Online radio primer?

[Roger Long]

I'm about to make my first cross country outside of our comfortable New
England airspace where flight following is pretty much automatic and you
just keep tuning in the next frequency they give you.

I'm not sure if things will be the same out in the wilds of western New York
and Ohio. Can anyone point me to an online source where I can brush up on
the things I learned and forgot a few years ago, how to receive on a VOR,
how to raise center out in the boonies, etc?

--
Roger Long

[Bob Gardner]

You raise Center out in the boonies by looking up its frequency in the back
of the A/FD...or by asking a nearby FSS for the appropriate frequency. If it
is the only avenue available to you, you can communicate with FSS by
transmitting on 122.1 and listening on the VOR freq (mention the VOR you are
using in the initial call)....but the number of alternatives to duplex is
increasing daily.

I'm not aware of an online primer, but I can recommend SAY AGAIN, PLEASE,
published by ASA, or the ASA CD-ROM Communications Trainer. Can't deny that
I have a personal interest in both.

Bob Gardner

"Roger Long" m> wrote in
message ...
> I'm about to make my first cross country outside of our comfortable New
> England airspace where flight following is pretty much automatic and you
> just keep tuning in the next frequency they give you.
>
> I'm not sure if things will be the same out in the wilds of western New
York
> and Ohio. Can anyone point me to an online source where I can brush up on
> the things I learned and forgot a few years ago, how to receive on a VOR,
> how to raise center out in the boonies, etc?
>
> --
> Roger Long
>
>

[Jeff Lindorff]

Not an "online" source, but center freqs are listed toward the back of the
FAA's Airport/Facility Directory.

Receiving a FSS/HIWAS/TWEB/ASOS/AWOS via a VOR is explained in the sectional
chart legend (Radio Aids to Navigation and Communication Boxes).

-0-
JL

"Roger Long" m> wrote in
message ...
> I'm about to make my first cross country outside of our comfortable New
> England airspace where flight following is pretty much automatic and you
> just keep tuning in the next frequency they give you.
>
> I'm not sure if things will be the same out in the wilds of western New
York
> and Ohio. Can anyone point me to an online source where I can brush up on
> the things I learned and forgot a few years ago, how to receive on a VOR,
> how to raise center out in the boonies, etc?
>
> --
> Roger Long
>
>

[Ross Richardson]

My KLN-89/B has a NEAREST function and one of the sub-functions is CTR.
Push that and it knows what center freq to give you. I find that nice. I
also get FSS, etc.

Ross

Bob Gardner wrote:
>
> You raise Center out in the boonies by looking up its frequency in the back
> of the A/FD...or by asking a nearby FSS for the appropriate frequency. If it
> is the only avenue available to you, you can communicate with FSS by
> transmitting on 122.1 and listening on the VOR freq (mention the VOR you are
> using in the initial call)....but the number of alternatives to duplex is
> increasing daily.
>
> I'm not aware of an online primer, but I can recommend SAY AGAIN, PLEASE,
> published by ASA, or the ASA CD-ROM Communications Trainer. Can't deny that
> I have a personal interest in both.
>
> Bob Gardner
>
> "Roger Long" m> wrote in
> message ...
> > I'm about to make my first cross country outside of our comfortable New
> > England airspace where flight following is pretty much automatic and you
> > just keep tuning in the next frequency they give you.
> >
> > I'm not sure if things will be the same out in the wilds of western New
> York
> > and Ohio. Can anyone point me to an online source where I can brush up on
> > the things I learned and forgot a few years ago, how to receive on a VOR,
> > how to raise center out in the boonies, etc?
> >
> > --
> > Roger Long
> >
> >

[David Megginson]

"Jeff Lindorff" > writes:

> Receiving a FSS/HIWAS/TWEB/ASOS/AWOS via a VOR is explained in the
> sectional chart legend (Radio Aids to Navigation and Communication
> Boxes).

It's funny what you don't think of checking before leaving home. Up
here, I can always call the nearest FSS and hear them on 126.7
(actually, an FIC will usually handle the calls now, but it works out
the same for pilots).

On my first and only trip (so far) down to the U.S., I ended up
calling local FSS's on local frequencies, since that was the easiest
thing to figure out. On my way home the next day, VFR, after midnight
over upstate NY, I was too far away to get any local FSS. I saw the
VOR/FSS thing in the A&FD, but I was too busy flying to figure it out
properly from the cryptic notes (it looked to me like I was supposed
to *transmit* on the VOR frequency). Thanks for the explanation.


All the best,


David

--
David Megginson, , http://www.megginson.com/

[aaronw]

On Wed, 06 Aug 2003 16:30:36 -0500, Ross Richardson >
wrote:

>My KLN-89/B has a NEAREST function and one of the sub-functions is CTR.
>Push that and it knows what center freq to give you. I find that nice. I
>also get FSS, etc.

A follow-up to this:

So let's say I'm flying out somewhere (VFR) and I decide I want VFR
FF. Most of the C-172Ss I have flown in have the NRST on the GPS. So
I push NRST and I choose 'CTR'. So this gives me the center
frequency. All good and fine, but what if I am close to the radar
(TRACON) service area of a Class C and actually the airspace I am in
is the domain of that TRACON? I assume that the TRACON area of
responsibility is a little further out than the B/C rings, and then
there are some Approach controls who are not associated with a Class
B/C airport either - Dover and Patuxent come to mind the quickest to
me. So I don't really know *what* the coverage area of Patuxent
Approach is, and when (if ever) it switches to DC Center before going
to Norfolk Approach, for example.

I am assuming the 'worst that could happen' is that I call Center and
they say 'no, dummy, you want to call XXX approach on YYY'. My
question is - is there any way to find out this information
beforehand?

Thanks,

aw

[David Megginson]

aaronw > writes:

> I am assuming the 'worst that could happen' is that I call Center and
> they say 'no, dummy, you want to call XXX approach on YYY'. My
> question is - is there any way to find out this information
> beforehand?

Don't the U.S. sectionals have frequencies printed right on them?


All the best,


David

--
David Megginson, , http://www.megginson.com/

[Roy Smith]

aaronw > wrote:
> So let's say I'm flying out somewhere (VFR) and I decide I want VFR
> FF. Most of the C-172Ss I have flown in have the NRST on the GPS. So
> I push NRST and I choose 'CTR'. So this gives me the center
> frequency. All good and fine, but what if I am close to the radar
> (TRACON) service area of a Class C and actually the airspace I am in
> is the domain of that TRACON? I assume that the TRACON area of
> responsibility is a little further out than the B/C rings

Yes. The airspace owned by a TRACON typically extends at least 20 miles
out beyond the edge of the charted airspace. Sometimes quite a bit
more. As far as altitude, they often control well above the charted
airspace ceiling -- 10,000 AGL or even higher is not uncommon.

> I am assuming the 'worst that could happen' is that I call Center and
> they say 'no, dummy, you want to call XXX approach on YYY'.

Exactly, but they won't even call you dummy. They'll just say something
like, "You're outside my airspace, contact XXX Approach on 123.45".
Happens all the time.

> My question is - is there any way to find out this information
> beforehand?

The best reference is the AFD. Look up the entry for the airport
nearest your location, and see frequencies it lists for Approach and/or
Departure. To be honest, I don't usually bother en-route. I just call
up the nearest TRACON and if it turns out I've guessed wrong, they'll
give me a different frequency.

[Jim Fisher]

"David Megginson" > wrote in message
...

> Don't the U.S. sectionals have frequencies printed right on them?

Airport freq's, yes. Center freq's no.

I have to differ with others about using the GPS to look up freqs. You IFR
people may have a different slant 'cause you update your GPS regularly
(don't you?). I don't trust the freq's in the VFR GPS. Even if the thing
has been updated in the last few years the freq's still change without
notice.

It's just so darn easy to simply pick an airport, any airport, listed near
to you on the sectional, whip out the AF/D and look up the controlling
frequency.

--
Jim Fisher

[David Megginson]

"Jim Fisher" > writes:

> "David Megginson" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>> Don't the U.S. sectionals have frequencies printed right on them?
>
> Airport freq's, yes. Center freq's no.

I just pulled out the current NY sectional (that I used for a recent
trip), and it has Tracon frequencies on the map with notes like this:

CTC New York App within 20 nm on 118.0 343.75

A similar note appears on different sides of the area with different
frequencies. I don't know if that kind of thing appears on all the
sectionals, though. There is also a table at the bottom left
containing tower, class B, class C, TSRA, and some radar approach
frequencies. I don't see the centre frequencies, though.


All the best,


David

--
David Megginson, , http://www.megginson.com/

[blanche cohen]

All this info is also contained on the IFR charts. Most useful
even for VFR flying.

[aaronw]

On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 11:29:31 GMT, David Megginson
> wrote:

>aaronw > writes:
>
>> I am assuming the 'worst that could happen' is that I call Center and
>> they say 'no, dummy, you want to call XXX approach on YYY'. My
>> question is - is there any way to find out this information
>> beforehand?
>
>Don't the U.S. sectionals have frequencies printed right on them?

Well, I am looking at my Washington and New York sectionals.

Both of them seem to have little boxes saying 'Contact XXX approach
within 20nm on YYY'.

However, on a closer glance these appear to be *ONLY* for the class Cs
I can see at a glance - ACY, RIC, ORF, ISP, etc. Of course, the
controlling approach facility for ISP is New York Approach, which is
the same one that JFK/EWR/LGA use. I do not see a little box printed
in the sectional with the PHL, DCA/BWI/IAD, JFK/EWR/LGA, or BOS
approach frequncies. Maybe that is because they tend to have many
many more (but then they're also spread out in a wider place, as
well...)

As someone else mentioned, though, there are indeed approach
frequencies given by radials from I assume the on-field VOR in the
side tab, which is of course seems to be always folded in the most
inaccessible place when I am in the cockpit.

Then there's also stuff like I mentioned before - specifically
Patuxent approach. In the Washington sectional if you look at the
northern tip of R-4006 there's a little box that says 'Patuxent
Approach 127.95' All fine and good. So if they are so precise about
the boundaries of, for example, R-4006 by putting them on the
sectional, why don't they give me some idea of how far away Patuxent's
radar domain reaches instead of just 'Well, somewhere around ....
there...'

aw

[Roy Smith]

aaronw > wrote:
> >Don't the U.S. sectionals have frequencies printed right on them?
>
> Well, I am looking at my Washington and New York sectionals.
>
> Both of them seem to have little boxes saying 'Contact XXX approach
> within 20nm on YYY'.
>
> However, on a closer glance these appear to be *ONLY* for the class Cs
> I can see at a glance - ACY, RIC, ORF, ISP, etc.

Yeah, and I think it's one of the dumb things about sectionals. Each
Class B has it's own terminal area chart, and that's where you'll find
the frequencies for NY TRACON. I wish they put them on the sectional
too, but they don't.

> As someone else mentioned, though, there are indeed approach
> frequencies given by radials from I assume the on-field VOR in the
> side tab, which is of course seems to be always folded in the most
> inaccessible place when I am in the cockpit.

The table that lists the frequencies will tell you how the sector
boundaries are defined. For New York, it's radials off the LaGuardia
VOR.