On the Airbands

Runways utilised are RW 09R/27L, 09L/27R, 08L, 26R, 08R/26L. For anyone passing through Hartsfield International at Atlanta these are the frequencies you’ll need to hear all the action: ATIS 119.65 (approach) 125.55 (departures), Unicom 122.95, Flight Service Station 122.1, Approach 118.35, 126.9, 127.25, 379.9, Departures 125.0, 125.7, 284.7, Apron Clearance Delivery 121.65, Tower 119.1, 119.6, 123.85, Surface Movement Control (Ground) 121.75, 121.9, 348.6 MHz. Delta Airlines operates on the following frequencies in both the VHF aviation band and the UHF business allocations: 129.5, 129.55, 129.6, 460.65, 460.7, 460.775, 460.8, 460.825, and 460.850 MHz. In later issues, we will examine more busy airports in the USA, such as JFK and O’Hare, and discuss their frequencies and special items of general interest about these airports.

Michael Hall from Hawthorndene in South Australia is a keen monitor, and wants to try his hand at pulling in digital data, such as ACARS transmissions. He enquires as to what are the frequencies used for ACARS transmissions from airline aircraft, and what sort of equipment would I recommend to decode the signals. First up Michael, the frequencies used are 131.55 MHz, 130.025 MHz, and 129.125 MHz in the USA, Australia, and many other areas. In Europe, primary allocation is 131.725 MHz.

As to equipment, initially, I was recommending the Universal M-400 decoder, but technology has improved from a competitor, the British company Lowe, who manufactures a basic but brilliant communications receiver. Lowe is now in the Decoder business as well, and its Lowe Airmaster is far superior in every way to the Universal product. It utilises a small demodulator that plugs into the comms port on the back of a PC, which also allows some analysis of the messages before they are even displayed on the screen. Hence, items such as the registration number of the aircraft, and the type of message that is being sent is shown separately from the text of the message.

Michael also enquired as to the type of messages that he is likely to hear through ACARS. Basically, with aircraft operating at 35,000 feet (FL 350) and above, you will hear the aircraft on ACARS over 600km away. ACARS messages are automatically sent from so-equipped airliners immediately after aircraft departure, during high altitude flight, and during approach to land. A great deal of the messages sent in the past from airliners to company in voice are now being sent by ACARS digital communications. InMarSat oceanic reporting will after the year 2000 be almost all ACARS-based through the satellite, with HF remaining quiet until there is a serious fault with the satellite. HF will be a backup only. Not all commercial aircraft are ACARS equipped, but ACARS is standard fitting to all new Boeing and Airbus deliveries. ACARS is becoming a standard feature amongst world airlines.

Michael Brooker from the New Zealand monitoring club magazine “NZ DX Times” provides our next item. Michael Brooker is the Utilities column editor and he writes to tell me that John Charlton of Greymouth New Zealand was monitoring the Deep Freeze network, and heard a helicopter, callsign “Gentle 10”, working the South Pole station from Lucy Glacier. Apparently, as the story goes, during the 93/94 Deep Freeze season, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules had landed at the Glacier, but while taxiing, one of the main skis fitted sunk in a soft spot in the snow surface, and that in turn lowered the wing. The outboard prop hit the surface, departed the wing, and struck the aircraft, tearing a hole in the side.

Luckily, no one was injured, but it was a major effort to get the aircraft repaired at the remote location. The stricken aircraft, callsign “Xray Delta 07” was removed eventually before the end of the 93/94 DF season, but the repair teams left several million dollars worth of equipment there. So during the 94/95 season, the US military located a good Lockheed C-130 landing site approximately 26nm (48km) from the abandoned equipment site. Then two helicopters, one of them “Gentle 10” flew into the old site and ferried all the valuable equipment back to the location where the C-130s could ferry it back to McMurdo. Unfortunately, Michael and John did not say which HF frequency was utilised, but it was possibly 8998, with the other two channels being 11256 and 5726 (McMurdo Deep Freeze used to be on 8997 kHz).

John Charlton wrote away for a QSL verification to be sent back to him, and through a friend of his who is a navigator based at McMurdo, he tracked down the mission helicopter pilot from “Gentle 10” and just received his verification letter. John Charlton now has verifications from South Pole Station, Scott Base, MAC Center (McMurdo Station), Terra Nova Bay, and Macquarie Island. At the other end of the world, he has monitoring verifications from Montreal Radio, Iqaluit Flight Service Station, Churchill Flight Service Station, Cambridge Bay Flight Service Station, Iceland (Gufunes) and Bodo Area Control Center. Even though he has all these other QSLs, John Charlton still thinks that his monitoring of “Gentle 10” is his best effort yet!

(If you would like the full rundown on Antarctic monitoring, my book Climb into the Cockpit by Radio includes an article entitled “Qantas On-going Seasonal Antarctic Charters”, which details all the frequencies used at Casey, Davis, Dumont D’Urville, Macquarie Island, McMurdo Center, and Scott Base. Price $22.95 including post and pack from Airband Communications, PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198).

A recent copybook emergency crash landing of a Beechcraft Duchess piston twin at Bankstown Airport has reminded me to get you to consider programming in not only the local aviation channels into your scanner, but also all the emergency service frequencies you can possibly think of, in particular the local Police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance channels, as well as media frequencies. These all come alive during an air alert, and the communications get hotter and hotter as the aircraft size increases. Tune in the Police Airwing channels as well (in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia). Boeing 747s with faulty undercarriage warning lamps, damaged or unserviceable undercarriage or blown tyres, oil pressure problems, engine fires and so on, create much activity on the various emergency service bands worth monitoring. This is in addition to the aviation band, comprising both ATC channels and company frequencies.

If an emergency is notified by the crew on HF, in an oceanic situation, check out all the HF company allocations for that airline as well, and the Skycoms channels. Naturally, on Skycoms, if a phone call is patched through, you will have to tune away from that frequency, to comply with the law. By listening to every possible frequency carrying information about the emergency is the only way you’re going to be fully in-the-know about what’s going on. With light aircraft, the main problems that crop up seem to be gear lights not illuminating. Occasionally, the trouble is real, not just the globe out. Once an emergency is notified by the pilot (usually on the frequency he or she is working on at the time), lots of preparations are made, and a large amount of communications activity takes place. Make sure you’re fully prepared when it happens at your airport! You’ll know all the details of the incident long before the news media make the story public knowledge on radio or television, and particularly in the newspapers.

How do you imagine that the TV, radio and newspaper crews happen upon air emergencies so quickly. CASA doesn’t call them up and say … “We have an emergency going at …”, and neither do the police or the fire brigade, ambulance or any other emergency service. The News Editors hear it on the scanner radios! And the wheels are then put into motion. Monitor the TV news, radio station news, and newspaper remote pickup or news communication channels. These days, competition is so fierce, you may only hear a news editor call a mobile journalist and say … “Give me a call on your mobile phone”, but occasionally they drop their guard and talk about more than perhaps they should.

And … oh … for the record, the pilot of our stricken Beechcraft Duchess was forced to land holding the aeroplane on its main undercarriage wheels, gently easing the nose down, and sliding it along the runway, as the nose wheel had not deployed. The damage to the aeroplane was estimated at around $40,000. In addition to five police vehicles, and six ambulances, including ambulance paramedics, six fire brigade pumpers from Bankstown, Liverpool and Revesby Fire Stations all attended the scene, and helped play foam onto the stricken Duchess. And all these services used their radios to talk about their part in the incident to their respective communications centres. Thankfully, after this accident, we can report no one was injured. But it sure made great monitoring!

Two pilots listening out on the “lane” frequency 120.8 MHz in Sydney allegedly overheard the last transmissions made by the young pilot of a Piper Tomahawk VH-SCD minutes before his aeroplane slammed into cliffs north of Sydney Harbour. The transmission was picked up by the two pilots, who were flying nearby and monitoring the R409/Victor 1 “lane” frequency, which is not monitored by either ATC or Flight Service. There appears to have been no one else on the channel, except for the ill-fated young pilot. At first the two pilots in the other aircraft who monitored the transmission are believed to have regarded it as a hoax, but when they heard of the crash, they then notified authorities of the radio call that they had intercepted, knowing it may have shed light on the incident. Senior police sources indicated that the last message was “a single statement, not conversational”, and that “it is the sort of information that will allow the coroner to make sense of it all”.

Sent to us on a piece of Ansett Golden Wing letterhead paper by an anonymous contributor: 22:15 hours Ansett F28 VH-FKE calling Ansett Darwin company on 130.65 MHz. VH-FKE: “Ansett Darwin, Foxtrot Kilo Echo … Echo … Echo … Echo.”

Speaking of Ansett F28s, Ansett F28-3000 VH-EWG was recently monitored getting a ground check from Honolulu Radio at 09:58 local, while it was undergoing minor radio service at Sydney International Airport. The aircraft had its selcal checked on code “CK-AG” by the Honolulu operator. This was after Sydney Radio didn’t answer. Honolulu Radio’s male operator sounded like he really enjoyed checking the radio and selcal for the Aussie aircraft, although it is very doubtful the operator knew either the aircraft type or exactly where it was located on the ground. Honolulu is usually very accommodating to aircraft not in their area having difficulty contacting their local HF ground station. They do a great job. I will shortly be touring Honolulu Radio and will tell you all about it on my return.

Just by the by, Sydney Radio’s HF operation (at time of writing) still hasn’t been taken over by Brisbane Radio, even though May 1 1995 was mooted as the changeover date. It is believed that when the change does occur, the antennas will remain in NSW at their current sites, and only the control station and studio facility will be relocated to Brisbane.

Damon Roberts from Beenleigh in Queensland uses a Realistic PRO-2022 scanner to listen to aviation, and wants to enquire about the following callsigns that he has monitored. “Trojan 05” – RAAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules; “Envoy 602” – RAAF Dassault Falcon 900; “Onyx” – Possibly “Oggy”, F-111C from 1 Squadron RAAF; “Gridiron 764” – (Can’t enlighten you on that callsign Damon!). If anyone can assist, drop us a line, or ring me on 015 897 332 with the answer, preferably during business hours.

Ori Friedman from Sydney’s Bellevue Hill bought a scanner recently, and is interested in joining a radio club in Sydney so as to go on aviation monitoring related outings with members, and listen to aircraft radio in a group of his peers.