How to Use a COMM Radio in an Airliner

Use a COMM Radio in an Airliner

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This article is to be read in conjunction with the ‘How to land and airliner’ article. You will gain an understanding on how to select and change radio frequencies on an airliner radio. An airliner has three basic types of radio, VHF COMM radios for communications, NAV radios and ADF radios for navigation. The COMM and NAV radios work in the same way in terms of tuning and selecting the frequency. The aircraft is usually fitted with two of each of these radios, mounted on the center console between the pilots. Once radio stack for the captain, the other for the first officer.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

An Airliner

Step1

The COMM radio consists of two tunable frequency display windows, and a frequency selector for each window. The selector consists of an inner and outer rotary knob. COMM frequencies range from 118.00 MHz to 133.95 MHz. Turn the outer rotary knob to change the numbers to the left of the decimal point, and the inner rotary knob to change the numbers to the right of the decimal point.

Step2

There is an active frequency display indicator above one of the frequency display windows. This indicates which selected frequency is being used for transmission and reception. You can toggle the active frequency between the two selected frequencies by using the ‘FREQ SEL’ switch.

Step3

Finally, below the COMM and NAV radios is the ‘MIC SELECTOR’. This allows you to select which radio will be used for voice transmission. Usually to transmit from the left seat (captain), select the left most button (VHF 1) on this panel.