Simviation Forums

Hi.

I was just wondering if anyone can provide me with some information on the legality of airband scanners and listening to airliners, airports, atc etc.

I understand it is a it of a gray area, and obviously intercepting things like Police airwaves should be avoided at all costs as that is illegal.

If it is legal, can someone refer me to a good place to get a decent scanner (UK)?

its

Hi Liam. We had a long discussion on this subject not long ago. I don't think it's a grey area at all & these scanners are on sale at pilot's shops & stands at most of the bigger air displays throughout the country. They would hardly be allowed to do that if it was illegal.

I don't know much about them myself but you only have to use a search engine to find out where to get them. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=airband+scanners&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

They would hardly be allowed to do that if it was illegal.

I did consider this, but then I thought it could be because of loop holes. For example a program like Limewire is hard to prove illegal as people can genuinely use it to download freeware, however the majority don't...I hope you get my point - the program or, in this case hardware, is technically fine if used correctly.

Thanks for clearing it up. I was having a discussion about it with my Dad earlier, and he sid he will show me his some time soon...I'm quite excited about that!  :)

Thanks for the help guys.

You might like to read this. As usual, the law is a tad confusing. http://www.airsupply.co.uk/information.htm

REMEMBER - LISTENING TO AIRCRAFT FREQUENCIES IS ILLEGAL. Owing and using a scanner is NOT.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I see people using these things all the time quite openly. If you get one just use a little common sense about where you use it. The main terminal at Heathrow might not be a good idea.

as i said last time, that law is very old and hasn't been enforced in a loooong time

That might be so Craig but it's posted on the site of the Air Supply Store, one of the big companies selling airband scanners. I expect they do that to cover themselves as they go on to tell you how to use them. Check out my link.

just did removing my sentence not worried but i wont risk the piggies finding out

If you have such a scanner. Can you just type in the
frequencies from fs9 ? I mean are the frequencies included in
Flightsim fictional or real ?

I am pretty certain that the freqs. from FS9 are real. However my scanner is old, and I cant get it to receive anything, so I dont know for sure.

Can you just type in the
frequencies from fs9 ? I mean are the frequencies included in
Flightsim fictional or real ?

It all depends, as real world frequencies can quite easily be changed. I imagine they are real as possible, probably taken from data supplied by Jeppeson at a fixed point in time in 2002 . In FS, it tends to be confined to Ground, Tower, and Approach/Departures at each airfield, with regional control once away from the airfield, whereas larger airfields in real life may have more functions such as several approach controllers and a director, particularly at busy military airfields.

I know all the frequencies at PANC are correct.  And as I understand it... the law was written back during WWII... sooo... it might be a little outdated.    

For freqs, you can do one/some of the following:

Go to your local flight school or FBO and ask for some old approach plate books or IFR charts. These have frequencies on them if you know what to look for.

Or, you can go to myairplane.com and look at the same stuff to get the freqs. Also you can use the plates from myairplane for your FS instrument approaches.  :D