Scanner newbie in search of some advise....

[Polleke_NL]

Hi all,

I am pretty new when it comes to the use of a scanner, and when looking up frequencies for certain field often a huge list with various frequencies pop-up. But as I am only interested in 3 "actvities" (start-up/take-off, approach/landing and field crossing) which ones should I look for?
For Spangdahlem for example I see many air-to air and squadron frequencies, what are they good for (from a listener perspective), what does "ground" cover, same question for "Radar", "Tower", "GCA", "Control Centre/Post, "Supervisor of Flight" and "Delivery/Ground"
Is there an overview/explanation of these available anywhere on Scramble or elsewhere on the www as I don't like to "polute" my scanner with useless frequencies?

Thanks in advance!

[Thijs]

A good starter are the MIL AIP; here you can find all the ATC frequencies (ground, tower, approach, radar)

See https://www.afod.eur.army.mil/Links/ for an overview of some European countries.

If something is "usefull" is up to you. At command post / operations frequencies most aircraft give an inbound call when they are 15 to 30 minutes out. When at the ground at these frequency you hear the first indication about start-up / take-off time.

It's also a matter of start listening and discover yourself what is usefull or useless; most scanners have a lock-out function

For Benelux and German airfields https://frequentiedatabase.eu/zoekfreq.php is a good source.

Have fun!

[Polleke_NL]

Thanks Thijs, appreciated !

[AK01]

Hi Ruud,
I don't know how many banks you have in your scanner. I usually put all atc freqs (Ground, tower, gca, approach, departure) in one bank, and the Air to air, command post ops etc in another bank.
But that all depends on what airfield you visit, Spangdahlem has quite a lot freqs in use, many smaller airfields have only a tower frequency for, in some cases level 100 or higher. If I visit Schiphol an arriving mil visitor i have one bank with radar , approach. For departures I have a bank with ground, clearance and tower.
Succes, Pieter,

[aviodromefriend]

But as I am only interested in 3 "actvities" (start-up/take-off, approach/landing and field crossing) which ones should I look for?

For those parts of a flight at smaller fields Ground and Tower will do, maybe if an airfield has a special freq for it, delivery might be of interest. Don't know how far out you mean for approach, if it is for the last bit before touch down tower will cover that, an approach frequency is for traffic still a bit further away from the runway. For sites like Schiphol Apron can be of some interest.

If any frequency is about what you call scanner pollution for you, lock those out while being out, and remove those from your scanner when you are back home.