Monitoring General Aviation Communications in VHF Air Band 

Thanks for the corrections Gregory. I haven't flown GA in the US, so appreciate your input!

Great to hear. Hopefully the info will get you hearing them pretty soon. Gliders often do not have to contact anyone, so hearing them isn't a guarantee, but they are on the airwaves out there on good flying days!

Thanks Buzz. Appreciate receiving your kind words and your donation to the channel 😄

Thanks for the comment Dale 😄

Yeah the Helimed flights can have a lot of radios. Here they are on the 700 MHz P25 system as well as the Airband. In the UK they have Tetra radios too. I enjoy listening to the medical / hospital patches as well, but it's only a matter of time until they disappear and it will be VHF Airband only!

Yep @@FrugalRadio I totally agree here in Aust we have already lost over 90% of our VHF & UHF listenjng with everything going encrypted ( all in the name of security of course.......yeah right ) So in Australia all metro & regional police are all encrypted, all metro Ambulance are encrypted with some regional still in the clear but all on different trunking networks including MPT1327 Analouge & Apco 25 Digital. "At the momemt in Aust the only totally encrypted states are the Australian Capital Territory ( better known as the ACT , Australia's capital ) & the NT or the Northern Territory. In my state & the 2 x states that surround me the metro & regional fire services are all different flavors of digital but " @ the moment still in the clear ) in my state we have 4 x different fire services Fire Rescue who until just revently were known as the MFB or the Metropolitan Fire Brigade who as their name suggests do Metro fires & road accidents where rescue & extraction & or wash away is required some times where they share a boarder with the next fire service they assist or back each other up at big metro/urban fires / rescues On the subject of rescue here in my state we have the SES or the State Emergency Servics who also do amoung other things vehicle rescue, extraction & work with both the above Fire Rescue & the below CFA The CFA or the Country Fire Authority who by their very name do " Far flung country " & some outter metro fires as well as assist / back up at big out of control bush fires, I say assist because we have another fire service called. Parks Vic who are " in charge" of fires & planned burms which often get away & turn into out of control bush fires in my state National parks they are assisted by both the CFA, the below as well as Metro Fire Rescue if either the fire crosses different fire service boundries or it just becomes to big for Parkes Vic to handle. but wait that's not all. Because we also have a 4th fire service called DELWP or the Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning & they do & are "in charge" of state Forrest fires & " planned burns " which regularly escape & become wild out of control bush fires, DELWP is also assisted by Fire rescue, CFA & Parks Vic if either the fire crosses different fire service boundries or it just becomes to big for DELWP to handle. All & or any of the 4 fire services can call in Air Support that can come in the form of Ericsson water & fire retardent bombers, Bell Jet Ranger water & fire retardent bombers, a 737-800 water & fire retardent bomber, BAE 146 water & fire retardent bombers, Herc J water & fire retardent bombers & A De Havilland Canada Dash 8 Q400AT water & fire retardent bomber provided by Conair. Generally speaking most water & fire retardent bombs are preceded by whats known as an airborn bird dog, Bird-dog aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft that coordinate the actions of helicopters and water & retardent bombers and scout out safe spots & areas to fly. During a big bush fire in Aust the aviation airwaves in particular can come alive very fast & become & stay very busy for days. During a big fire our bombers will take water from where ever they can get it from, private swimming pools, private dams, water reservoirs, tankers you name it, in the lead up to our fire season my scanners are always programmed up, powered up with spare backup power ready to go & can sometimes run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Wity regards to our rescue helimeds quiet often I'll see them come up on Flight Radar 24 or similar & I'll dial up their frequency or the area frequency they either they are currently over flying or are operating in and get the low down on whats happening otherwise I'll keep an eye on our state emergency web site & if I see an big incident on the go especially with various anencies involved I'll crank up the scanners, the helimeds are good because when tjey are airborne you can receive them from a very long way away & if they are on a trunking network even better once they depart the scene I can usually work out where they are going either they are meeting a road car down the road somewhere or they are flying direct to one of our major hospitals with a helipad which I have all programmed in. As technology takes over more & more we'll start to loose more & more aviation to other forms of digital comms, its already started happening here in Aust not all landing or taking off aircraft come up on the voice airwaves any more some are already using other forms of digital communications to communicate with ATC. Anyway keep up the great work & fingets crossed for more listenjng pleasure. Regards Wayne.

That's a lot of fire departments,, but with each having their own areas of responsibilities I guess the system works. As for aviation, the move towards data comms is interesting, and we will start looking at it soon. Best regards!

I took that one down. Perhaps a bit too controversial for public info.

Good idea with the Radio Reference / SDRUno link up. I wonder if there is a plug in that allows you to do that. I'm sure many people would find it useful.

Hi Ron. If I was visiting Western Europe, I'd start by looking on SkyVector.com. After viewing the charts for the areas I'd be visiting, I would then look up the individual airport information. However the charts also give frequencies for some of the airports - I checked Tenerife, Portugal, Spain & France.

@@FrugalRadio Thanks for the tip!

That one got taken down...

@@FrugalRadio thanks. it would be more enjoyable to watch from you.

No, I don't at present I'm afraid. Perhaps I can upload them to my website over the next few days...