Welcome to the new FlexRadio Community! Please review the new Community Rules and other important new Community information on the Message Board.
If you are having a problem, please refer to the product documentation or check the Help Center for known solutions.
Need technical support from FlexRadio? It's as simple as Creating a HelpDesk ticket.

Transverter for aircraft band?

Mark_WS7M
Mark_WS7M Member ✭✭✭
As a long time pilot I would be interested in finding/building a transverter that could receive the aircraft band:  118.0 - 137.0 AM.

Any recommendations on a transverter that would/could work?

Maybe "transverter" is not the right term here as I really don't want to "transmit" on the aircraft bands...   "receiveverter?"

I do realize I could probably just buy a radioshack scanner but whats the fun in that!?  I want to use my new 6500!!!

Mark

Answers

  • L.Kubis
    L.Kubis Member ✭✭
    edited August 2019
    Mark, have a look at the SDR-Play SDR now being sold by HRO for $150. It's ideal for listening to the aircraft band as well other portions of the spectrum as it covers 100Khz to 2 Ghz.
    Mine on the 2m band measured around 0.25uV sensivity.

    I use SDRSharp freebie software for this band with good results. Simon Brown's SDRConsole on HF 
    and HDSDR elsewhere.

    Great little RX for the money!

    Lloyd
    VE3ERQ
  • Greg - K5GJ
    Greg - K5GJ Member ✭✭
    edited February 2017
    Mark - if you just want to play, you can take the 10MHz reference from the 6500 and do a x10 to get to 100Mhz. Then use a VHF mixer and run the radio "IF" at 18 - 36MHz. Finally feed the front end through a BPF for aircraft band. You can probably score these components on Fleabay or at www.minicircuits.com. Now as Lloyd said, the SDR may be cheaper but this is a great way to get started in VHF xvtr design. Yell if you need more details. 73, Greg - K5GJ
  • Doug Hall
    Doug Hall Member ✭✭
    edited November 2015
    Also Mark, look at the schematic for the cheap 2m transverter from http://transverters-store.com/ It works in a similar fashion as the idea K5GJ presented. It has a BPF for the 2m band on the front end and a 116 MHz LO to a VHF mixer. Also see M0DGQ's 2m RX converter schematic here: http://www.m0dgq.co.uk/2m%20rx%20converter.html Either of these designs could be modified to cover the aircraft band.

    I've thought about building an airband RX converter for the Flex, but at present I have a little Icom 706 that I use to listen to local traffic. Brings back memories of my days in the little Cessna 172.
    73,
    Doug K4DSP

  • dlwarnberg
    dlwarnberg Member ✭✭
    edited May 2019
    SDRplay will do it now..

Leave a Comment

Rich Text Editor. To edit a paragraph's style, hit tab to get to the paragraph menu. From there you will be able to pick one style. Nothing defaults to paragraph. An inline formatting menu will show up when you select text. Hit tab to get into that menu. Some elements, such as rich link embeds, images, loading indicators, and error messages may get inserted into the editor. You may navigate to these using the arrow keys inside of the editor and delete them with the delete or backspace key.