Airband Radios

[Paul J]

Now heres a thought. Something I noticed a few years ago until I stopped buying aviation mags, the adverts by companies selling Airband radios suddenly disappeared!!! Why? Whats happened to them all? Are such radios still available to buy freely? Where? Has the advent of computorers replaced such things? Is spotting dying out? And lots more q's and A's re this one time hobby of mine but not any more, though I still watch aeroplanes that fly over through binos. ( Hard not to for me, Kind of ingrained into my being) Are there guys and gals still practising this hobby??

[Swamp Donkey]

I suspect SBS is the must have gadget now.......more important to me than the old air band....

SD

[The Cameraman]

Hi Paul,

I used to spot until many years ago. These days I just photograph things of interest.

When I used to spot, I would only class an aircraft as seen, if I'd physically 'reg'd if off myself and wouldn't accept it even if the details were obtained via the airband scanner. I still use my trusty scanners these days and have then running in the background whilst I'm doing other things.

As for SBS boxes, to me they're cheating!

Scanner are still readily available for most enthusiasts shops, Ebay, Maplin's etc.

Regards

Reggie

[Rick Brown]

Self confessed Radio Ham here.

You can get them very easily these days, even Amazon sell them quite cheaply.

You can pay less than £50 for a good one.

Many bits of amateur radio gear cover the a/c bands now, so we don't have such a need for separate

scanners anymore.

If you have one of these cheap DAB/DVT USB dongles you already have the makings for a good scanner.

Just google SDR#.

I paid £8 for a dongle and nothing for the software.

Also look at this:

http://www.flightradar24.com/

This'll allow you to track and see the bigger stuff (and some smaller stuff) just by looking at you PC screen.

Have fun with it,

Rick.

[Swamp Donkey]

SBS-3 includes the abilty to scan the airwaves too, though I don't know how it works or how good it is..................

SD

[George Norman]

Never use my two Scanners now, Mostly log onto ATC Stream these days. still would take them to the Airport though.

[Miggers]

I hardly use my scanner either nowadays(good old Realistic Pro-43 200 channel VHF/UHF)except

when visiting airshows.

Fr24 is my preferrred weapon of choice too,but I fancy a fiddle with this SDR# malarky

[Rick Brown]

I hardly use my scanner either nowadays(good old Realistic Pro-43 200 channel VHF/UHF)except

when visiting airshows.

Fr24 is my preferrred weapon of choice too,but I fancy a fiddle with this SDR# malarky

Yep, still got the trusty pro-43 too! Now due a strip down and full realignment. On the to do list.

Pm sent ref sdr#.

Rick.