How far away can you pick up signals transmitted by aircraft/ATC radios?

Question

I'm going to get a radio scanner soon and was wondering how far aircraft and ATC radios transmit? I live 25 miles from the airport, the planes come in en route to land within 5 miles of my house so I'm sure I could hear there transmissions to ATC but would I be able to hear ATC's replies or the airports ATIS? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It's line of sight. So it depends on a lot of factors: altitude of aircraft, distance from airport, terrain between you and the transmitter.

Answer 2

It is line of sight, but receiving those transmissions is also dependent upon their power output. Generally, aircraft radios are low wattage, 10 - 15. ATC uses higher power radios to insure their broadcasts are heard clearly and to aircraft systems that have radios with less than great receiver gain.

Atmospheric conditions also play a role in what you will pick up, clear nights being the best.

In a nutshell, you should always hear the ATC or tower, but may not pick up the aircraft until they get close.

Answer 3

Line of sight. There is acctually a formula

Dist = 1.25 sq root of ht of A/C + 1.25 sq root of ht of Tower

Answer 4

You will be able to hear aircraft from a much greater distance than you will be able to hear the ground station.  Using the antenna on the scanner, you may hear aircraft 50+ miles away, depending on altitude, but you will need to be within a few miles of the ground station to catch that end of the communications.  An outside antenna mounted as high as possible would help considerably.  In your case, the odds of hearing the ground station, using the scanner antenna, are very slim .

Answer 5

It depends how good your scanner is.If aircraft are 5 miles from you any scanner will do you should pick up atc as well.

Answer 6

Aircraft band transmissions are in the VHF part of the spectrum (108-135 mHz). Transmissions on these frequencies are line-of-sight. That is, you can receive it if you have a clear view to the source. You should be able to hear aircraft in flight 100 miles away or more, depending upon their altitude.

As for ATIS and ATC, you would do best to get your antenna as high as possible. If there are no tall buildings, or dense trees between you and the airport, you should be able to pick them up as well.