HELP! I can hear ATC but not the pilot

[smithmi]

hello

I am planing to open a feed for the Allentown, PA airport. When I turn to ABE APP/DEP i can hear pilot & ATC then I go to town and I can hear pilot and ATC, then when ATC tells the plane to taxi I can hear the ATC but not the pilot, The samething for CLNC DEL I can hear the ATC but not the pilot?

I heard the it is harder to pick up ATC then the plane but I can never hear the pilot readback the CLNC.

Thanks

Michael

[KSYR-pjr]

I have the same problem with the Syracuse, NY, airport feed.  I live about 12nm from the airport and there is a small ridge between my house and the airport.  Most days my feed cannot pick up ground-based aircraft, so I chose to simply scan tower and both approach frequencies.    All of those are strong signals.   When the aircraft lands and is told by tower to taxi to the ramp with him/her, the pilot's readback cannot be heard on my feed.  Oh, well. 

IMO, offering tower and approach is much better than not offering a feed.  Besides, our little airports don't have the ground excitement of a JFK. 

One other consideration:  Are you using an outdoor antenna?   My scanner and radio frequency knowledge is limited, so others here will have to give you better details, but in my case I mounted a scanner antenna at the top/side of my house, then ran the thick, RG-6 coax cable (that prevents signal loss) from the antenna to my scanner.  The result was  a very improved reception of the airborne aircraft. 

There are other tricks for improving your reception that perhaps may allow you to get the ground-based aircraft, but it does involve money and knowledge of this stuff. 

I say get your feed going! 

[kkjlai]

Michael,

That may happen when the plane is on the ground, the antenna is on a relatively low helight as compared to as it is in the air.   The ATC tower antenna may be on a higher ground (Tower is usually higher than the plane itself) that's why you can hear the ATC but not the readback from a plane sitting on the ground.

VHF signals don't travel well without a line of sight.  I mean if you go to town there are usually a lot of buildings to attenuate the signals.

Hope it helps..
kkjlai

[smithmi]

thanks for all the help.

can anyone help me with this:

I have FIRE & POLICE and ATC put in my scanner, for my feed I want ABE TWR, ABE APP, ABE DEP, now if I put them in and scan it will also pick up the FIRE freqs. is there anyway I can just scan those 3 freqs or will I only be able to have one freq. for the feed?

thanks

Michael

[Luis_C]

Michael,

That may happen when the plane is on the ground, the antenna is on a relatively low helight as compared to as it is in the air.   The ATC tower antenna may be on a higher ground (Tower is usually higher than the plane itself) that's why you can hear the ATC but not the readback from a plane sitting on the ground.

VHF signals don't travel well without a line of sight.  I mean if you go to town there are usually a lot of buildings to attenuate the signals.

Hope it helps..
kkjlai

Yes, the airplane antennas are like a piece of cable cutted for airband, and the ATC tower antenna, is a real antenna mounted high, and probably with higher power. (Power doesn't do difference, only when you have a high mounted antenna) Completely normal, and I agree, offer tower and app, little airports, ground isn't entertaining to listen, and you're lucky that you can hear those anyway.

I have problems even listening APP control, the controllers can't be heard always, tower much less and Atis. And I'm about 5-6 miles from the airport, no tall or big buildings or mountains.

Weird thing is, that we are building a new house, and is even more far, 1 mile more, and there's a weird spot of 1 meter in the backyard, with my center whip radio scanner antenna that I can listen even to the Atis completely clear, and because there's some kind of repeater in the airport, I can listen to Mazatlan Center controllers at about 400 milles from here, too.

When I move, if I can get stable reception, I promise a Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico feed, running most of the time.

thanks for all the help.

can anyone help me with this:

I have FIRE & POLICE and ATC put in my scanner, for my feed I want ABE TWR, ABE APP, ABE DEP, now if I put them in and scan it will also pick up the FIRE freqs. is there anyway I can just scan those 3 freqs or will I only be able to have one freq. for the feed?

thanks

Michael

If they are programmed in the same bank, (that I believe is the case) when you are in manual mode, for example in my radio shack scanner, there's a L-Out option, that disables scanning that. Or if it is in different banks, you simply disable the bank you aren't interested to. The manual of your radio scanner will explain you, you didn't told us what do you have.

[smithmi]

thnaks,

I have a radio-shack PRO-2018

and I also have a lock-out function

I will try it out tonight and see how it works

[smithmi]

I got it to work

thanks for everyones help

Michael

[PIT]

i can mostly hear the pilot but no ATC on the PIT feed???