What are the responsibilities of the control tower, approach, departure, ground radios etc.?

Question

I'm trying to understand what they're saying on the control tower.

Answer 1

Conrol Tower is in charge of the donuts every day. Approach is in charge of coffee on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and also treats on birthdays. Departure has coffee duty on the remaining days and handles Christmas party and any other parties as deemed neccesary by the Tower (retirements, anniversaries).

Ground has to go get anything, you buy, they fly.

Answer 2

Controll tower: handles responsibilites from a 5 mile radius to either direct the plane to land or to take off.

Departure: handles responsiblilities from 5 miles out untill the aircraft is at an altitude where it is then handed off to an on-route control centre. they generally get the aircraft pointed in the right direction towards it's destination.

Arrival: Similar to departure except when a plane is coming in to land from a certain until about 5 miles out from the airport (no matter the altitude).

ground i think is pretty self explanitory. they are responsible for the safe coordination of all aircraft from their gates/parking spaces right up until the aircraft reaches the end of the taxiway at their assigned active runway.

Answer 3

Here's the short version:

Control Tower:  Ground control controls aircraft on the taxiways, etc., while Local "owns" the runway and gives takeoff/landing clearance and authorizes Ground to taxi aircraft across the runway.  There are other positions in the tower, but Local/Ground is what most people think of.

Approach/Departure, often collectively referred to as a TRACON, provide radar separation, sequencing, etc. for aircraft arriving, departing, and operating in the vicinity of  the airport and at relatively low altitudes (although many TRACONS own altitudes well into the flight levels.)

ARTCC, or centers generally are concerned with high altitude traffic, but also provide radar service in areas where there is no TRACON, etc.  Centers may also provide flight following for VFR aircraft operating away from terminal areas.

As far as understanding what controllers are saying, there are recordings available from sources such as "Shorty's" that can be used to listen and learn to understand the jargon.