starter's question

[Katabatik]

Hi guys, I am totally new to this forum and you might throw me out after I got under your skin with my stupid questions. Anyway I cannot not resist asking a few questions after the Tiger Meet Spottersday (I live in Holland but am not dutch).

So here I am modest photographer who would like to know what it takes to listen to traffic control. Let's suppose I buy a scanner (I read the UBC 3500 xlt was good, feel free to comment) and tune in on the right frequency, do you guys have a tutorial to understand what's being told (with examples and meaning of abbreiviations) ? Can you record it somehow and play it back ?

Thanks.

[Katabatik]

Well I will have to learn it the hard way looking at your reactions. So I started to dig into abbreviations, call signs and ATC tutorials and some of the lecture on the forum starts making sense. I am now studying the UBC 3500 user manual.

Now before I invest into a UBC 3500xlt, could you tell me if I could capture military ATC from Volkel with the out of the box antenna and living in Breda ? I have no idea about the signal strength and have no plan to go there everyday.
I would like to know what would be my return on investment before pulling the trigger ...

Sorry to bother again. if not the right place, please redirect my posts.

[Michel]

Now before I invest into a UBC 3500xlt, could you tell me if I could capture military ATC from Volkel with the out of the box antenna and living in Breda ? I have no idea about the signal strength and have no plan to go there everyday.

I think Volkel is too far away to listen to ATC. You can hear the aircraft, but i don't think you can receive any groundstation at Volkel. But you've got Gilze Rijen nearby. I'm sure you will hear both aircraft and ATC from Gilze.

Btw; I've never used the supplied rubberduck antenna, but changed it immediately for a Diamond SRH779 antenna. This antenna (like the Diamond SRH771) will give you much better reception.

[dutchboys]

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Klostrophormium]

Hi there Katabatik

Despite being a British website focusing mainly on the GB I would suggest signing up with FighterControl. They have a section devoted to airband which is only available to memebers.

It costs nothing and is full of good advice from callsigns to frequencies to equipment.

http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/

Klostrophormiun

[Katabatik]

Just to let you know (perhaps it will help a newbie in the future) that I bought the 3500 XLT with Diamond SRH 779 (plus ARC3500 Pro software) and it works just fine. Picking up various ATC signals (military and civil).

Now down to my question. I get to hear callsigns but do not manage to get serials. I subscribed on atcbox.com (goldmember) thinking that live radar streams would help. Unfortunately no military traffic show up

What's the trick to get the serials (beside going visual) ?

[aviodromefriend]

What's the trick to get the serials (beside going visual) ?

There isn't as the military normally don't transmit the data needed to match the callsign and the serial of the aircraft, and if they transmit, it is known the match-ups are unreliable, as equipment has been taken out of an airframe and used again in another. The databases used for the match-up are not maintained that well (or aren't informed immediately) to counter this.

Maybe trying to get a job in ATC (mil or civ) might help as you might get into a position you can see the flightplans.

I think these 2 links give a more indepth explanation, although they are talking about one particular aircraft, it also applies here: http://www.vulcantothesky.org/phpBB3/vi ... f=27&t=617 and http://forum.vulcantothesky.org/topic.a ... C_ID=10347

[joost]

Just to let you know (perhaps it will help a newbie in the future) that I bought the 3500 XLT with Diamond SRH 779 (plus ARC3500 Pro software) and it works just fine. Picking up various ATC signals (military and civil).

Now down to my question. I get to hear callsigns but do not manage to get serials. I subscribed on atcbox.com (goldmember) thinking that live radar streams would help. Unfortunately no military traffic show up

What's the trick to get the serials (beside going visual) ?

Famous question why Mil planes do not show up ...Aviodromefriend gave some usefull links indeed telling about ADS-B
However, it does not tell it is possible to create a plot on screen by using MLAT which is explainded here

As for serials, must admit, never 100% rely on mode-s sightings.
Indeed some jets are known to (temporarely) have swapped Mode-s transponders for serviceablity reasons or showing wrong hexcodes caused by various reasons.

You might want to visit Albert's site, which is very well maintainded and corrections (if needed ) are made after confirmation of sighting or inside info.

Hope you will enjoy your 3500XLT!

Grtz
Joost

[Klostrophormium]

With regard to collecting mil info have a look for "SBS" and "planeplotter" online. I do not use them but many do. It involves collecting the data sent to/from satelites and uploading it directly to a pc.

I refer to my previous post, FC have a very helpfull bunch of members who know all about scanners, SBS and planeplotter.

Regards

Klostrophormium

[Katabatik]

It took some days to get an account on fightercontrol but I am now logged in. Will start digging in posts. Thanks all of you for the tips. Looks like at first glance that resolving callsigns to serial is not an easy task.