On the Airbands

Any informed person will realise that scanner or communications receiver monitoring of aircraft radio is in no way a threat to aircraft security, as we are receiving and definitely not transmitting signals. It is impossible to transmit on a scanner. Some people don’t seem to want to acknowledge that, and it could be very harmful to the hobby generally if the attitude is allowed to persist.

Interesting to note, that with a $12,000 maximum fine possible for operating unlicensed transmitters, the TV journalist involved himself transmitted from a Bendix King UHF portable radio to a Realistic handheld scanner on Police frequency 468. 825 (channel 40 UHF allocation) to “demonstrate” what had occurred with the young man at Tamworth. This journalist left himself open to a Federal charge being laid against him for operating an unlicensed transmitter. I have forwarded appropriate details of this offence to the Spectrum Management Agency for their action, and will keep you informed.

Our story in the December 93 edition of “On the Airbands” concerning VH-OGD/GOD prompted Keith McGowan of Strathmore Heights in Victoria to tell us where the real GOD (err. . VH-GOD) lives.

The aircraft is in fact a sailplane based with the Geelong Gliding Club at Bacchus Marsh in Victoria. The glider is a Jantar, imported into Australia by the Polish Gliding Team for the World Gliding Championship that was held in Australia back in 1974. Following this, it was purchased by a syndicate, until it fell into the hands of the Geelong Gliding Club. It also interests me that the club has another sailplane registered VH-IUD, which is affectionately known as “The Loop”.

From James McHarg of Revesby NSW a letter expressing a longtime desire to sprout wings! Don’t worry James, “fly” with us! James states it’s about time he contributed to the column, after being a fan for about ten years I’ll agree with that James, your contribution is overdue. So it’s over to you, at Sydney International Airport! James was located on a grassy knoll behind the runway 07 threshold, on a warm Saturday morning, tuned in to the Tower on 120. 5 MHz. A Hazelton Saab 340B, registered VH-CMH was on approach to Sydney from the north. A noreasterly breeze was blowing acros the airfield, according to the ATIS, and a rare quiet interlude was in progress. VH-CMH was only a short distance from the field, and the pilots obviously wanted the most expeditious approach under the prevailing conditions. A series of radio exchanges conveyed the strong implication that Charlie Mike Hotel was hopeful of a northern approach, which suited their relative position to the northwest of the airport.

The following conversation then took place: VH-CMH: “What’s the downwind on one-six?” TWR: “Ten to fifteen knots. ” VH-CMH: “We can still take one-six if that’s okay?” (stated very keenly) TWR: “Well, it’s not the wind that’s the problem Sir, it’s the 747 on finals at the other end that concerns us!” VH-CMH: “Oh. . . disregard. . . yair. . . ” VH-CMH was immediately given clearance for a RW 07 arrival from the west and made a truly spectacular left turn for what was the shortest short-short final approach that James has seen in the past twenty years or so. It then touched down and taxied promptly to the Ansett terminal, undoubtedly in much shorter time than it would have done had it collided with Qantas 27 at the other end.

This story was very much worthy of a place in this column, and I would like to thank James for his interest in writing to us. You too can have your radio anecdote published, just by sending it to “On the Airbands”, PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198. If it’s suitable, we’ll certainly run it.

John Charlton from Greymouth in New Zealand is a regular “Airbands” reader also, and writes to say he monitored a Virgin flight last year, crossing the Atlantic. He then made up a QSL request letter from his log, (naturally not revealing actual traffic overheard) and sent it away.

John received the most magnificent letter from Captain Peter Cook, the skipper of that flight, which was “Virgin 001”, (VS001), London Heathrow bound for Newark New Jersey USA, the aircraft registration being GVGIN, with 174 passengers and 19 crew on board.

When John sent me details, he included a photocopy of Captain Peter Cook’s letter, and it was wonderful to see how well accepted we monitors are by airline captains the world over. There are many of them who love us listening, knowing that outsiders really appreciate the job they do to the full, and that monitors get the opportunity to “ride with them” on the flightdeck by radio. We understand”.

Just by the by, Virgin Atlantic is ten years of age this June. Captain Peter Cook has worked for Virgin for three years. Before that he was a Britannia Airways captain. I am delighted that he was able to also locate the and other paperwork from the flight John monitored, and send it to him. The Captain had even gone to the trouble to look up John Charlton’s home location at Greymouth on the NZ map, and comment in his reply letter that he was aware John lived on the north shore of the South Island of New Zealand! A great story.

A few selcal codes courtesy of Captain Peter Cook from Virgin Atlantic. G-VIRG = BH-JL, G-VGIN = BH-JM, G-TKYO = BH-LM, G-VRGN BH-FG, G-VOYG BJ-AH, G-VMIA = BH-GL, G-VJFK = BK-FL, and G-VLAX BF-FM. These aircraft listed are Boeing 747’s. The airline now also has Airbus A340s which Captain Cook does not have the selcal codes for at this stage.

Rick Hodge is an Ansett captain and is also a fan of “On the Airbands”. He flies the Fokker F28 Fellowship, and operates through Cairns airspace on a regular basis.

Rick states that controllers in the far north of our country are “quite laid back” (which he likes!) and that he notes that they often have a zany sense of humour. On one recent trip, Rick’s departure ex Cairns went something like this: VH-FKJ: “Tower, Foxtrot Kilo Juliett, request line up. ” TWR: “Foxtrot Kilo Juliett, go ahead, line up. ” VH-FKJ: “Tower, Foxtrot Kilo Juliett, ready. ” TWR: “Foxtrot Kilo Juliett, traffic is two ducks crossing the main runway complex at slow speed, south-east bound. . . hang on. . . err, no, make that now bound north-west. They’re coming back. So they’re clear of your path, and you’re clear for takeoff!” Sean Garvin from Palmerstown Village in Dublin, Ireland, writes to take me to task for recently referring to IRS as “Inertial Radionavigation System”. I stand corrected Sean. The correct translation is “Inertial Reference System”.

For anyone who doesn’t understand IRS navigation, there are three separate IRS units installed in large airline aircraft, all being controlled from the same control panel. When operating in the navigation mode, the IRS units provide attitude, acceleration, ground speed, track, true and magnetic heading, present latitude and longitude, and wind speed and direction to any system on board or on the ground through ACARS requiring this inertial information. IRS units must be aligned properly before entering Nav mode, and extracting all the data I have just listed. Otherwise it could be erroneous. The aeroplane must be on the ground and stationary for alignment to be achieved. Motion caused by wind and loading does not prevent the alignment process.

Sean Carvin tells me he is a licensed amateur (ham) operator, callsign EI2CR. My ham callsign is VK2UTG, and I went ahead and got this ham licence some years ago with one object in mind: if legislation is at some time enacted in the future restricting ownership of receivers, there may be some exemptions for licensed hams! Think about it. it may be worth getting your ham licence just as an extra safeguard to protect your right to continue to enjoy our wonderful hobby.

David Parer from Townsville is finding himself with less and less airspace to monitor on the radio. Townsville Con- trol airspace used to go as far south as Rockhampton, whereas Brisbane now assumes control of all aircraft in controlled air from 90 miles DME south of Townsville through to Brisbane itself. He can no longer receive the area to Rockhampton, as he used to.

David enquires if better antennas and receiving equipment at his location might help. I doubt it David, as retransmitted audio was the key to your hearing it before, and that same situation is not happening in the area anymore. It’s being achieved through the use of Optus satellite trans- ponders in the 12 GHz band. The aircraft call on VHF, and are picked up on a receiver at the satellite earth station, and converted to satellite signals and uplinked, being downlinked in Brisbane. Your location in Townsville is precluded from hearing what once was a plethora of frequencies being retransmitted through each other. Unfortunately this is the way of the future.

An excellent publication I recommend to you from the USA is the A4 size 96 page World Air Carrier Radio Callsign Directory, penned by my friend Bill Battles from New Hampshire USA. Bill and I share not only a love of aviation monitoring, “aero nuts” as he puts it, we were both in law enforcement for many years.

Bill’s book is the “bible” regarding aircraft radio callsigns, with listings from Air Force 1 through to Zhongyun Air, along with lots of other information, including company LDOC channels, Space Shuttle frequency information, off- shore oil rig and rescue frequencies, airline mailing ad- dresses, how to order aeronautical charts, a source list of books, magazines and equipment, a HF frequency cross- reference guide, world aircraft registration country code prefixes, plus the truly massive World Air Carrier Radio Callsign List. Price: $US22 + postage. I tried to pick holes in it, and only found a few omissions. One listing which impressed me was an obscure airline in Honolulu Hawaii, flying Navajo Chieftains on inter island tours, with the unlikely callsign of “LANI”. I knew the derivation of the callsign, and looked it up, to find that, yes, it was there! “LANI” is the christian name of the wife of the CEO of Panorama Air Tours in Honolulu, which operates out of Honolulu International Airport. Panorama has about nine aircraft in its fleet.

If you wish to order Bill J Battles book, write to W J Battles Enterprises, Aircraft Radio Monitoring Books, PO Box 133, East Kingston, New Hampshire 03827-0133 USA.

That’s it for this month. Write to me with your stories to the address already listed. And attack your monitoring hobby as it should be approached, with zest and renewed enthusiasm. It’s a great way to spend some free time! See you in May.