I live near USAF base and most Aircraft frequencies are not included on my scanner 216 mhz - 399. mhz band is the area of interest ( reserved for military Air Craft band). Have a Radio shack pro-528 scanner, now should I build my own down converter with a PLL freq. local oscillator or my own radio or another scanner???


Regards,
Jaack

 

FYI: Most military communications these days are secured either via encryption or frequency hoping or both. I don't know how much comms are done in the clear anymore, although airfield operations are the most likely candidate.

 

I live near USAF base and most Aircraft frequencies are not included on my scanner 216 mhz - 399. mhz band is the area of interest ( reserved for military Air Craft band). Have a Radio shack pro-528 scanner, now should I build my own down converter with a PLL freq. local oscillator or my own radio or another scanner???


Regards,
Jaack

Hi Jaack:

Military aircraft use AM, so even if you had the right frequency coverage, you probably wouldn't be able to copy it on most scanners.

 

FYI: Most military communications these days are secured either via encryption or frequency hoping or both. I don't know how much comms are done in the clear anymore, although airfield operations are the most likely candidate.

Actually, there's an amazing amount of traffic in the clear. Full encryption is rarely used on the 200-300 Mhz radios, though frequency hopping (HAVE QUICK) is pretty common. However, there are frequent "unable" conditions which cause everyone to revert to in-the-clear transmissions. Again, this is all AM, so you might need to build an AM demodulator if you're using a standard scanner.

Eric

 

Might also mention that even if you do manage to receive and demodulate the aircraft frequencies, the voice transmissions are extremely terse and cryptic, and will mean nothing if you aren't "in the loop." This is probably much more effective than electronic encryption anyway.

Eric

 

Using an USB SDR dongle is probably the best way today to cheaply monitor that band.

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

I've got several of the Rafael Micro R820T units that work great with a real antenna and are very good at short-wave with a down-converter.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ultra-cheap-sdr/FB6FzRdSdDo

 

Actually, there's an amazing amount of traffic in the clear. Full encryption is rarely used on the 200-300 Mhz radios, though frequency hopping (HAVE QUICK) is pretty common.
Eric

Our pilots hated the NESTOR encryption devices they had to use because of the delay in actual voice transmission and reception could be up to a full second. That's several eternity's when flying.
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky08.html
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky28.html
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky38.html

 

Our pilots hated the NESTOR encryption devices they had to use because of the delay in actual voice transmission and reception could be up to a full second. That's several eternity's when flying.
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky08.html
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky28.html
http://www.jproc.ca/crypto/ky38.html

Yeah...Hee hee. Lots of folks would be amazed how many HQ-117 transceivers are still in use.....late 1960s technology. Pretty bullet proof, and I don't think they're going away any time soon!

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

I want to THANK everyone who replied to my POST. THANKS The scanner Radio Shack pro-528 has AM and FM. Has trunking which is multi freq transmission but not freq hopping. Hospitalized with spinal problems genetic kept me from any keyboards. Wish voice control of computer would have progressed more than it has. Text to voice is barely acceptable now.

Regards to all
jaack