VHF Aircraft Communications

[HulkSmash]

Hello - I have a ICOM IC-R7000 receiver and I can hear all kinds of aircraft communication on 125.08 MHz (AM). The aircraft are commercial airlines. My question is this, I can hear the aircraft call into a traffic control tower but I never hear the tower response. I only can hear what the pilots say. Why is this?

Thanks!

[ChrisSmolinski]

VHF communications are line of sight. The planes are tens of thousands of feet in the air, so you can hear them. You cannot hear ground stations unless you are relatively close.

[HulkSmash]

Okay, makes sense. Thanks Chris for the explanation.

[autovon]

An abreviated explanation.   You have your airport/departure/arrival frequencies.  Then you have your en route frequencies.

The first are typically located nearby the airport, and if you're close you can hear the ground TX and the aircraft.

For enroute, the ground TX sites are all over the place.  I put the 125.075 in the search and it might be a TX site out of Zanesville, OH.  Depending on where you are in OH, Indianapolis Center or Cleveland Center control the enroute.  You can go through radioreference and see if you have any sites close by.

[ThaDood]

Wanna' fun aviation FREQ to check out? Listen anytime on 123.450MHz AM. That's like the CB CH19 equivalent for air traffic. At 2AM, you can hear cargo planes talking like truckers from several states away. Ya never know what, or whom, you might hear on that FREQ.

[HulkSmash]

Wanna' fun aviation FREQ to check out? Listen anytime on 123.450MHz AM. That's like the CB CH19 equivalent for air traffic. At 2AM, you can hear cargo planes talking like truckers from several states away. Ya never know what, or whom, you might hear on that FREQ.

I'll give it a shot - thanks!

[sat_dxer]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-threat-air-traffic-control-general-qassem-soleimani-revenge/

No frequency given, no F¢¢ mentioned, of course this is C-BS, who tried to scare the pants off of people with cellular phones and scanners back in the 1980's

[NJQA]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-threat-air-traffic-control-general-qassem-soleimani-revenge/

No frequency given, no F¢¢ mentioned, of course this is C-BS, who tried to scare the pants off of people with cellular phones and scanners back in the 1980's

I saw the FAA bulletin.  It was on a 6 MHz HF frequency (I don’t recall which one) and was heard by a Jet Blue flight (some 300+ miles away), along with the FAA (Collins) operators.  There were some other broadcasts too.  Since everything is recorded, there are recordings.  They seem to think the transmitter was local to the ground station.  The FCC and law enforcement was involved.

In light of everything that occurred yesterday, could this have been a planned distraction?  Maybe to reduce the number of people in the Capital building?  That seems to make more sense than the Iranians telegraphing their actions.