Michael,
That may happen when the plane is on the ground, the antenna is on a relatively low helight as compared to as it is in the air. The ATC tower antenna may be on a higher ground (Tower is usually higher than the plane itself) that's why you can hear the ATC but not the readback from a plane sitting on the ground.
VHF signals don't travel well without a line of sight. I mean if you go to town there are usually a lot of buildings to attenuate the signals.
Hope it helps..
kkjlai
Yes, the airplane antennas are like a piece of cable cutted for airband, and the ATC tower antenna, is a real antenna mounted high, and probably with higher power. (Power doesn't do difference, only when you have a high mounted antenna) Completely normal, and I agree, offer tower and app, little airports, ground isn't entertaining to listen, and you're lucky that you can hear those anyway.
I have problems even listening APP control, the controllers can't be heard always, tower much less and Atis. And I'm about 5-6 miles from the airport, no tall or big buildings or mountains.
Weird thing is, that we are building a new house, and is even more far, 1 mile more, and there's a weird spot of 1 meter in the backyard, with my center whip radio scanner antenna that I can listen even to the Atis completely clear, and because there's some kind of repeater in the airport, I can listen to Mazatlan Center controllers at about 400 milles from here, too.
When I move, if I can get stable reception, I promise a Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico feed, running most of the time.
thanks for all the help.
can anyone help me with this:
I have FIRE & POLICE and ATC put in my scanner, for my feed I want ABE TWR, ABE APP, ABE DEP, now if I put them in and scan it will also pick up the FIRE freqs. is there anyway I can just scan those 3 freqs or will I only be able to have one freq. for the feed?
thanks
Michael
If they are programmed in the same bank, (that I believe is the case) when you are in manual mode, for example in my radio shack scanner, there's a L-Out option, that disables scanning that. Or if it is in different banks, you simply disable the bank you aren't interested to. The manual of your radio scanner will explain you, you didn't told us what do you have.