Overused Frequencies

weirdjim said:
OK, here it is from the horse's mouth. Or, since it is a federal agency, perhaps from a different orifice of the horse ...

§87.217 Frequencies.

(a) Only one unicom frequency will be assigned at any one airport. Applicants must request a particular frequency, which will be taken into consideration when the assignment is made. The frequencies assignable to unicoms are:
(1) 122.950 MHz at airports which have a full-time control tower or full-time FAA flight service station.
(2) 122.700, 122.725, 122.800, 122.975, 123.000, 123.050 or 123.075 MHz at all other airports.
(b) 121.500 MHz: emergency and distress only.



What we did at Grass Valley Intentional Peapatch is maintained a listening watch for a week on each of the frequencies and did an informal "tally" of each transmission that we heard. When we applied for 122.725 we supplied this tally as supporting data showing that this frequency was the least used in our part of the world. No problems.


Jim
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Huh. I wonder how we got 122.9?
 
Jay Honeck said:
Well, that's just completely silly, if true.

Something that is a cross-airport, regional problem needs to be handled at the regional (or higher) levels of the FAA in order to coordinate and facilitate logical changes. Otherwise, nothing will happen, or, worse, illogical changes will be made.

Which, of course, points to you being 100% correct, given that nothing has happened, ever. :mad2:
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Not an FAA problem....


Bob Gardner
 
An airport can definitely request a change, a local airport with a high number of parachute and training operations requested a change and got it approved.
COMMON TFC ADVISORY FREQ 123.00 CHANGED TO 122.725. 07 MAR 00:40 2015 UNTIL PERM.

Of course, I doubt that anything would ever happen unless the airport management requested it.
 
My GTN-750 is capabale of 8.33 kHz channel spacing as used in Europe. Who's ready for an 8.33 kHz mandate along with ADS-B, huh?! Anyone? No? mkay.
 
petrolero said:
My GTN-750 is capabale of 8.33 kHz channel spacing
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OOOOh boy. 25 kHz. crystal filters for the IF strip are a twitchy bitchy. I can't imagine what 8 kHz. filters are like.

No, let Europe deal with the eightsies. I'm happy with 25.

Jim
 
Lowflynjack said:
How often I fly around Houston or Dallas has nothing to do with how busy a non-towered frequency is.
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Sure it does, being used to talking to people on a busy radio make a difference.

I might have missed it but what was the airport identifer where this happened?
 
I am used to talking on busy frequencies. It has nothing to do with someone being stepped on on a busy GA frequency. If you're talking to a tower, no matter how busy they are, everyone is just talking to the one tower. You're not hearing multiple airports and trying to understand if they just said your airport name or another. You also expect an answer when you transmit. You don't have to wonder if anyone heard you, they will let you know if they didn't clearly hear what you said.

I flew into Cleburne a few weeks ago. We had four airplanes in our group and there were four other planes (three in the pattern and one coming from the opposite side of the field and crossing over the middle). Throw in the fact that at least one of the pilots in the pattern was hard to understand and a lot of radio calls from Stephenville (very busy lunch stop) and it got interesting.

I think it's funny that no one can rationally argue that having heavy-use airports move off of one of busiest frequencies wouldn't improve safety, yet some people will keep trying even when it wouldn't affect them a bit.

I didn't specifically mention an airport... I mentioned a frequency. I fly out of T74, but I fly all over the state chasing the $100 hamburger.


James331 said:
Sure it does, being used to talking to people on a busy radio make a difference.

I might have missed it but what was the airport identifer where this happened?
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Lowflynjack said:
If someone thinks they make a good transmission and we heard it, yet they were stepped on, it can create a safety issue. Beyond that, as the video someone shared shows, even the constant screech we have to listen to as everyone steps on someone else is annoying. It causes us to turn down our radios. There are enough frequencies we shouldn't have this issue. I understand it's asking for change and some people will argue about it. It was just a thought.

How often I fly around Houston or Dallas has nothing to do with how busy a non-towered frequency is.
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Have you asked your airport manager to have the frequency changed? Why don't you find a good one for there and suggest it?
 
Henning said:
Have you asked your airport manager to have the frequency changed? Why don't you find a good one for there and suggest it?
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The wrongness of that approach is obvious to everyone except, of course, the FAA (whom we are told is not interested).

So the OP gets his airport manager to change to 122.7, let's say. This all happens in an information vacuum, with no over-arching coordination? Wouldn't it be better to have one of our overpaid bureaucrats plot the airports in (let's say) South Texas on a map, color code the frequency range rings BY FREQUENCY, and see where they obviously overlap?

At that point sensible frequency changes could be suggested.

This sort of thing needs to be done regionally and logically, for best results.
 
Jay Honeck said:
The wrongness of that approach is obvious to everyone except, of course, the FAA (whom we are told is not interested).

So the OP gets his airport manager to change to 122.7, let's say. This all happens in an information vacuum, with no over-arching coordination? Wouldn't it be better to have one of our overpaid bureaucrats plot the airports in (let's say) South Texas on a map, color code the frequency range rings BY FREQUENCY, and see where they obviously overlap?

At that point sensible frequency changes could be suggested.

This sort of thing needs to be done regionally and logically, for best results.
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LOL, how does someone anti big government and pro local control find that wrong? If the FAA doesn't know something needs addressing, how should they know to change it? Do you think the FAA should go on a full fledged program to design a non competing frequency matrix grid and reassign all the frequencies around the country? That's the only "They Should Not Allow This" answer there is. I can just imagine the outcries if that ever happened.

Lord keep people for actually taking a step in fixing their minor problems, give them a government that doesn't let them have a problem.
 
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Jay Honeck said:
So the OP gets his airport manager to change to 122.7, let's say. This all happens in an information vacuum, with no over-arching coordination?
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Who knows better what the local situation is? Let's not get Government involved unless it's absolutely necessary.

If I remember an earlier post, your airport uses 122.9 If so, you don't HAVE a Unicom frequency at your airport, Jay. You use Multicom, along with hundreds of other uncontrolled airports who have never had a Unicom frequency assigned. No wonder the airwaves are busy.

Grab a chart and an airport guide, find the least-used frequency in your vicinity, and do what's necessary to register a Unicom frequency.

Ideally, the CAA should have designated frequencies by area for the entire country back in the '50s when GA radios started getting popular. But it didn't happen then, and the system grew up randomly since then. There never was a good opportunity to ram through an organized system.

The FAA is not dumb enough to try to "reform" Unicom frequency assignments. Everybody wants their Unicom frequency less busy, but everyone wants the OTHER guys to change their frequency. The FAA is not going to insert themselves in that argument.

I suspect that, if you try to get your airport off Multicom, you're going to get a lot of pushback from other pilots at your own airport. Not to mention years of folks who "didn't get the word."

Ron "Bernoulli, not Marconi" Wanttaja
 
As I already stated, the airport(s) along the coast here in Texas are the rare exception, in that our frequencies are logically spaced out. There is no need for change here, thankfully.

But in other areas, damn, it's nothing but 122.8, and a solid squeal of interference on busy Saturdays.

It would be a trivial thing for the FAA to coordinate logical frequency spacing between airports, but, as usual, getting pilots to do anything is like herding cats. ;)
 
It's a job nobody wants, serving a very small population of rabid whiners who resist any change. You think the FAA is going to start a change they have no stake in? :rofl:
 
Jay Honeck said:
As I already stated, the airport(s) along the coast here in Texas are the rare exception, in that our frequencies are logically spaced out. There is no need for change here, thankfully.
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Jay, google 47CFR87 and see what you can do on Unicom that you can't do on multicom. I don't know how close you are to the airport or how chummy you are with the local government folks that own the airport, but if you don't get TOO commercialized with the thing, nearly anybody with any sort of tenuous ties to the airport can be the Unicom operator.

The holder of the TICKET will probably be the local government but ANYBODY can be the operator. Not necessarily be ON the airport. Hint. Hint.


Jim
 
A while back my home airport changed to 123.05. Now, once you're above pattern altitude, you get all the position reports for the Hudson River VFR Corridor. Granted we're far enough away not to step on each other, but it's still annoying.
 
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upstateny said:
A while back my home airport changed to 123.05. Now, once your above pattern altitude, you get all the position reports for the Hudson River VFR Corridor. Granted we're far enough away not to step on each other, but it's still annoying.
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Obviously some damfool picked the wrong frequency. It doesn't take an act of Congress to change frequencies.

Jim
 
how about fat cheerleader (346.8) or retarded cheerleader (246.7) or magnum (307.0)
 
VHF isn't limited to line of sight. VHF radios can and will propagate long distances via a phenomena known as 'ducting'.

It happens a lot in Texas, especially in the summer.

Austin RAPCON had to change a frequency a couple of years ago because ducting interference from Mexico.

And whatever the cause, 122.8 is ridiculous here in central Texas!
 
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