Radio transmissions

[eggplant]

Hi all,

I am fairly local to Heathrow, and have recently started using a scanner to listen to aircarft transmissions on a scanner whilst watching the ANRB screen. Most interesting stuff, though sometimes hard to keep up with whom is doing what. Anyway - my question is this.. often I hear aircraft informing that they are for example "descending to flight level 90 with Foxtrot" or " descending to flight level 90 with information Oscar" etc. I understand the "descend to flight level" portion of the transmission but what does the reference to the phoentic alaphabet mean ?

I'm just curious, and am sure one of the learned experts on here will know.

Thanks in advance,

John

[Canonjohns40D]

Hi john this should help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Terminal_Information_Service
John

[eggplant]

John,

Thanks for the info. I can now stop wondering what they are referring to. Seems not all pilots confirm they have listened to the ATIS info. Probably just a matter of courtesy I guess.

Anyway thanks again,

John

[DeeJay]

It is mandatory to confirm receipt of the info on first contact with LHR approach. I have heard crews omitting to say they have received the info, and the controller requests them to confirm receipt. It does in fact say that at the end of the ATIS broad cast

[eggplant]

Thanks for the info DeeJay. It didn't occur to me that the confirmation of the info would only be on initial contact - but of course that makes sense, and explains why I hear some transmissions that don't refer to the ATIS.

Do you know what the ATIS broadcast frequency for LHR/EGLL is ? I have tried to listen to ATIS, using frequencies that I got from different websites, but just get white noise - perhaps the huge hill next to my house directly towards Heathrow explains that.

Thanks,

John with Bravo

[Allocator]

Take a look at the Aerodrome Chart for EGLL - see the table in the bottom right corner - COM

http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/current/ad/EGLL/EG_AD_2_EGLL_2-1_en.pdf

This is the EGLL page in the UK AIP - loads of stuff of interest here.

http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php%3Foption=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=94&Itemid=143.html

[eggplant]

Thanks Allocator,

Just tried the frequencies, and still get white noise, so I hold the big hill responsible. Anyway, thanks for the links, very interesting stuff.

I have been using the ANRB for little under a year now, and my interest just grows - my five year old son has also recently begun to take an interest. When we were spotting planes today I asked him if he would like to be a pilot one day, and he said "Sorry daddy, but planes are too big for me to drive !".

All the best,

John with Charlie

[Pinza]

This is the EGLL page in the UK AIP - loads of stuff of interest here.

http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/public/index.php%3Foption=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=94&Itemid=143.html

Great link Allocator - many thanks!

You can back-track one level from this link to find loads of info and charts for other UK airports too.

Shame I'm already back at work and printer ink has just run out - will have a fun session over the New Year break following this link!

[Pinza]

Just started printing out the Sids and Stars for my local airports (EGBB and EGNX) with what's left of my ink via the great link that Allocator suggested above.

Started adding the 'fixes' in File - Preferences - Radarbox tab - Custom Legend List.

Then realised that fixes were plotting in wrong locations on my screen.

Appears that NATS charts give co-ords in Degrees, Minutes, Seconds format whereas ANRB requires decimal degrees.

Found http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html
seems to do the translation needed!

Hope I'm correct in the above thinking - and not going to waste the rest of the year barking up the wrong tree!

Whatever you're doing tonight, have a good New Year everybody.

Chris/Pinza