Radio Jumpoff Page

MARSCAN
FORMERLY KNOWN IN FULL AS "THE MARITIMES SCANNING SITE", ESTABLISHED INITIALLY IN 1999.

NOW FEATURING MARITIMES-CENTERED AERONAUTICAL RADIO AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS

All pages not accessed by external links
are written by William H. White, MEd

The author has been a radio hobbyist and analyst for more than 60 years.
He began his radio interests in earnest in his teenage years, listening for distant stations on the AM and Shortwave broadcast bands, and as well the 2 MHz Marine band. On graduation from the University of Victoria, he entered the Canadian navy and was certified as a naval communications and electronic warfare officer. Following his naval career, he spent most of his adult life as an educator in the high schools of Nova Scotia, and as a driver education instructor. Post-retirement, he re-entered employment as an operator at the provincial government Shubenacadie Radio Communications Centre. He has maintained a radio website for the last twenty years. His main interest in recent years has been aero communications, and listens in on it on a daily basis, in his study and mobile.
He holds the following radio certifications: Advanced Amateur (VE1CY) and Restricted Radiotelephone Operator (Land, Sea and Air).
He may be contacted via marscan1ATgmail.com

For radio information and discussion in general, check out www.radioreference.com It includes an Atlantic Canada section. For information on amateur radio in the Maritimes, I suggest you go to the Atlantic Amateur.

This site began in 1999 as a radio listening page covering Nova Scotia and the wider region. In the past this was the leading radio enthusiast site in the Maritimes and, during its heyday, was featured internationally in the Popular Communications and Monitoring Times magazines. Your host was one of several scanner gurus in the Maritimes who gained an overall knowledge of radio in this region, not as nosey content seekers, but rather as analysts of radio systems, and observers of interoperability and the lack of it. Today the scene has vastly changed, with the establishment of the Maritimes trunked radio system, and the accompanying shift to encrypted transmissions throughout the public safety sector. This site remains as an educational tool, featuring my present specialty, civil aeronautical radio.
AERONAUTICAL RADIO PAGES Frequencies, Charts, Explanations and More This is my main listening interest, with a specialty in the VHF band. RECOMMENDED TO START WITH THIS PAGE AND THIS ONE Introduction to Aero Scanning, and External Aero Links	AT AND AROUND HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL Frequencies, description, observation Clearance, De-Ice, Taxi and Takeoff Departures procedures and initial destinations Arrivals procedures including Approach fixes Webcams, Live Wind and RVR's, Official website Flightradar24, Flightaware, Planefinder ======= Page re other Local area fields: Shearwater Heliport plus Halifax peninsula helipads 126.2 and Porters Lake airfield 123.2 (Photos and other details included for the above) Shubenacadie DNR Heliport 123.2 Stanley Unicom 122.8 Debert Unicom 123.0	How they talk: The language of Aero Communications New article Dec 2023
		Runway designations. How runways are designated and why they change over time Revised Dec 2023
		Identifying Places Codes and Abbreviations for Airports, Radio Aids and Reporting Points.
		Identifying Aircraft Guide to Aircraft Registration Marks, Call Signs and Airline Codes
		Aero Radio Intro to the Aero Radio Bands, plus an aero Frequency List for the Maritimes.
		U.S. Military Aerial Refueling over Nova Scotia
		Listening to and Observing High-Flying Aircraft Passing over Nova Scotia. This is where you go if you want to know about the multitude of aircraft flying over our area on their way to and from Europe. REQUIRES RE-WRITING. may be partially overlapping with other pages
		Observing Aircraft on Your Computer
	Controlled Airspace and Sectors. Including low level and high level sector maps and frequency charts. This page briefly outlines tower control zones and terminal control areas but mostly focuses on the area control centre sectors and frequencies in this region. This is where you can see which centre frequencies are used where in our region. You need to get a handle on this if you want to listen effectively, or want to watch on the computer. But you may want to read about aero radio first (at the right)	ADDED PAGE Listening via a scanner versus Listening Via On-Line Feeds Oriented towards Aero Listening but also relevant to other Listening.
		Coming soon: Simulcasting and Cross-Coupling in ATC Communications
Public Safety Communications in the Maritimes	Radio Basics for those who aren't clear on the difference between conventional and trunked radio, and such terms as simplex and repeaters. Description of the Maritimes Trunked Mobile Radio System MTMRS Frequency Matrix only for the technically-minded	HISTORICAL PUBLIC SAFETY SYSTEMS: WHAT CAME BEFORE TMR2 The pages linked below are entirely historical in nature and contain detailed information from the past NSIMRS in the 80's and 90's The NS Integrated Mobile Radio when it was the provincial communications system, with detailed pages on each network on the system. NOT about the current NSIMRS. The Halifax City Motorola Type 1 Trunk System in the 1990s TMR1: The NS Provincial Motorola Type II trunk system operating from 2000 to 2015 that replaced the old NSIMRS and the Halifax Trunk. MRCI: The proposed interprovincial trunk system that didn't happen. RCMP H Division (NS) VHF Network. RCMP J Division (NB)VHF Network RCMP L Division (PEI) UHF Network PEI's PICS System NB Provincial VHF/UHF Network (the NB system was actually several different govt networks, mostly on UHF but part on VHF. I may at some point put this all together in a readable format, but for now is unavailable here)
VHF Marine Radio	Halifax Harbour at a Glance 156.6 Halifax Traffic (inner) 156.7 Halifax Traffic (outer) 156.8 Callling and Emergency 156.5 QHM (Naval Dockyard) 156.4 (Secondary Naval Movements) 156.3 Intership Primary 156.35 Tug Working 161.75 Halifax Pilots	My Specialized Page on VHF and UHF marine radio in our region, and on Halifax Traffic (with a map of the sectors and calling-in points) Also includes the Canadian on-board UHF marine band plan. CLICK HERE FOR OTHER PAGES AND LINKS RE CRUISE SHIPS AND OTHER MARINE TOPICS
BROADCAST RADIO I began my radio hobby by listening for distant AM radio stations back in the 60's. Click here for my broadcast jumpoff page which has pages of my own plus several links of interest. THIS IS NOT BEING KEPT UPDATED. Recent Decisions from the CRTC (in the URL change the year to get the one you want)	Other Radio Pages Click here to link to my pages and external links re other radio, including amateur radio, Halifax Transit, railways, weather radio, Call letters, Q-codes and ten-codes, and More. Map of Cell phone towers in Canada	QSL Collection A Blast from the Past: A Selection of my Radio Reception Verifications from the 60's and 70's. This is not my complete collection, and I may get around to posting the rest some day.
*VHF and/or UHF scanners and monitors I have owned (not including transceivers):* *GE Searcher, Lafayette P-100, Tompkins TunaVerter,* *Radio Shack/Realistic PRO-30, PRO-43, PRO-92, PRO-95, PRO-96, PRO-97, PRO-99, PRO-106, PRO-2009, PRO-2026, PRO-2067, PRO-2096.* *Uniden/Bearcat BC 235XLT, 590, 780XLT, 285D, 796D, 396XT, 996XT x 2. BCT15. GRE PSR-400. Sporty’s Aviation Interrupt.* *Might be others I have forgotten altogether, or at least the model number is forgotten!*