More Airband Advice!

A reader has left the following comment:
'good choice is uniden bearcat 30xltaround fifty pound.i recently bought one and find it excellent'
thanks for that. Mark

BTW I have also received a message from 'Rob' as to how Im getting on with my Uniden BR330T. I have to say Rob I'm extremely happy with it. Although I had to import it from the US and pay some hefty tax duty when it arrived at the door, it is definitely worth it. It is an awesome scanner (very fast scan). the memory is arranged more like a computers, I can create a 'system' eg. London ATCC and I can then have up to 99 groups within that system containing any number of channels I wish until I have used all the memory. I have several hundred channels stored in many groups and systems and I've only used 6% of my memory area available! In addition to the many other functions and facilities which I've not begun to cover it is as sensitive in my opinion to the 'benchmark' Yupiteru MVT7100.

Airband Radio Advice

Chris has sent the following message:
'Hi Mark, could I ask your advice? My brother is a bit of an aviation nut, and loves attending various airshows when he gets the chance (as do I). For his birthday this year, I thought I'd get him a scanner, so he could listen to the air traffic control and pilot's radio comms. Do you or your readers have any recommendations on a cheap (about £40 to £50) 'my first scanner' for him?Thanks! Chris.'

Well Chris the radio that comes to mind in this price range (maybe a bit more) is the Maycom AR108. It is a good 'entry level' digital scanner offering full VHF airband coverage and tuning steps down to 5KHz which is sufficient for all the new airband channels and also offers about 99 memories I think. If your looking for a radio covering the UHF military band you may need to spend more. Hope this helps, and if any reader has a recommendation to offer please do post a message, thanks. Mark.

Airshow Season Almost Over!

With airshow season almost over I wondered if any readers would like to share any notable experiences from airshows you may have attended this year. Unfortunately I only managed to make it to Waddington this year which was a little disappointing as there was a notable absence of foreign participation. Anything you would like to share?

Heathrow Frequencies

I have received a couple of requests for frequencies at Heathrow so here goes:

Approach:
119.725
120.4
127.525
134.975
Departure ATIS:
121.85
Arrival ATIS:
128.075
Clearance Delivery:
121.975
Ground:
121.7
121.9
Radar (special VFR):
125.625
Tower:
118.5
118.7
124.475

Thanks all, Mark.

Holidays!

Sorry It's been a bit quiet lately as I have just returned from two weeks in the Greek island of Crete. We were in fact, located about 7 miles out on the approach to Heraklion airports runway 27. I have to say, I have never seen a holiday airport as busy as this. At times there were arrivals every few minutes, but at least I was treated to a great view of the wide variety of aircraft that operate in and out of this airport.
Everything from regional turboprops such as ATR's and Dash 8's which appear to be operated on flights from other islands such as Rhodes to the usual Airbus and Boeing models carrying holidaymakers. I think there was also some Tupolevs (154's?) carrying Russian and/or Ukrainian holidaymakers
I didn't dare take my radio scanner (Uniden Bearcat BR330T) as the Greeks don't look to kindly on that sort of thing if they should discover it, but I'm sure it would have made interesting listening. That's all I have time for right now, but if you have any info you would like to share regarding holiday airports or otherwise please hit the comments button, thanks. Mark.

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Changes To Airspace At Newcastle, Bristol & Cardiff

Significant changes to the airspace arrangements at Newcastle were introduced on 6th July 2006.
These changes increased the area of controlled airspace around the airport, designed to improve the safety of commercial flights arriving or departing.
Major changes at Cardiff/Bristol will come into effect on 31st August 2006..
The region surrounding Cardiff and Bristol will be enclosed in a new Class D area of controlled airspace enabling flights to approach and leave the airports under the jurisdiction of air traffic controllers.
This change will take place on 31st August 2006.
Prior to this, many flights arriving or departing the two airports had to fly through Class G airspace, meaning that they were not under the control of ATC.
Other traffic, unknown to ATC, were a constant problem for the controllers as the legal conditions relating to Class G airspace meant that the pilots did not even have to speak to ATC.
Even hot air balloons, launched from a site close to Bristol airport, were frequently encountered by flights approaching runway 27.
The new arrangements will include a series of Standard Instrument Departure Routes (SID’s) and Standard Arrival Routes (STAR’s), similar to those already in use at most large UK airports.

Thanks to Graham Duke for submitting this information.

Message From Graham Duke Re: MVT 8000 Radio Scanner

"Re the query from moris.jose about a manual for the MVT 8000, my base station is a MVT 6000 which I believe is almost identical as far as operating instructions are concerned.He is welcome to a copy of the manual, and I will email him soon."

Thanks Graham - Mark

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Yupiteru MVT 8000

A reader has requested some help in finding a manual or copy of a manual for the above scanner. I believe one of our regular contributors, Graham Duke has this radio? If anyone can help please email: moris.jose@gmail.com

Airshow Common Frequencies

I have posted these frequencies in the past but it is worth mentioning them again as we are in airshow season.
The following are all listed as frequencies allocated for airshow use:

121.175
130.5
130.625
130.675
132.9
134.55

It is always worth including these in your 'scan' when attending airshows.

I am hoping to put the 'close call' feature to the test on my Uniden Bearcat BR330T when I attend Waddington airshow next week, basically the scanner can be set to 'hunt down' strong local transmissions and will then immediately tune to them and store the frequency in memory if required. It will be interesting to see how effective this really is, I'm hoping to sniff out some unknown frequencies that might be in use at the base!

cheers for now, Mark.

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RAF Waddington Airshow

I must firstly apologise for not posting in recent weeks, I have been very busy with work.

Well airshow season is upon us! I do not get the opportunity to attend many shows but I am attending Waddington this year. I will be camping during the airshow weekend of 1-2nd July very close to RAF Coningsby and making the fairly short commute to the show on Saturday only.

Waddington has been a great show in years gone past and it is billed as the biggest show the RAF themselves organise however, looking at the list of aircraft taking part in the flying display it seems very short on foreign airforce participation particularly concerning fast jets. No F16's no mig29 or SU27 etc? and what with the RAF not displaying a Tornado F3 or Jaguar it is not looking particularly good value for money. Maybe there are other display participants that won't be confirmed till very late in which case I apologise for being to critical, I would be interested to hear what any other Waddington veterans think?