe (about 10 miles from me). I didn't see or hear her but my brother caught site of it in the Bruntingthorpe area. I cannot wait to see this great delta in the skies again. Did any of you readers see her? please let us know, thanks. Mark.

C-17 Aircraft Spotted!

Its a beautiful, almost completely clear morning (thursday 4th October) I am up and about at 7am watching southbound departures climbing out of East Midlands to the west of me (working WELIN on 130.925 then handed off to COWLY on 133.075) and I spot a military crosser just south of Leicester heading East on this occasion. A quick look with the binoculars confirms the unmistakable shape of a C-17 (possibly heading for Amsterdam??).
I immediately tune the scanner to CENTRAL SECTOR MILITARY on 252.875.
Surely enough after a few minutes he is given a new squawk ready for handoff to Eastern military, he is routing to 'NAVPI' - a reporting point some 57nm east of Norwich at the edge of UK airspace. After a few minutes he is handed to eastern military 277.775. I have seen these overflights just south of Leicester on a number of occasions, anybody with any further info on their departure and destination points please do let us know more about these overflights. Thanks all, Mark.

Interesting Aircraft Sighting!

Yesterday I spotted an Antonov AN2 biplane in formation with a Yak trainer overflying Leicester on a westerly heading. Anybody else see this formation on the 4th September and have any info on destination and departure points? I couldn't pick them up on the scanner but then they were in 'no mans land' in terms of airspace.

Newquay Airport St Mawgan

Neil has asked the following question:

'Hi, I've recently rediscovered my Yupiteru VT25II scanner and thought about taking it on holiday with me. We'll be very close to Newquay Airport (St Mawgan).Is there anywhere online that can tell me what the local frequencies are? I've tried to find something but don't appear to be googling with the right words.'

Neil - the only frequency I can find on the UK Aeronautical Info Service website is 128.425Mhz for approach control. Anybody else able to shed further light here?

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Uniden UBC3500XLT Question....

Ken has sent the following question in:

'I have just bought a Uniden 3500XLT with serial lead and software. The problem is in connecting to the PC - I don't have a serial port on my PC, so, on advice from Nevada, I went to Maplin and bought a USB Serial converter and installed it. However on installing the ARC3500 software and connecting the scanner nothing I do helps the PC recognize that the scanner is attached. Would you have any ideas or could you point me to a source for help.

The other think I am trying to get my head around is programming the scanner but I guess that will come in time though I have seen it written that it is easier to do from the PC which is why I wanted to get that going.

Any help very much appreciated.

Thanks

-ken'


I'm afraid I have no experience in connecting my UBC3500XLT to the computer so can any other readers help?

Off To Corfu On Monday!!

I'm flying to the sun for a much needed two-week break on Monday so I won't be posting for a while. Please feel free to continue to comment and on my return I will add your post to the main column here. Thanks all, Mark.

A Question From 'ErnieB' On The Uniden UBC3500XLT

ErnieB has posted the following:

Hi Mark
I have just got myself a Uniden 3500XLT and I like very much the close call but find it very hard to come to grips with inputting Freqs on my old radio. I just put in 124.0 and saved it then then all the rest for EMA and saved it to band 1 then the same for BHX into band 2 and so on. but I don't seem to be able to this with the new radio any help PleaseErnieB

Hi ErnieB - the UBC3500XLT is the best scanner I have come across in years, but it does work in a completely different way to most scanners you will be familiar with. Please send me an email to : mg170466@hotmail.co.uk from an address I can reply to, and I will be happy to get in touch by phone if necessary and 'talk you' through it.

Cheers, Mark


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New Info On The Kinetic SBS-1

Thanks to Matt Harvey for the following information:

'Hi, just to mention that Kinetic have reduced the price of the SBS-1 from £500 to £380 now. This should help a lot of new users to buy into this great piece of kit. Agree with your comments about Airnav...Matt

Comment From Dave Key (MilitaryAirshows.co.uk)

'There is not much in the way of foreign display aircraft again at Waddington but then again we will get to see the Indian AF Su-30s & IL-78 even if its only a flypast as well as on the ground. Also the Sentinel, E-3D Sentry, and Nimrod recon. aircraft in formation, also the first display of the new Sentinel with a flypast with the Red Arrows and of course the new RAF Role Demo. What frequencies do you expect to be used at Waddington Airshow?'

Thanks Dave -btw I like the glider pic on your site, http://www.militaryairshows.co.uk/ I was an active PPL with the Leicester Aero Club for many years.

Getting back on subject, I'm not certain about show frequencies for this year, but here's a list of Waddington published frequencies and also the 'general' frequencies that are allocated for airshows only:

Waddington:
Approach: 250.85
DATIS: 291.675
Ground: 342.125
Radar (standby) 125.35
Radar (zone) 127.35 / 259.525
Departures: 308.625
Director: 378.5
Tower: 256.675

Airshow Allocations:
130.5
130.625
130.675
132.9
134.55
135.475

It's also worth including the NATO common frequencies on your scanner at an airshow too:

Tower: 122.1 / 257.8
Radar: 123.3 / 344.0 / 362.3 / 385.4

Hope this is useful!

Mark.

Kinetic SBS-1

David has posted the following comment regarding the SBS-1:

'Re the SBS-1, just a small anecdote. I was looking at the demo on in M Lynch & Sons' place in Chertsey a while back and noticed it was even picking up aircraft taxi-ing at LHR. As I'd just come back from Moscow, I watched BA872 until it obviously took off and headed East.'
David. Egham.

Thanks for that David - that's one piece of equipment I am drooling over! Just haven't worked out the sales pitch to my wife yet as to how it will be £500 well spent!!

Interestingly there is a a new web-based product similar to the SBS-1. It's called the Airnav RadarBox - it appears to be about £100 cheaper and comes with 1 years free access but after that, you have to pay £120 a year to access the system via the web! over a few years that would work out considerably more expensive than just buying the SBS-1.

Btw I am considering attending Waddington airshow again this year but unfortunately it looks a rather 'weak' line up again, very little foreign air force participation. For a two day event, Waddington is becoming bit of a let-down, what do you think?

cheers for now, Mark.

Help With A Commtel 102

Peter Cottle has posted the following:

Hi can any one help me I am a newbe and recently acquired a commtel 102 and it works fine however i took the bateries out and it lost the frequencies. I dont have an instruction set to re programme it. When I have keyed in the frq's it says error. I am stuck and unsure what to do.Regards all Peter.

I'm afraid I can't help on this one, anybody else reading this that can help Peter out please do post it here. Thanks, Mark.

Readers Airband Radios Continued...

Matt Has posted the following:

Hello again, when I started aircraft spotting around 1960, it was possible to use binoculars and telescopes(anyone remember the Hilkinson Pancratic ?)to read off registrations. Most civil and a lots of military aircraft had giant registrations and the civil ones all flew below about FL150.
A few years later I got my first airband radio - a Shorrock, cost £36 = a whole summer's work for me.Interestingly if you index the inflation since then this would be about £470 in today's money. This is almost the price of the Kinetic SBS-1 so not much has changed.In those early days only BOAC and a few American airlines used Flight Numbers and with Procedural air traffic control it was easy to get the registration and position just by listening.
Of course all that's changed and the modern tool has to be the SBS-1 from Kinetic Avionics. At the moment mine is displaying the radar positions of120 aircraft over southern England together with their registrations, callsigns and loads of other data.All of this is possible thanks to some very talented folks in the Kinetic Users Forum who have created lots of useful add-on programs that seriously enhance the SBS-1. As a general comment Mode S is now compulsory for IFR flights in UK controlled airspace and starting 2008-2010 other flights are expected to comply which should embrace most GA operations. Not all aircraft provide positional information, a big example are Military Flights. This is allowed but increasingly amongst Civil Aircraft positional data is being provided.For me, the SBS-1 has created a massive awareness of just how much traffic is around and that I was not noticing inspite of monitoring lots of the frequencies. In a way it takes me back to the 1960's type of spotting when you knew what was coming/and when by using the radio. Paired with an airband radio you really can get on top of the hobby.To any readers wondering about the SBS-1 I'd say visit a dealer and try it out. Make the investment and watch you own radar screen !Yes its not cheap, you also need to have a PC and depending where you live you may need to spend quite a bit extra to get a good aerial up outside and possibly even a preamp.Try these links to Kinetics and also their Forum where lots of newcomers find out details before parting with their cash:http://www.kinetic-avionics.co.uk/index.phphttp://www.kinetic-avionics.co.uk/forums/I'm happy to answer any queries about SBS-1 if this will help you decide.When I get a moment I'll sort out something on the Nova Tech...Have funMatt

And also a post left by Nick B:

Reading though Matt's list of receivers I realized I've been through a few myself, mainly during the early 1990's when I spent a lot of time listening to Mil Air.
I started with a Realistic PRO-2005. Bought this new from Tandy and set it up at home with a discone. Performance on both VHF and UHF airband was very good, apart from the odd problem with pager interference around 135MHz.I then sold this and bought the AOR-1000. Big mistake! Although this hand-held covered the frequency range, sensitivity was poor and it was very prone to overload on a discone. I also found the programming very unfriendly after the PRO-2005.
I was then fortunate enough to buy a second-hand PRO-2004. This was as good as, or probably better than the 2005. It has a metal case, as opposed to the plastic one on the 2005, and a sloping panel with a membrane keypad. It was easily modified for 400 channels and faster scan speed. I had this for over ten years before selling it.
One day, whilst on a visit to Lowe Electronics, I saw a Signal R-535, complete with battery pack which was quickly snapped up. Lowes were also kind enough to let me a have a copy of the service manual. Performance of this receiver is probably one of the best I have heard as is is a dedicated AM receiver. Compared to keypad-entry scanners is it a little slow to program at first, but once mastered there is no problem.Regrettably I sold the R-535, or rather exchanged it for an AOR AR-8000. Again, not something I was particularly impressed with so it got part exchanged against a MVT-9000. Another mistake. The MVT-9000 was another unwilling victim to local pager breakthrough on VHF so had to go, being exchanged for an Icom IC-R10E. I was never really happy with this either and it eventually got sold on.
Then I got Realistic PRO-60. Simple to program, just like the 2004 and 2005 base scanners, with excellent AM performance. This was regular visitor to the north of Scotland with me, spending many hours monitoring the range traffic at Tain, amongst other places.
At home I acquired a PRO-2042. Again, excellent performance for a Realistic scanner, with a few added features compared to the earlier 2004 and 2005.Recently, I was lucky enough to get a dead R-535 which I have repaired. Still a solid performer. They still hold their value, which is probably because they are unique as far as airband monitors go.

Thanks to both Matt & Nick for posting, I have had a couple of R535's myself, excellent radio but 60 memory channels is just not enough for me particularly if you monitor military. I can honestly say that my current Uniden UBC3500XLT matches the best radios I have had (Yupi 7100 & the R535) for sensitivity and the scanning ability is much faster than any other scanner I have owned myself at around 100 channels/second. I notice that Nick has had an Icom ICR-10. I found this to be absolutely 'deaf' compared to the Yupi 7100 I exchanged it for, I've also tried the ICR-2 & ICR-5 - both neat and portable but again, relatively deaf in my opinion!

Anyway, thanks guys and keep the comments coming, cheers. Mark Graham.

Re: Readers Airband Radios

Thanks to Matt Harvey who has posted the following regarding his current airband equipment:

Hi, I have the following airband radios.
Top 3 are1960's Nova Tech Pilot II - analogue, great squelch control and lovely audio.1990's Radio Shack Pro-2036 (made by Uniden), very sensitive, fast scan and good clear audio. Connected to Howes Active Aerial.1990's Yupiteru MVT-7100, very sensitive, audio is not bad. Let down by internal noise appearing in129 - 131MHz range,this makes any stations in this range hard to hear clearly. All the Yupiteru models I've tried seem to have this weakness.Bottom of my list are :1990's Win 108 it is quite hissy once the squelch is open, it gets tedious listening on this set.2006 Uniden UBC 92 XLT I find the squelch is too coarse. The audio is very noisy, similar to the Win 108. Audio power output is too low and cannot drive external speakers very well. I think it would have been better if it had been designed with 4 AA's instead of 2 to provide more useable power.For the future I'm thinking of the Uniden BCT15 which they don't seem to have any EU release plans for.I also need to get my 1960's Shorrock and Gauer's sets working again.Should also mention the best advance I have is not another scanner but my Kinetic SBS-1 Virtual Radar. It has transformed my aviation hobby....Hope this is of interest. Matt.

Thanks for that Matt! always good to hear from readers, I certainly remember having a WIN 108 myself many years ago and more recently, a Yupi 7100. I haven't heard of the Nova Tech Pilot 11? maybe we could coerce you into sending a picture I could post here?

I'm definately interested in knowing more about your SBS-1. I have looked at the maunufacturers website a number of times but not committed to purchasing one yet.

Regards, Mark.

Readers Airband Radios

It would be nice to hear from any readers willing to post about what radio scanner you use and with what antenna etc? My own personal setup as you have probably gathered is a Uniden 3500XLT linked to about 4 metres of coax just running to a telescopic antenna strategically positioned in a certain window where reception is best. Interestingly what has improved reception greatly was the addition of a 'ground plane' piece of wire running vertically downward from the antenna (approx 22" in length) - the addition of this ground plane has had a marked effect on radio reception. Many ground station previously unheard are now coming through loud and clear!
By the way thanks to Nick B. for stopping by the site and leaving a comment.

That's all for now, Mark.

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The Uniden Debate!

Rob has posted the following comment:

"Sole 3500 importer? I wish! Any comments comparisons yet? I've kept my 330T, but then again my interests are not solely airband."

Seems like you have got yourself another 330T Rob! After having both scanners side by side for several days there is definately a marked improvement in sensitivity on the 3500XLT. I'll give you an example: I'm approx 15nm as the crow flies from East Midlands Airport, if I tuned to the ground frequency (121.9) with the 330T, I could only just pick up the ground controller with the squelch open. On the 3500XLT, the controller is loud and clear and coming through the squelch. Not only that but i am picking up some aircraft requesting pushback and start on the ramp! That's just one example, there are many others where the signal is stronger or a station previously not heard at all is now clearly audible. The example I gave has not been as good since I owned a Yupteru MVT7100 - generally considered to be extremely sensitive, so yes, a marked improvement over the 330T and worth the upgrade in my opinion.

Off topic now, I was listening to London Miliatry this afternoon on 252.875 and a an aircraft callsign: 'typhoon 1' came over the scanner, he seemed very loud and clear so I looked out my window and immediately saw his contrail at 36,000ft heading west, just north of Leicester across the normal flow of northbound commercial traffic, seems he was on his way to fly an approach at Valley then return to Coningsby at 40,000ft. Military 'crossers' are rare over Leicester but not unheard of, most traffic uses the 'Lichfield Corridor' further north over East Midland Airport. Occasionaly there are also c130's, royal flight aircraft and nimrods heading north in the normal commercial corridor northbound. Cheers for now, Mark.

Uniden BR330T

Yes, ok ok I admit it. The keen eyed Robert Davies has spotted my Uniden BR330T up for grabs on Ebay. It really is a great scanner but I'm keen to put the UBC3500XLT along side it briefly (should arrive today) to test out Rob's theory that it is slightly better on VHF/UHF air. Unlike some of you scanner boys (is Rob reading this?) I can't afford to build up a collection of radios. If I want to try a new one it generally involves flogging my existing one to offset the cost as I have a mortgage, wife, two kids, a dog and a hamster to feed ( imagine the violins in the background about now). Anyway you can await my findings on the 'BR330T vs UBC3500XLT'. Maybe it's all a load of rubbish, just maybe, Rob is the sole importer for the UBC3500XLT (the plot thickens). Who knows!

BTW - Graham Duke, are you still out there? Graham has made some great contributions to the site, unfortunately I had serious problems cutting and pasting the last info he sent me on UK airspace changes for some reason? Anyway if your there Graham, please do get in touch.

All the best for now - Mark.

Uniden BR330T vs Uniden 3500XLT (part 2!)

From Rob Davies:

Hello Mark (and everyone else!) If you own a 330T is it worth getting a 3500? From a civ air point of view, the performance variations between the two scanners are at their smallest in this part of the radio band. e.g. If a signal comes in scratchy with one flickering bar on the sig meter on the 330T, the same signal on the 3500 will be solid one bar with a possible flicker into two bars. The listening comparisons also bear this out. The further you move away from vhf air (in either direction) the performance variations can be as much as two solid bars on the sig meter in favour of the 3500 (The difference between unreadable and loud and clear in some cases..) The 3500 has three different selectable bandplans (3 being the most uk centric) It also has Close Call Do Not Disturb - no more dropouts in audio every two-ish seconds with CC DND enabled - downside = CC DND only works when you are not actively receiving a transmission - whereupon if that's an issue revert to the CC Pri mode which is the same as the 330T's sole CC mode. There are more gaps in the 3500's coverage, but I haven't found them yet from a monitoring point of view. If you *don't* already own a 330T buy a 3500 immediately, it's an ABSOLUTE bargain for the price v features - Since the 3500 arrived I haven't used my AOR AR8200MkIII (which is 2.5 times the price of the 3500) Only buy an 8200 if you need the frequency extremes that it covers - The 3500 is better for all the rest. If you *do* already own a 330T find a fellow local enthusiast to compare the 330T against their 3500... or maybe not... it may just be expensive. Just my personal findings and opinions.... Your mileage may vary.... Don't run with scissors... etc etc etc In my case having bought the 3500 I don't regret having done so :-) btw... Alternative review of the 3500 here: http://www.ukmidlandscanner.co.uk/uni3500.htm btw again as I write this the best 3500 price seems to be with Nevada on ebay @ 150ukp with *free* p&p - other vendors charge the same basic price plus 6 or 7 quid p&p. -Rob

Thanks Rob, I will certainly give the 3500 some thought. I do think considering the cost and the features available for airband listeners, it's got to be the best value for money scanner available at the moment. My 'benchmark' scanner has always been the Yupiteru MVT7100 in terms of sensitivity, and I think the Unidens are equal to it but with a lot more features.

Going off-topic now, I turned on the scanner a few nights ago and immediately intercepted a 'pan pan pan' call from an RAF C130 working London (Swanwick) military on UHF - seems he had lost one engine and required a direct routing into Lyneham. being in Leicester, I lost him as he descended towards Lyneham, anybody else catch this? Anyway, cheers for now and do please hit the comments button if you have anything to contribute. Mark.

Uniden BR330T vs UBC3500XLT

Robert Davies has posted the following comment:

'Well..... I have since bought a Uniden UBC3500XLT (rearrange the following words into a common phrase or saying "money" "than" "sense" "more"). It's even better than the BR330T, initial tests suggest from this location that it is more sensitive on vhf and uhf air than the BR330T, and I always thought *that* was pretty handy ;-) -Rob'

That's interesting Rob, you would think it would essentially have the same 'internals'. I presume your testing them both alongside each other on the same antenna setup etc.

I'd be interested to know if you think the performance increase is worth buying a UBC3500XLT even if like ourselves you already have a BR330T?