On the Airbands

When the main force of Australian troops were airlifted into Somalia by a Qantas 747 on charter to the ADF, no one really knew what to expect.

Including the Qantas tech crews and cabin staff. People like husband and wife cabin crew Chris and Michelle Bergman, who volunteered for the very unusual flight.

Did you hear the flights moving in and out of Mogadishu? 11300 kHz USB was used in local Mogadishu daylight, which is roughly sunrise 0300z to sunset 1600z. At night, between 1600z and 0300z, 8879 kHz was utilised. Some of the callsigns copied were the American AWACS using the tactical identifier”KING”, and the offshore US Navy cruiser using “COWBOY”. I believe Mogadishu Tower was referred to as “TALLBOY”.

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