William From United States of America, joined Jun 1999, 1141 posts, RR: 0 Posted (14 years 1 week 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 980 times:
This may sound crazy,but a friend of mine who is a flight attendant told me it was routine while at cruising level,to up to the cockpit,and see pilots reading newpapers or listening to music.
I know it happens,I want to know what radio equipment are they using to be able to listen to radio stations?
True story,I was listening to the radio one night and they were having some contest,and a DC10 pilot called in stating they and over 200 passengers were jamming with them,no lie,heard myself. So pilots,how do you do it? And what do you listen too?
Dash8 From New Zealand, joined Aug 2005, 1 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (14 years 1 week 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 980 times:
Easy, tune in your ADF (automatic direction finder) to any AM station you might be flying over. And since you're at 25,000 feet (in my case) you can receive it from a much greater distance. When you have it tuned in just transfer the sound via PA (public adress system) system to everyone sitting in the cabin. Sometimes when we're flying and our "operations" department at our home base wants to hear something we call up any AM station in our range, put the mike on the speaker and transmit.
This is possible because the aviation navigation stations called NDB's is basically an AM station using the same frequency range. We also did what you mentioned when we had a delay and the passsengers were getting bored. It's fun to watch their faces light up.
As for reading the papers and magazines, you bet we do it. If you dont want us to bore ourselves to death you better give us something to do up there. of course ALWAYS keeping an eye on the autopilot, warning panel and GPS.
SpUd From United Kingdom, joined Apr 2011, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (14 years 1 week 11 hours ago) and read 980 times:
yep, When I flew. Tuning the ADF into a local am station was the trick. We can tune the HF into the Radio NZ network and get the news, programs, sport and music. But that runs out about HNL/GUM depending on the conditions.
Cedarjet From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 7724 posts, RR: 55 Reply 4, posted (14 years 1 week 8 hours ago) and read 980 times:
I'm not sure if I've ever been on a flightdeck where someone wasn't reading a "nudie mag". In my experience Lufthansa crews seem particularly keen on these august publications. Same with access panels as JETPILOT pointed out - open anything up and there'll be some pink flesh. The panel in the centre of the yoke where it usually says Boeing or MD11 or whatever seems especially popular.
Many a time I've flown back from Belfast over the Irish Sea listening to the BBC via the ADF.
fly Saha Air 707s daily from Tehran's downtown Mehrabad to Mashhad, Kish Island and Ahwaz
Mirage From Portugal, joined May 1999, 3120 posts, RR: 16 Reply 5, posted (14 years 1 week 7 hours ago) and read 980 times:
I know you may not belive this but I have talked with one pilot from Air Europe while he was flying his 737 from Madrid to Canary Islands.
We talked in 27.555Mhz, I was using my HAM radio but I don't know what was his equipment.
He told me he was almost leaving the portuguese FIR to Moroco FIR. After we talked I pay attention to my scanner on 125.55Mhz, that's the south region of portuguese FIR and I could listen Lisbon ATC passing this Air Europa flight to Casablanca ATC.
I think he's also a radio amateur.
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