I am extremely grateful for those of you who have spent your time and effort to set up feeds for liveatc. What a resource! Thanks for your effort.
Can I make a request, though?
Most feeds are using scanners to prowl several frequencies at once, of course. This is generally a great solution to the problem of dead air, especially at smaller airports. However, if your scanner is set to change frequencies immediately after the conclusion of a transmission, it's very easy-- even likely-- that we'll miss the reply.
I think the multi-frequency feeds are much more "listenable" if the scanner isn't so jumpy, and many or most scanners can be set to wait longer between frequency jumps.
I know that setting a delay of 3-4 seconds would cause more dead air and would cause us to miss transmissions on other frequencies more often, but it is my opinion that this is a good tradeoff to hear more of a single conversation.
Any one else have an opinion on this?
Excellent post, Agreed! In most cases delay should definitely be ON. You are right, this will help in not missing the reply and make conversations more easy to follow. Without delay on, especially when there are multiple frequencies, listening becomes a jumbled mess of sentences.
I would only turn off delay on maybe a ground frequency or lower priority channel when you don't want to miss something on the other frequencies. In the case of the KVNY feed, only the ground freq has DELAY OFF, as the the ground controller also handles helo traffic (simulcast) and can get too busy and hang up the scanner, all other freqs on the feed have DELAY ON.
Another trick I have recommended on the forums, especially those doing approach or multiple channels is to help "prioritize" your feed:
Instead of programming your scanner in the following way:
CH1.Tower
CH2.Approach N
CH3.Approach W
CH4.Approach E
CH5.Approach S
I do this on my scanner:
CH1.Tower
CH2.Approach N
CH3.Tower
CH4.Approach W
CH5.Tower
CH6.Approach E
CH7.Tower
CH8.Approach S
Because tower is on every other channel, the scanner has less chance of missing a tower transmission and getting "hung up".
As Dave has said, the more volunteers the better, creating redundant and additional feeds in each location. This means less channels per scanner and less lost replies/transmissions.