How to Listen to Live Aircraft Communications Without a Radio

Some of my best memories growing up were and still are listening to local VHF aircraft communications using a simple 20 channel analog scanner. It also dawned on me recently that since I was born, I have always somehow lived within a few miles of either a small civil airport, or a military air base.

This is likely what peaked the interest. This and my grandfather was a retired navy air traffic controller, and my father is a voracious aviation history reader. Needless to say there have been a few discussions about airplanes around me throughout my life, and guys that liked listening to aircraft communications as well.

Start Listening to Aircraft Communications Right Here

If listening to aircraft communications is something of interest to you, then you can get started right now and you don’t even need any sort of scanner, antenna, or even a radio of your own to do it.

You simply need to go here to liveatc.com

This is a website that hosts folks with live aircraft communications streams from around the world. You can tune in and listen live. It is super cool!

You can search for a specific airport you are interested in by entering an airport/ARTCC code. Or if you prefer, you can search by frequency, or you can do a site-wide search for the airport, area, or communications type that you are interested in listening to.

Many times, available for your listening pleasure, are an airport’s control tower, ground control, clearance delivery, and the associated air route traffic control center or local air traffic control center frequencies.

It is nothing short of awesome.

How to Track Some of the Aircraft You Hear Online

However, if you are a super geek, then you are going to love this!

You can even track some of the various flights you are monitoring too with online tools!

If you are a real flight buff then you can head over to FlightAware.com and monitor real-time worldwide flight traffic.

This is another super cool site!

However, to be honest, I haven’t gotten past the super basics of using this valuable resource as I don’t routinely track flights as part of my hobby, I am more into the radio communications aspect.

However, if this is something that you think you would like to check out, then you can’t beat this robust flight tracking site that uses a host of AI technologies along with data from air traffic control systems, ADS-B ground stations, satellite data and more from around the world in order to provide you with a real-time online flight tracking tool.

This really is a very complicated and robust free tool at your fingertips that tracks flights from around the world and the only inputs required are either a flight number or a route (origin and destination).

From that entry you can click on any of the little airplane icons that you are interested in and see the associated flight information. Details that are provided are the flight number, aircraft type, flight origin and destination, and constantly updated speed, altitude and distance measurements as the flight progresses.

Limited Tracking of Small Civilian and Military Flights

Now flights trackers such as the one mentioned above will mostly only track commercial airlines flights. This is because these are the aircraft that are the most equipped with the relevant technologies for displaying the data.

As far a smaller aircraft and military aircraft, these are generally not displayed on flight tracking sites as they either lack the equipment or requirements to display the data, or are not required to do so for security requirements.

However, if you are interested in tracking these types of aircraft, then another website that does seem to track some military tankers, smaller aircraft and business jets is ADS-BExchange.com.

This works a lot like the FlightAware site with the exception of some additional features and the additional tracking of some smaller and military aircraft, but is another good flight tracking site to bookmark and have on hand.

How to Understanding Aviation Communications Terminology

But what about all of that terminology and lingo like “VFR”, “squawk”, ident”, and “abeam”?

No problem, we’ve got you covered.

If you would like some more information on aircraft communications terminology, then I would point you to the best resource of all which is the FAA Pilot Controller Glossary

The aforementioned FAA resource lists the terminology and definitions of all the phraseology that you will hear throughout an afternoon of aircraft communications monitoring. It is a lot to take in at first, but as you listen more and learn the definitions of the terms it will become second nature after a while.

Creating New and Lasting Memories With Your Children or Grandchildren

I have fond memories of my dad driving me and my grandfather over to the civil airport near our house which was only about a mile away. We would crack open a soda, turn on the scanner and listen to the air traffic controller work the traffic in the pattern and watch the planes land. It was a great hour of fun with family and probably helped cement my fondness to this day for simply sitting down and listening to aircraft communications with a smile.

If you are a parent or grandparent, this is a hobby that can be a lot of fun for you to share with a child that is showing an early interest in aviation.

Perhaps showing kids the resources early with respect to how to listen to and understand aircraft communications, along with identifying and tracking flights, and you may just inspire a new generation of pilots, astronauts, or aerospace engineers.