On the Airbands

Formations again use different callsigns, but their IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) codes are still allocated in this sequential manner. The reason for this method of callsign allocation to tactical squadrons is so that persons listening into military air movements don’t get to compile a dossier on individual military aircraft or pilots that they might otherwise be able to get if everyone had permanent callsigns.

The formation callsigns, which are different, are in fact extensions of the rootword. For example, 25 Squadron is authorised to use the following callsigns for formations: Anson, Brewster, Demon, Devil, Hero, Fury. Instead of identifying with Phantom Devil, the callsign used is simply “Devil”. But even this has variants though. If the formation is being addressed, or if an ATC clearance that applies to the entire formation as a whole is being given, the formation leader will reply with the formation callsign:

ATC: “Devil, Brisbane Control, descend to Flight Level One-One-Zero.” FORMATION LDR: “Brisbane Control, Devil, cleared to descend to Flight Level One-One-Zero.”

However, if the Air Traffic Controller is addressing the leader individually, or if individual clearances are being given, the aircraft will reply with its individual callsign:

ATC: “Devil, Control, advise Pee-Oh-Bee.” (Persons on board.) LEADER: “Control, Devil … Pee-Oh-Bee is two.” ATC: “Devil, Control, confirm first aircraft has two on board?” LEADER: “Devil 1, affirmative.”

A more common example for anyone monitoring military Tower frequencies is such as in the case of a formation arriving at an airfield for a landing. The leader calls turning base, as a formation, and is cleared to land as a formation, but each aircraft has to individually check wheels. This sounds like:

LEADER: “Devil, base, three wheels.” ATC TWR: “Devil, clear to land, check wheels.” LEADER: (uses beeper to indicate wheelcheck carried out) 2ND AIRCRAFT: “Devil 2, base, three wheels.” ATC TWR: “Devil 2, check wheels.” 2ND AIRCRAFT: (uses beeper to indicate wheelcheck carried out)

Finally, and at the severe risk of teaching dyed-in-the-wool military air buffs how to consume eggs, I will add that in formations of more than two aircraft, numbers three and onwards, when checked in on a frequency only respond with their numbers. Examples:

ATC: “Fury, check call.” 2ND AIRCRAFT: “Fury 2.” 3RD AIRCRAFT: “3.” 4TH AIRCRAFT: “4.”

However, if they are addressed individually, they respond with their full form callsign, such as “Fury 4”.

I would like to thank my regular military correspondent, “Punky” for his assistance in compiling this insight into RAAF callsign allocations and usage.

Alan Dent, from Belfield in NSW was recently in Europe, and found the radio frequencies for European airports in my new book Climb into the Cockpit by Radio most useful. While in the UK Alan visited Gatwick and Manchester, and notes that at Gatwick, there is a very nice pub, called the “Flight Deck”. It’s situated on the Charlwood Road, at the southern end of the airport. The road outside is full of “No Parking” and “No Standing” signs, so Alan suggests that aviation monitors or even photographers could fulfil their ambitions in the beer garden of the “Flight Deck” pub!

Manchester Airport has daily guided tours from the visitors centre on the Observation Deck. The terrace faces south, so photography is “awkward” on sunny days. However, on the southern side of the airport there is an aeropark where the local enthusiasts congregate. Unfortunately, I have checked, there is no public transport to the area.

Alan had his scanner handy and monitored the following conversation between Gatwick Ground, and a French female pilot on a TAT Fokker 100, and another unknown station.

FRENCH PILOT: “Permission to push back and start engines.” GATWICK GROUND: “You are OK for push back and start.” UNKNOWN: “Is that Nicole?” GATWICK GROUND: “No, I’m not wearing my dress today!” (pause … then …) FRENCH PILOT: “No, this is not Nicole either!”

Alan Dent found it far preferable to visit these British airports in the mornings, as that was when most of the international flights arrived and departed. During the day the regular European flights are coming and going, and in the evening, the holiday flights commence.

Many letters are rolling in requesting information on the most economical and efficient scanner providing VHF aviation for beginners. My suggestion is the Uniden 120XLT Scanning Receiver. This $369 handheld radio is an excellent performer, with nine band VHF/UHF coverage (airbands included), 100 memories and improved super fast scan and search features (up to 100 channels per second).

The scanner covers business mid band 66-88 MHz, 108 to 174 MHz, which starts off with the aviation VHF band and extends into high band business band, and 406 to 512 MHz, covering UHF. All the business allocations available on this radio enable access to a variety of public safety and airport company lounge and ramp frequencies. It comes complete with Nicad battery pack, an AC wall charger and detailed instructions.

For would be monitors who want access to many more frequency bands, and have a few extra dollars in their piggy bank, try the Uniden 3000XLT, at $599.

Shane Power offers up a story, which in fact was first used by Qantas crews in Adelaide. When we first ran it, we had to edit it heavily to avoid certain racist overtones. So the same story shows up again, this time with Shane on board the Qantas Boeing 747-400 “Wunala Dreaming”, better known as VH-OJB. I personally loathe the paint job, its design, the whole deal. I’m embarrassed to see it, and I thankfully haven’t seen it overseas at all. It’s always been on the ground here in Oz when I’ve laid eyes on it.

Dateline: Bangkok; Reporter: Shane Power.

SINGAPORE AIRLINER: “Just love your paint job!” QANTAS FIRST OFFICER: “Mate, this is certainly what happens when you shut down and park overnight by the perimeter fence. You come out in the morning, and all this has happened!”

Rob Trezise of Coffs Harbour owns a handheld Uniden UBC200XLT scanner with which he listens to the aviation VHF band, as well as VHF/UHF business frequencies used by airline companies near his home. He doesn’t have access to UHF military frequencies with this radio, or, naturally, HF communications. Yet.

Rob wants to share with us the hot communications in his area of NSW when a search was recently conducted for an overdue fishing boat, with two men on board. To give you some idea what was going on during the search, Rob sets out the range of services he was monitoring, which were all co-ordinating with the aircraft being deployed. This situation points out how important it is to have more frequency capability than just the VHF 108-136 MHz aero band.

Monitored by Rob: Police on VHF, and the Water Police on Marine VHF, and handheld VHF to the aircraft. Rob also has a 27 MHz marine radio on which he also monitored the Water Police.

Aircraft on VHF, with MTAF and FIS frequencies in use, and with aircraft observers using VHF handhelds to the Water Police.

Volunteer Coastal Patrol on 27 MHz Marine and Marine VHF frequencies.

Volunteer boats and searchers on 27 MHz Marine and Marine VHF, along with 27 MHz land based and UHF CB radio.

AMBULANCE SERVICE on their own VHF frequencies.

Rob monitored most of the action at his home for about four hours, as the search intensified. Eventually, the search aircraft located the overdue vessel and directed the Water Police to its location, around 8nm (15km) offshore. The boat was in fact overturned, and the Water Police arrived on scene a few minutes later and located one survivor in the water, close by to the upturned hull.

Tragically, the other person on board was lost. He had perished several hours earlier. The men had been in the water about ten hours. It seems that the boat had struck a fish trap, just below the surface, which flipped the vessel over. Several thunderstorms and squalls certainly didn’t help.

Rob says that he was intrigued with the vital role played by communications in the search for the overdue boat. It would appear that the second crewmember who was located in the water, and who survived, was found just in time.

In the Coffs Harbour area, Rob can hear about 30 to 40 aviation VHF frequencies, including a number of airline “company” channels. He expects that this would increase dramatically if he were to have HF/ssb capability.

The last thing Rob wants to discuss is the subject of UFOs that have been sighted by people in the aviation industry, in particular airborne crews. He suggests I request persons who believe that they have seen such a craft write to me, and commence a database of same, independent of any official agencies.

Well Rob, at risk of being ridiculed, I will say I have a very open mind about same, this situation being basically brought about by the late-night sighting of a strange triangular orange-glowing and silent craft about 1000 feet above Bankstown in 1994. I had another person with me at the time, who is both involved in aviation and a ham radio operator. It was very spooky. We reported it to the RAAF, 84 Australian Aviation Jan/Feb 1996 who redirected us to another private agency. I have not heard back from this organisation, even though I sent them a long and detailed report, complete with drawings, in colour.

If you have had such an experience, feel free to write, and I will keep track of the information on a database, and we shall see what we shall see, as they say!

Michael Lenffer of Box Hill in Victoria is our next correspondent. He is a First Officer on Saab 340s with Kendell Airlines, and on the day of our story was Tasmania bound out of Melbourne. The local time was about 4pm, and Michael and his Captain had been on Melbourne Control frequency 135.3 MHz for some minutes, when the following conversation took place. We will re-register the aircraft involved and call it “VH-ABC”.

VH-ABC: “Arr … Control, we won’t be climbing to seven-five-zero-zero due cloud, so we will be descending, out of Control Area.” CONTROL: “Well, I hope that’s not what you really mean. But regardless, YOU ARE CLEARED to leave controlled airspace on descent!”

The voice on VH-ABC merely acknowledged, without any hint of him realising the implications of what he had just said. Guess he was lucky he had a controller who wasn’t too “over the top”, who didn’t want to take it further.

The proposed trans polar airline route (TPAR), which is set to traverse Russian airspace, is apparently going to be the benefactor from the Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service, following a special agreement which has been reached by InMarSat and Rosaeronavigatsia. In case you didn’t know, that’s Russia’s equivalent of our AirServices Australia, the Air Traffic Control agency.

The new route will be 400nm (740km) shorter than the current trans Siberian route, and will in fact be the shortest air route from Western Europe to Japanese airports. The fuel savings for airlines traversing the route will be significant. InMarSat is offering advice to the Russians in the fitting of satellite equipment to airliners produced inside Russia.

And while we’re talking satellites, long haul airliners have been offering all sorts of satellite based services for the past two years, including direct dial inflight telephones, from anywhere along their route structure, and fax services. But short and medium haul airliners have not fitted the technology in the past, due to weight and costs. Standard sophisticated Aero-H equipment is very expensive to purchase and fit.

All this is set to change, with the introduction of Aero-I, a satellite service designed specifically to address the needs of 50 to 200 seat medium or short haul commercial aircraft. The key lies in the InMarSat Third Generation satellites, InMarSat-3, which are being launched to operate with “spot beams”, meaning the full satellite power is directed to the area of the world where demand for comms is highest. It will allow airliners and other aircraft to “work” the satellites using low gain antennas. InMarSat engineers have somehow managed to halve the airborne antenna gain requirements from 12dBi to just over 6dBi. That means a small, light and cheaper antenna, one which is workable amongst short and medium haul airliners. SatCom avionics have also been miniaturised, lessening weight and space requirements. As the satellite service will not be primarily for safety related services, the power settings can be reduced. This means the high power amplifier which boosts the signals on board the aircraft for transmission to the satellite is able to be much smaller.

The end result is passengers on board short and medium haul airliners will be able to talk on the phone, and send faxes, but faxes won’t go out as quickly as they do on InMarSat Aero-H. Packets of computer data will be sent off at a much slower rate on Aero-I.

Setup costs to the airlines? Well … a typical Aero-H fit for long-haul airliners costs $US250,000 to $US350,000. Aero-I will cost only $US50,000 to $US100,000.

Graeme Wilson from Mt Seymour in Tasmania wants to know the frequency for the meteorological Radio Sondes, sent aloft aboard small balloons by Met people at various airports around the nation. I don’t know the frequencies Graeme, but will attempt to find out for you and will publish them if successful.

Back in 1989, I had a letter from the RAN’s Commander DA Francis, who was on exchange duty with the US Navy at the time and living in Pennsylvania. Commander Francis had written to relate the story of an incident aboard the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in early 1975. The carrier was carrying out some very boring mapping duties, mapping the warship’s radar coverage area, using a chartered LearJet, which was flying back-and-forth at high altitude.

Commander Francis was at that time a Lieutenant and he decided to pay a visit to the Air Traffic Control Officer (ATCO), who apparently, like the pilot of the chartered Learjet, was exquisitely bored. The ATCO decided at the end of the mission sortie to ask the pilot if he’d like to fly a final carrier-controlled approach letdown, followed by a low level overshoot. The Learjet pilot agreed, and the young Lieutenant raced out on deck from the ATC room to watch the fun.

I have just now received another letter from one of the two sailors who were on deck at the time, and they were employed painting a new runway centreline on the deck in yellow paint.

Lieutenant Francis apparently had a great sense of humour, and yelled to the two sailors, including our newest correspondent (who wishes to remain unidentified!) “L-O-O-K-O-U-T!”

The Lieutenant was at the time pointing in the direction of the Learjet 35A. It was half a mile out from the deck with landing lights blazing, and with flaps and gear down approaching at 130 knots, or thereabouts. Our correspondent sailor/painter says he just died, then and there … as he looked up and saw the “landing” aircraft. He tells me that both of them just “got the hell out of there, any way they could”.

Commander Francis told it very well when he wrote to me in 1989. I’ll let him take up the description of events all over again:

“The sailors froze, jaws dropping, eyes wide. Then they executed their own spectacular takeoff, scattering brushes and cans of paint, along with a ghetto blaster radio, in their haste to save their own lives! They cleared the landing area just in time to watch the sleek jet fly by the port beam, and gracefully depart for home!”

According to Commander Francis … “I executed my own graceful departure, as the two sailors were displaying some mighty aggressive looks in my general direction. The boring day drifted on, with only the fresh trail of yellow footprints on the flight deck as sole evidence of the moment of alarm for the two hapless young sailors”.

I think I might write back to both parties, and give them each the other’s address. It might be interesting. We may be able to print a third piece related to the drama at some stage as a result!

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