Let me start off my saying that I don't know very much at all about the workings of a radio. What I am looking for is a radio reciever of sorts. I mostly just want to be able to pick up mostly aeronautical frequencies from bypassing aircraft, the airport (which is about 15-20 miles away from my house) and emergency frequencies (121.5MHz). I've been looking at some of the radios on here: http://tinyurl.com/j4dr9 .

I just don't know what I want. CB, scanners, or shortwave. I just want to be able to pick up frequencies, not talk back.

nothing on that page looks like what you want.

you definitely want a 'scanner'.. but not one specificaly for nascar because i'm not sure it will pick up ems and the other stuff you want.

some of the other guys here will probably give you ideas on price and models.

and go to your local radio shark or whatever and check out their sales.

you basically want a uhf/vhf (ie. for local) scanner that gets aircraft, police, ems, weather and public stuff (like utility companies, etc).

let us know what you wind up with.

and be patience, there is usually quite a learning curve with scanners, even when they are pre-programmed for your area.

Yaesu VR-500 with PC programming kit off of E-bay It'll do shortwave on up to >1 ghz, everything you need.

If that's to much for you then just get any old scanner, you'll have alot of fun with it

Oh, and ask here before you buy something, chances are somebody can give you a review of a product and let you know if it's worth it before you spend your hard earned dough.

If you want to listen to airplanes make sure your scanner is "Air-Band" capable. some of the more basic ones are not.

[This message has been edited by radioman (edited 03-13-2006).]

First off where abouts do you live?

Ebay is great for scanners, You can pick up a nice 2nd hand scanner really cheap.

As by the first post you could check out Radioshack. They also have cheap/begginner radios there, which are brand new..

That IS RadioShack's website. RadioShack in Canada got taken over by Circuit City's parent company and now it's called The Source. Gay. I know. But that's beside the point.

And yes, they do look sorta difficult to use. I still wanna learn though.

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If you want to listen to airplanes make sure your scanner is "Air-Band" capable.

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What's the difference? Isn't it just a frequency I'm tuning into? I know the airport's frequency. As long as the scanner can tune into it, it should work, right? All aircraft that fly overhead my house use that frequency. It's not like it's scrambled or anything (i think).

I live 20 minutes from Toronto.
I'll look more into the Yaesu too. I found a store nearby that sells their stuff. It looks expensive though. I don't have a credit-card so ebay is out of the question.

Do you know what type of air traffic you're trying to hear? I.e. approach, center, clearance/delivery, tower, common, etc...?

scanners r kewl
whats the topic about?

The difference between air band and regular stuff is that Air band is in the frequency range of 108 to 130mhz (roughly) and some cheaper scanners will not cover this. The other difference is that aircraft radios use Amplitude modulation (AM) whereas conventional police radios use Frequency modulation (FM). If you try and recieve an Amplitude modulated signal with a frequency modulation reciever you will just get static or barely audible speech.

http://www.canairradio.com/yyz.html

I'm only interested in the ATC frequencies not the specific airline company ones.

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The difference between air band and regular stuff is that Air band is in the frequency range of 108 to 130mhz (roughly) and some cheaper scanners will not cover this.

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But if the scanner specifically says "100 Mhz and above" or something similar, it would work right?

I read over a little AM and FM info but it makes very little sense. Is the basic difference the range of frequencies the two use?

Perfect scanner, at least what I have, and it works great, as I listen to the air band every now and then as well. Radio shack pro-94. It covers 29-54, 108-136.975(aircraft band) 216-225 (I think military and 220 MHz ham band, 406-512, 806-823-police trunking bands, 896-956, and 1240-1300, all in MHz. It covers about everything I can possibly think of using a scanner for, clandestine or not. It should be cheaper, too, since it is a few years old. Give it a look, and that Yaesu sounds good too!

Oh, and to answer your question negative zero, there is a big difference between am and fm. Am is Amplitude modulation, which means if you look at the vibrating wave as a line, it would increase or decrease in modulation, or height. This would be much like a guitar string.

Fm on the other hand, vibrates more like a slinky if you rapidly move it on one end, the wave travels as a compression across the slinky. The wave height is the same but the frequency changes, hence the name frequency modulation. Both acheive the same thing in the end, to produce a voltage high enough to be amplified and put through speakers, a TV, whatever.

So, anAM signal modulates, or "swings", whereas an FM signal stays the same, since it is only a carrier signal whose frequency varies. If you yell into any AM transmitter, the max amount of power comes out only when the signal is modulated the highest, at the top of the yell. In quiet, the station only broadcasts a weak carrier, although this is more true only in CB and ham radio. You can yell into an Fm transmitter as much as you want, but that will not increase how far you can talk with it.

That would be my best way to describe AM and FM. Also, I should add, AM or FM can be used on any frequency, although the clarity will generally increase as the frequency increases; An AM station has to use a lot more amperage to drive its amplifiers than an
FM one only because AM radio sits in the shortwave area of the spectrum, where the frequency is rather measured in kilohertz rather than megahertz, while FM operates in the 100 megahertz range. Intead of having to ocscillate a signal that have a wavelength of a thousand feet like AM radio does, an FM station only has to oscillate a wave about 19 inches long. That could be equated to thinking of the energy it would take to make a thousand foot rope vibrate compared to a 19 inch one.

Plus, FM can be stereo, while although it is possible to make stereo AM, it just doesnt have the clarity of FM.

By the way, I have a radio that can transmit AM, FM, and SSB. That does prove that Am and FM are signal modes, not just where the common radio station uses the format.

Ok, I should shut up now, as I know this is getting to be real long. I just love this kinda shit, so I don't mind taking some time to explain it if someone is interested. It's a cool hobby, and who knows, Howard Stern had to have his start somewhere. Well, then again, look at Dave Roth, but I'm just gonna stop there.

Hope it helps.



[This message has been edited by PUN5H3D3X5T3NC3 (edited 03-16-2006).]

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Originally posted by Halvy101:
but not one specificaly for nascar because i'm not sure it will pick up ems and the other stuff you want.

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All the newish uniden scanners I have seen have 'NASCAR' on them. I think it may have something to do with legal bullshit. I know nothing about scanners, I just listen to them, but the one similar to that(it may be the model up) gets everything in my city besides the military I think.

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Originally posted by jimany:
All the newish uniden scanners I have seen have 'NASCAR' on them. I think it may have something to do with legal bullshit. I know nothing about scanners, I just listen to them, but the one similar to that(it may be the model up) gets everything in my city besides the military I think.

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The BR330T is being marketed as a NASCAR race scanner. It's basically the BCD396T without APCO-25 capabilities. However, even though it has the NASCAR label on it, it isn't limited to race frequencies.

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Originally posted by PUN5H3D3X5T3NC3:
Perfect scanner, at least what I have, and it works great, as I listen to the air band every now and then as well. Radio shack pro-94. It covers 29-54, 108-136.975(aircraft band) 216-225 (I think military and 220 MHz ham band, 406-512, 806-823-police trunking bands, 896-956, and 1240-1300, all in MHz. It covers about everything I can possibly think of using a scanner for, clandestine or not. It should be cheaper, too, since it is a few years old. Give it a look, and that Yaesu sounds good too!

Oh, and to answer your question negative zero, there is a big difference between am and fm. Am is Amplitude modulation, which means if you look at the vibrating wave as a line, it would increase or decrease in modulation, or height. This would be much like a guitar string.

Fm on the other hand, vibrates more like a slinky if you rapidly move it on one end, the wave travels as a compression across the slinky. The wave height is the same but the frequency changes, hence the name frequency modulation. Both acheive the same thing in the end, to produce a voltage high enough to be amplified and put through speakers, a TV, whatever.

So, anAM signal modulates, or "swings", whereas an FM signal stays the same, since it is only a carrier signal whose frequency varies. If you yell into any AM transmitter, the max amount of power comes out only when the signal is modulated the highest, at the top of the yell. In quiet, the station only broadcasts a weak carrier, although this is more true only in CB and ham radio. You can yell into an Fm transmitter as much as you want, but that will not increase how far you can talk with it.

That would be my best way to describe AM and FM. Also, I should add, AM or FM can be used on any frequency, although the clarity will generally increase as the frequency increases; An AM station has to use a lot more amperage to drive its amplifiers than an
FM one only because AM radio sits in the shortwave area of the spectrum, where the frequency is rather measured in kilohertz rather than megahertz, while FM operates in the 100 megahertz range. Intead of having to ocscillate a signal that have a wavelength of a thousand feet like AM radio does, an FM station only has to oscillate a wave about 19 inches long. That could be equated to thinking of the energy it would take to make a thousand foot rope vibrate compared to a 19 inch one.

Plus, FM can be stereo, while although it is possible to make stereo AM, it just doesnt have the clarity of FM.

By the way, I have a radio that can transmit AM, FM, and SSB. That does prove that Am and FM are signal modes, not just where the common radio station uses the format.

Ok, I should shut up now, as I know this is getting to be real long. I just love this kinda shit, so I don't mind taking some time to explain it if someone is interested. It's a cool hobby, and who knows, Howard Stern had to have his start somewhere. Well, then again, look at Dave Roth, but I'm just gonna stop there.

Hope it helps.

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that was reallly very well done, thanx man.

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Originally posted by Halvy101:
that was reallly very well done, thanx man.

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Thanks man! I just like that kinda stuff, I always have, but I never took the time when I was younger to understand the technical side of it. All I can say is that I cleared up a lot of misconceptions with myself.