On the Airbands

An American pilot friend of mine recently proudly displayed to me his VHF Narco hand-held HT870 nav/comm portable transceiver for the airband. This great little unit greatly impressed me. Microprocessor controlled, offering 760 comm channels and 200 nav channels, it also has Course Deviation guide, nicad battery pack, ten programmable memories, LCD display and scanning facility. I’m wondering if it’s available here locally and am taking steps to find out. I’ll brief you on the result.

A couple of suppliers who you may wish to contact regarding hand-held VHF transceivers and receivers is perhaps overdue. For the transceivers, only licensed pilots please!

Concept Aviation Supplies, PO Box 115, Riverwood NSW 2210. Contact: Tony Green on (02) 533 2211. They have the Terra TPX720 at $559, Tentec TT920 at $695, the ICOM IC-A20 for $849. The WIN 108 scanning receiver is on sale for $265.

Global Aviation Support, Main Terminal Building, Essendon Airport, Vic 3041. Contact: Tom Boyd, on (03) 374 1877, or you can fax him on (03) 374 1371. Tom has the ICOM IC-A20 for $799 + sales tax and the little WIN 108 scanner for $285.

Andrew Sheil of Sunshine Vic recently sent me a pile of special codes to complement a large number I already have on computer. Andrew works in Aero Telecommunications and can vouch for the correctness of the list. As soon as I can squeeze them in, I will run the most interesting special codes in this feature for the benefit of HF monitors to use. Bishop D C Moore MSC, Bishop of the Diocese of Alotau, Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea has written to thank me for assisting him with HF radio reception problems. The Bishop is a keen monitor, it seems, of aircraft in his part of the world.

It’s time to tune up the receivers again. Assisting is Darren Sadler of Pascoe Vale in Victoria. Darren monitored this exchange on a VHF Melbourne Control frequency, with Qantas 84 operating south of Canberra. Weather down in Melbourne was bright and sunny, but not so at Qantas 84’s position! QANTAS 84: “Control, we may have to track about two-five miles out of controlled airspace due weather”

MEL CONTROL: “Qantas 84, roger that”

QANTAS 84: “My, my control, the weather outside controlled airspace looks a bit like that inside it”

CONTROL: “Oh thanks Qantas 84, I’ve often wondered about that. When you come back inside controlled air, you might look outside the window and tell us here if there’s really a dotted line!”

QANTAS 84: “Well there is on my map here!”

CONTROL: “Yeah! Mine too! I wondered how you blokes found your way!”

QANTAS 84: “. . . usually just follow the sun” About ten minutes later. . .

CONTROL: “Qantas eight-four, you are now re-entering controlled air”

QANTAS 84: “Phew! Qantas eight-four!”

It seems that on this particular afternoon some IFR pilots weren’t terribly thrilled about having to track outside controlled airspace. Can’t say I blame them for that.

Karl Jaques of Yeppoon in Queensland has a Uniden Bearcat 100XL hand-held scanning receiver. He has some trouble pick- ing up both sides of air/ground conversations due to his distance from transmitter sites. Transmissions from aircraft are loud and clear but the ground stations are mostly not able to be heard. Karl has sent me a fascinating account however of a radio conversation between a high flying Qantas aircraft and a small charter company in Emerald, a predominantly rural township. The conversation was at Karf’s location one-sided as described, but he was able to imagine the total dismay caused at Central Highlands Air Taxis (CHAT) when they were called up on their own company frequency by an international 747 airline crew! The reason for the CHAT with CHAT may have been a compliment, or it could have been a sarcastic ‘dig’, but whatever sparked it, it was of great interest to our Karl.

Frequency: 126. 4 MHz. Central Highlands Air Taxis is a small company operating light aircraft on courier work, crop spraying, and charters out of Emerald, a town of only five to seven thousand population on the Central Highlands in Queensland. A Melbourne Hong Kong Qantas flight (QFA 27) was passing over Emerald.

QANTAS 27: “Central Highlands Air Taxis, do you read?” (Obviously an answer from CHAT)

QANTAS 27: “Central Highlands Air Taxis, we’re right on top of you!”

(Obviously a dismayed reaction from CHAT).

QANTAS 27: “We have a plane load of ex-CHAT boys up here!” (A lengthy, probably inquisitive answer ensued)

QANTAS 27: Qantas 27, the Captain has a flying school in Sydney and he will soon be rating some new pilots in case you need any

(Another answer from CHAT)

QANTAS 27: “Central Highlands Air Taxis, I’ve got to go and talk to Townsville now, I’ll see you later!”

The way the technical crewing system works at Qantas, the chance of these ex-CHAT chaps working together on the same flight was pretty chancy. I’d very much like to believe they were paying CHAT a compliment with the call. Brian Cartledge of Rozelle in NSW sent this gem to me. Ansett 737 making its first call to Sydney Tower.

VH-CZX: “Brisbane Tower, this Charlie Zulu X-ray, five miles, and we’re visual”

SYDNEY TOWER: “Charlie Zulu X-ray Melbourne Tower, report short final, then prepare for a big surprise!”

Neil from Western Australia has asked his identity be kept a secret. He has sent numerous pieces I will use from time to time, here’s a couple.

One evening recently on Perth Approach frequency, VH-BOF, a Royal Aero Club Cessna 172 had departed Jandakot and was heading towards Perth. The student began very confidently and correctly.

VH-BOF: “Perth Approach, Bravo Oscar Foxtrot, passing through 700 on climb to 3000. ”

APPROACH: (obviously very busy, and in a no nonsense manner) “Bravo Oscar Foxtrot, squawk ident. ”

VH-BOF: (again, very confident) “Bravo Oscar Foxtrot!”

he!

But he’d forgotten to release the press-to-talk switch, hadn’t

VH-BOF: “How the hell do I do that?”

Concorde, on departure from Perth, remembering the loss of a large section of rudder on the Auckland/Sydney sector of its round the world trip.

APPROACH: “Speedbird Concorde, contact Perth Control 122. 4

CONCORDE: “Cheers”, then “Perth Control, Speedbird Concorde passing through 4000 and we would appreciate continuous climb to flight level six-zero-zero if possible. ” CONTROL: “Speedbird Concorde, goodday Sir, cleared for continuous climb to flight level six-zero-zero. ”

ANSETT WA F. 28: We bet that made your day Control (referring to the flight level which meant sixty thousand feet. ) CONTROL: (sarcastically) “Yes, we’re all very excited here! UNKNOWN: “Yes, but is he going to fly quadrantral?” ANOTHER: “Doesn’t really matter, he hasn’t even got a rudder!”

Write to me with your story for ‘On the Airbands. Address all mail to Bob Bell, Aerospace Publications, PO Box 105, Weston Creek ACT 2611. Please include a stamped self-addressed envelope for a reply.

Let’s now look in detail at the European and also Middle East Aero HF radio frequencies. In issues to follow, we will print Africa- India and Domestic Australian HF for the long distance armchair travellers amongst us.

EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN HF RADIO:

BERLIN: eur-a 3479, 5661, 6598, 10084

MALTA: eur-a 5661, 10084

AMMAN: mid-1 2992, 5667, 8918, 13312

JEDDAH: mid-1 5667, 8918, 13312

Abbreviations: eur-a – Europe; mid-1-Mediterranean

MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTH EAST ASIA REGION HF RADIO: AMMAN: mid-1 2992, 5667, 8918, 13312

BASRAH: mid-1 3404, 5603, 8847, 13336

TEHRAN: mid-1 5667, 8918, 13312; mid-2 5658, 10018, 13288 KABUL: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018, 13288

DUSHANBE: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018

LAHORE: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018

KATHMANDU: mid-2 5658, 10018; sea-1 6556, 10066

KUWAIT: mid-1 2992, 5667, 8918, 13312; mid-2 5658, 10018, 13288

BAHRAIN: mid-1 2992, 5667, 8918, 13312; mid-2 5658, 13288 MUSCAT: mid-2 5658, 10018

KARACHI: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018, 13288 DELHI: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018, 13288 CALCUTTA: sea-1 3470, 6556, 10066, 13318 DHAKA: sea-1 3470, 6556, 10066, 13318 HONG KONG: sea-2 3485, 5655, 8942, 13309 JEDDAH: mid-1 5667, 8918, 13312

BOMBAY: mid-2 3467, 5658, 10018, 13288; ino-1 5634, 8879 MADRAS: sea-1 3470, 6556, 10066, 13318 RANGOON: sea-1 3470, 6556, 1006, 13318 BANGKOK: sea-2 3485, 5655, 8942, 13309 VIENTIANE: sea-2 5655, 8942

HOCHIMINH: 304-2 5655, 8942, 11396, 13309

MALE: sea-1 3470, 6556, 10066, 13318, 17907; ino-1 8879 COLOMBO: sea-13470, 6556, 10066, 13318; ino-1 8879, 13306 KUALA LUMPUR: sea-1 3470, 6556, 10066, 13318; sea-2 5655, 8942, 11396

SINGAPORE: sea-1 6556, 10066, 13318; sea-2 5655, 8942, 11396; sea-3 6556, 11396, 13318

DIEGO GARCIA: ino-1 13254

COCOS: sea-1 6556, 10066, 13318; ino-1 3476, 5634, 8879, 13306, 17961

JAKARTA: sea-3 3470, 6556, 10066, 11396, 13318, 17907 Abbreviations: in-Indian Ocean; mid-Mediterranean; sea- South East Asia.