Handhelds?

[Robert Barker]

The airport where I'm a student is pretty busy and I'm still getting used to
the high volume of radio traffic. I was wondering about getting a handheld
radio to listen to at work and at home and get used to the patter and that I
could also use later as a backup. I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport but couldn't
hear anything from my house so I took it back. I'm about 5nm from the local
tower but line of sight might be an issue. I was wondering if anyone had
any suggestions...

[[email protected]]

Well, if you just want to listen, I recommend getting a receiver only
instead. You can get a pretty nice scanner with airband at RadioShack
for <$100.

That, however, won't solve your reception problem, though if you were
to go throug the trouble of putting a larger antenna on your roof, that
might.

My experience with a ground-based transmitter (the tower) is that 5 nm
away may be too far. However, you should be able to hear the
transmissions from the radios in aircraft in the pattern just fine.

-- dave j


Robert Barker wrote:
> The airport where I'm a student is pretty busy and I'm still getting used to
> the high volume of radio traffic. I was wondering about getting a handheld
> radio to listen to at work and at home and get used to the patter and that I
> could also use later as a backup. I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport but couldn't
> hear anything from my house so I took it back. I'm about 5nm from the local
> tower but line of sight might be an issue. I was wondering if anyone had
> any suggestions...

[Ben Hallert]

Just listen to the various ATC that broadcast over the internet. With
a handheld, you'll get hardly anything, especially at work.

http://www.liveatc.net/

[[email protected]]

Hi Bob...

FIRST, I would find an airband HT that I like and buy it. I had a
friend who lost comms in the pattern at TOL on his first solo; pulled
his HT out of his bag, and saved the situation. Point made...

I was an airband scanner listener for many years...that did help a
little for me.

In my experience, an airband HT will receive "as good as" and usually
much better than scanners. The scanners have more features conducive
to listening, tho; that's why I have both.

At your house, you should have heard the planes just fine. If not,
you might have a bad radio, or you had the squelch adjusted too tight.
It should be set to 'just quiet' the radio.

The ground station (ATC) is another story. VHF comms are 'line of
sight' and the antennas ATC use have little "downtilt"-they want to
talk to the sky, not the ground like a police or fire dispatch. Also,
the antennas are probably on 60-100' towers, not the several hundred
(or thousand) feet your local PD/FD may use; so the ground reception
range will be less.

You may be further from the ground station than you think. 2 miles
North of OKC airport, I could not hear the ground side on my HT. I
found out later that the transmitter site was well South of the
airfield.

A simple outdoor or even attic antenna for receiving will greatly
improve your reception. I would suggest a desktop style scanner for
home They are much more convenient to use.

--Don
Don Byrer
Electronics Technician/Friendly but Sarcastic Pilot
FAA Airways Facilites/Tech Ops, RADAR/Data/Comm @ CLE
Amateur Radio KJ5KB
Instrument Pilot Commercial Student
PP-ASEL 30 Jan 2005 "-IA" 25 Mar 2005

[Cub Driver]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:48:06 -0600, "Robert Barker"
> wrote:

>I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport but couldn't
>hear anything from my house so I took it back. I'm about 5nm from the local
>tower but line of sight might be an issue.

I'm surprised you didn't do better.

Sporty's sells a radio for just this purpose. Whether it would work
better than the handheld, I don't know, but it would be cheaper.

You should at least be able to hear the pilots in the air. No?
Sometimes when I am running down the battery in my handheld, I just
leave it on the desk tuned to 128.8. I hear a lot of stuff, but it's
all airborne.



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

[John Gaquin]

"Robert Barker" > wrote in message

>....I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport but couldn't hear anything from my house
>so I took it back. I'm about 5nm from the local tower but line of sight
>might be an issue.

How high is the tower antenna? What's the terrain like?

[Larry Dighera]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:48:06 -0600, "Robert Barker"
> wrote in
>::

>I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions...

Back when Jim Weir was more helpful than cantankerous, he offered this
information:
http://www.google.dk/groups?selm=35643d2f.1071916%40news.gv.net&output=gplain
http://www.google.dk/groups?selm=37d4e703.63438332%40news.gv.net&output=gplain

I recall another of his articles with even better instructions for
air-band antenna construction in about 1999, but couldn't locate it.

[RST Engineering]

Cantankerous? MOI????

I only get my spineys up when being argued with something I truly believe to
be false.

Be that as it may, I just scanned all my articles from 1998-2000 and didn't
see anything. Are you perhaps referring to the j-pole (plumber's delight)
that I did back in 1988 and referenced by date in a 1999 article on how to
make a base station?

I'll be happy to try and post either a description here or upload the
drawings (if they still exist) onto the website. Just tell me the basics of
what I am looking for.

Jim



> Back when Jim Weir was more helpful than cantankerous, he offered this
> information:
> http://www.google.dk/groups?selm=35643d2f.1071916%40news.gv.net&output=gplain
> http://www.google.dk/groups?selm=37d4e703.63438332%40news.gv.net&output=gplain
>
> I recall another of his articles with even better instructions for
> air-band antenna construction in about 1999, but couldn't locate it.
>

[john smith]

RST Engineering wrote:
> Be that as it may, I just scanned all my articles from 1998-2000 and didn't
> see anything. Are you perhaps referring to the j-pole (plumber's delight)
> that I did back in 1988 and referenced by date in a 1999 article on how to
> make a base station?

Speaking of which...
what became of the project to reformat an upload to your website the
post 2000 articles?

[John Galban]

Cub Driver wrote:
> On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 21:48:06 -0600, "Robert Barker"
> > wrote:
>
> >I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport but couldn't
> >hear anything from my house so I took it back. I'm about 5nm from the local
> >tower but line of sight might be an issue.
>
> I'm surprised you didn't do better.
>
It's very dependent on the terrain and any obstacles between you and
the tower antenna. My handheld and scanner both pick up the tower and
ground at PHX (4.5 miles away) loud and clear. I can even hear the
airliners on the ground. When I'm actually at PHX there are some
locations on the airport, such as behind some hangars, where I can't
get either tower or ground very clearly.

John Galban=====>N4BQ (PA28-180)

[Ben Jackson]

On 2005-06-14, Cub Driver > wrote:
> Sporty's sells a radio for just this purpose. Whether it would work
> better than the handheld, I don't know, but it would be cheaper.

The $40 sporties scanner is crap. I had one and returned it.

--
Ben Jackson
>
http://www.ben.com/

[Larry Dighera]

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:02:53 -0700, "RST Engineering"
> wrote in
>::

>Be that as it may, I just scanned all my articles from 1998-2000 and didn't
>see anything. Are you perhaps referring to the j-pole (plumber's delight)
>that I did back in 1988 and referenced by date in a 1999 article on how to
>make a base station?

That sounds like what I remember.

>I'll be happy to try and post either a description here or upload the
>drawings (if they still exist) onto the website. Just tell me the basics of
>what I am looking for.

I'm thinking, that if anything will help the OP receive more aviation
stations, a decent antenna placed as high as necessary would be about
the only reasonable option.

[Robert Barker]

"Robert Barker" > wrote in message
...
> The airport where I'm a student is pretty busy and I'm still getting used
> to the high volume of radio traffic. I was wondering about getting a
> handheld radio to listen to at work and at home and get used to the patter
> and that I could also use later as a backup. I bought an I-COM IC-5 Sport
> but couldn't hear anything from my house so I took it back. I'm about 5nm
> from the local tower but line of sight might be an issue. I was wondering
> if anyone had any suggestions...
>

Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions. I'm thinking the Sport
was a little weak, perhaps, and it didn't have a rechargable battery or VOR.
I'll look for a little bigger unit and see what I can get. Getting
reception at work isn't a problem as I can watch the other students practice
touch and gos from my office window! I thought of the internet thing, but
was thinking that my own radio would be a good backup and I can also keep an
ear out for the club's planes and help to sort out the wheat from the
chaff...

I've heard some good things about the I-COM units...

[Ben Hallert]

I know a pilot who described handheld radios as a container for storing
dead batteries. I'd personally invest in a nice aviation GPS before a
handheld, especially if I have dual comms in my plane, but that's just
me.

Regards, and good luck!

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL

[Greg Farris]

In article . com>,
says...
>
>
>I know a pilot who described handheld radios as a container for storing
>dead batteries. I'd personally invest in a nice aviation GPS before a
>handheld, especially if I have dual comms in my plane, but that's just
>me.
>
>Regards, and good luck!
>



Maybe - maybe not.

I've carried a handheld for years now, and it's never seen any "serious"
use. I use it to listen to ATIS and traffic when doing a preflight,
before switching on the aircraft's battery and avionics master - but
that's just "because it's there" kind of use, and also serves a s a
check to make sure the thing itself is working.

I have however, on two recent occasions taken the thing out of my flight
bag during flight. The first was an issue with a bad PTT switch. I ended
up plugging my headset into the co-pilot's position, and using the other
PTT switch, but I probably would have been just as well off using my
ICOM headset adapter, and not had the wire pulling on my head!

The other was a rental 172 with dodgy VOR's. With Com1 completely dead,
and Com2 "apparently" OK, I was able to use the VOR function of the
handheld to emulate the KX155A's "to" and "from" modes that I've gotten
used to, as well as a cross-check for the aircraft's VOR indicator I had
little confidence in. Turned out OK, and the flight would have been the
same without the handheld, but I realized the VOR indicator I had always
thought to be a useless gimmick actually does work.

So now, even though it's one of the least used items, I have upgraded it
to "essential" status in my personal rating, and wouldn't want to go
further than a local flight without it.

I concur you will not usually pick up much of anything on the ground, as
soon as you get a few miles from the airport. I can't even tell if mine
is working correctly until I get to the airport.

[Bryan Mason]

Ben Hallert wrote:
> I know a pilot who described handheld radios as a container for storing
> dead batteries. I'd personally invest in a nice aviation GPS before a
> handheld, especially if I have dual comms in my plane, but that's just
> me.

As a student, I found a handheld very useful for hanging around the
airport, listening to the radio traffic, and then correlating it to the
positions of the actual traffic.

It's also very handy for calling for fuel. :^)

-- Bryan