Listening to ATC (air traffic control) with RTL-SDR_V4 - 2026-03-08

I recently bought an RTL-SDR v4 on Amazon AU for $129 AUD.

Here it is connected to my laptop, with the dipole antenna connected with a suction mount.

I extended each part of the dipole antenna to their maximum length, 1m, and attached it to the window.

I then opened SDR++ (https://www.sdrpp.org/) on my laptop running Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.3. I then tuned the connected RTL_SDR_v4 to the corresponding frequencies for Sydney/Kingsford Smith Intl Airport which I found here: (https://www.radioreference.com/db/subcat/10541).

Note that despite the VHF frequencies, ATC uses AM modulation.

Here are some recorded snippets from the ATC transmission at different frequencies.

Note that the audio quality is quite noisy. This is due to the fact that it was recorded shortly after heavy rain, which degrades the signal through attenuation caused by water particles in the air.

Aprroach (124.4mhz)

Ground (121.7mhz)

Tower (120.5mhz)

Tower (124.7mhz)

THE END