Skywave Linux: Airband Radio on Internet SDRs

VOLMETs are fixed stations in the aeronautical radio service, tasked with broadcasting weather for aircraft on long distance flights, out of range of typical VHF aero weather sources. They often operate on an hourly schedule, sharing their frequencies with other VOLMET stations. Items broadcast by VOLMETs are typically lists of routine airport weather observations (METARs), forecasts (TAFs), significant weather warnings (SIGMETS), and sometimes pilot reports (PIREPS). To learn more about these aviation weather reports and forecasts, visit the Aviation Weather Center. There is a lot of very careful and specific language in aviation weather data. For example, "Runway visual range" and "visibility" are two different measurements, as "mist" is different from "fog" and "probability" is not quite the same as "chance of..."

Use this list to quickly tune in the VOLMET stations you wish to monitor. Simply click on the station and frequency, then wait for the SDR to render in a new browser tab. If signals are weak or noisy, try another frequency or switch to a different SDR server.

How to use:

1. Select a frequency by clicking a numbered button.
2. Click on a receiver location to open an SDR tab in your browser.
3. Each click on any receiver opens a new tab, so you can listen from more than one location.
4. This list of KiwiSDR receivers updates every three hours.

Since propagation conditions vary between different receiver sites and frequencies, try different combinations to find which ones work best for your desired stations. Most KiwiSDRs and Web-888s have rather high default gain settings, producing plenty of noise, which can cause listener fatigue. Consider reducing the AGC threshold to a setting between -80 and -90 dB. The KiwiSDR default USB filter bandpass is good for VOLMET traffic, though the URLs given here set a wider bandpass for better fidelity. Get VOLMET frequency and schedule updates from DX Info Centre, which does a fine job of finding data deep in several aero references.

From time to time, the KiwiSDR and Web-888 receivers may be full of listeners, causing you to be placed in a queue, waiting to get a channel. WebSDR, NovaSDR, and UberSDR sites have high user capacity - able to serve several dozen, if not hundreds, of listeners at once. You don't have to wait! Just pick one of those higher capacity types in your region of interest.

Please be a fair listener on the radio servers wwhen slots are limited. Excessive time on one frequency or opening multiple SDR tabs from the same site at once may cause site operators to block user IP addresses or frequencies if they feel usage is excessive.

Volunteers operate these sites, which provide the aero radio streams linked in this list. If they have donation links on their sides, do consider helping them out so they can keep their receivers connected to the internet.

This is a new resource for shortwave listeners who follow oceanic air traffic. More areas and frequencies are in the works. You can bookmark the above links; the KiwiSDR data refreshes every three hours, selecting from among the best internet SDRs. If there's not much activity on the selected frequency, zoom out and watch more of the band. Also, consider moving to the next higher or lower aero comms band to find more flights. Air traffic varies according to times of day and travel or shipping norms. For example, the NAT Tracks have a lot of traffic leaving Europe for North America in the mornings, but flights from North America to Europe predominate at night.

Use this list to quickly tune in the aeronautical communications / long distance operational control (LDOC) stations you wish to monitor. Simply click on the station and frequency, then wait for the SDR to render in a new browser tab. If signals are weak or noisy, try another frequency or switch to a different SDR server.

How to use:

1. Select a frequency by clicking a numbered button.
2. Click on a receiver location to open an SDR tab in your browser.
3. Each click on any receiver opens a new tab, so you can listen from more than one location.
4. This list of KiwiSDR receivers updates every three hours.

From time to time, the KiwiSDR and Web-888 receivers may be full of listeners, causing you to be placed in a queue, waiting to get a channel. WebSDR, NovaSDR, and UberSDR sites have high user capacity - able to serve several dozen, if not hundreds, of listeners at once. You don't have to wait! Just pick one of those higher capacity types in your region of interest.

Please be a fair listener on the radio servers wwhen slots are limited. Excessive time on one frequency or opening multiple SDR tabs from the same site at once may cause site operators to block user IP addresses or frequencies if they feel usage is excessive.

Volunteers operate these sites, which provide the aero radio streams linked in this list. If they have donation links on their sides, do consider helping them out so they can keep their receivers connected to the internet.

If you find interesting action on the HF aero frequencies, give some thought to making an audio recording or screen capture video to share on sites such as YouTube or Soundcloud

A few airband WebSDR and KiwiSDR sites are up and running. These radios are especially good for tuning for specific frequencies or manually following flights. I have tried ACARS and VDL Mode 2 and was able to decode messages on the KiwiSDRs. It is a pretty slick way to enjoy aero listening for flights on three different continents.

The SDR in Russia has several frequencies blocked, in narrow slices. If you are unable to monitor a frequency because of this, there are no good remedies. HF is easier, as there is usually another SDR from which to stream. No so in this case; Krasnoarmeysk is the sole internet SDR for airband in that area. If you listen to any of the KiwiSDRs and get timed out, try again the next day. If you are geo blocked, evade the blockage by deleting your browser cookies and using a VPN or SSH tunnel for future to connections.

How to use this list:

1. Select a frequency by clicking a numbered button.
2. Click on a receiver location to open an SDR tab in your browser.
3. The list is manually curated; more sites will be added as they are found.

Since VHF propagation conditions vary with weather in the troposphere (temperature inversions), listen around and note which frequencies have weak signals and others which are always empty. You might catch a nice period of enhancement from time to time.

Please be a fair listener on the KiwiSDR radio servers, as they have limited slots for visitors. Excessive time on one frequency or opening multiple SDR tabs from the same site at once may cause site operators to block users or frequencies who draw too much bandwidth.

Volunteers operate these sites, which provide the aero radio streams linked in this list. If they have donation links on their sides, do consider helping them out so they can keep their receivers connected to the internet.

If you find interesting action on the VHF Airband frequencies, give some thought to making an audio recording or screen capture video to share on sites such as YouTube or Soundcloud