On the Airbands

Williamtown Raaf Base

I’ve just spent some very enjoyable time watching and monitoring military movements at the Williamtown RAAF Base, north of Newcastle. You don’t go visiting RAAF bases on weekends, because.. yes … you guessed it, with penalty payments likely to absorb too much of the Defence Budget, they prefer the military fliers and ground crews to work Monday to Friday! It’s true, and the same situation exists in the USA, according to my mate Larry Van Horn from North Carolina. Larry used to be a Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy, based in New Orleans, and he is pretty much the military monitoring guru on the American continent. “They don’t work many weekends Bob … so if you wanta visit a base to sit by the fence and watch ’em go by ya while you’re monitoring, you mightn’t see or hear much on the weekend!” So, regardless of whether I visit Richmond or Williamtown, I do it on a Wednesday, as a rule from Willie the F/A-18s are out in force, exercising, in mock dogfights and aerial chases, and bombing in the designated practice ranges. I was standing at my son’s home at Medowie, watching the action right above us as F/A-18s went through their paces. Exhilarating! And the locals love it! The sound of the jets is the sound of success for their local economy. There’s no way they want Williamtown to go! Williamtown comprises Runway 12 and 30, with Approach on 133.1, 135.7, 261.4, 293.4 MHz, and LF 365 kHz. Tower frequencies are 118.3, 121.8, 257.8, 264.3, 243.0 MHz, and also 365 kHz. Ground can be monitored on frequencies 121.8, 118.3, 264.3, and 257.8 MHz. Traffic is on 257.4, Precision Approach on 317.8, 338.5, 134.8, 1383.9. MTAF can be heard on 118.3 after the Tower closes down daily, Firefighters are on 271.3 and 259.3 MHz, with ATIS broadcasts on 316.1 UHF and 365 kHz LF. Gliding operations can be monitored on 118.3, 122.7, and 122.9 during weekends. RAAF Williamtown shares its runways with Newcastle Airport. The usual situation exists with the military housed on one side of the runway complex, and the civil terminal for Newcastle on the opposite side. The Assault Range STUD channel (STUD 11) 260.0 MHz and “Baron Operations” on 301.1 (STUD 12) make for really good listening during the mock battle sequences high above the region. Other good frequencies for tactical and training operations are 270.8, 271.1, 292.450, 301.5 (Inflight Refuelling), 311.6 (77 Squadron Operations), and 342.0. If the Roulettes are in town, listen on 133.9 MHz primarily. VH-MVW, the “star” of the above story was a Shorts 360. Known amongst Air Traffic Controllers colloquially as a “Shed”. Here are some other ATC nicknames: Airbus A300 – “Truck”, Airbus A320 – “Death Star” or “Scarebus”, Boeing 727 — “Thumper”, Ansett 737 — “Milk Bottle” (due to white fuselage), Jetstream — “Fruitbat”, Cessna Citation — “Slowtation”, DHC-6 Twin Otter — “Twotter”, Britten-Norman Islander — “Bunny”, Piaggio — “Pig”, Mitsubishi Mu-2 — “Rice Rocket”, Westwind 1124 ~ “Israeli Bomber”, Cessna 172RG Cutlass (retractable gear) — “Gutless”, and the Mohawk 298 — “Pterodactyl”. You have to keep your sense of humour in gear in the Tower! From Stephen Keneally in Orange NSW, a letter asking what’s happened to Sydney Control frequency 131.3, which was paired with 118.5 MHz. It’s defunct now Stephen, due to most of Sydney’s Control frequencies and responsibilities for high-level airways surrounding Sydney being taken over by both Melbourne and Brisbane ATC centres. The frequency you would be advised to monitor now in your local area for aircraft traversing the transcontinental (kangaroo) route is 122.75 MHz, which is paired up with 133.5 (Melbourne Control), which took over from the outdated Sydney Control frequency 131.3 MHz. Phil Bridge monitored this exchange on 130.250 MHz from a Sunstate Airlines Shorts 360 to the company HQ in Gladstone. VH-MVW: “Good day to you Gladstone, we’re about eight minutes out, we have 14 pax for you, and we require some motion lotion!” COMPANY: “What? I heard you have fourteen passengers … but what was the rest of it?” VH-MVW: “Some fire water!” COMPANY: “What?” VH-MVW: “Power kerosene!” COMPANY: “What … errr … 1#221” VH-MVW: “Some bloody fuel for the flaming aeroplane!” COMPANY: “Oh … why didn’t you tell me? You want some gas! I’ll arrange it.” Thanks to Phil Bridge, from just south of Gladstone, in Queensland. For anyone travelling to Los Angeles and checking in to the Renaissance Hotel, off Airport Road, near the car rental agency yards, there are some really great views of the airport to be had, in particular the North Complex. North Complex Tower frequency is 133.9, and 120.950 for the South Complex. You can monitor helicopters on their own Tower channels of 119.8 (North Complex) and 120.350 MHz (South Complex). “SoCal” Approach channels are 124.9, 124.5, 128.5, 269.0, 381.6, 360.7, and “SoCal” Departures are on 125.2, 124.3, 134.35, 385.4, and 363.2 MHz. Aircraft approaching/departing Los Angeles call “SoCal Approach” and “SoCal departures”, not Los Angeles Approach or Departures. It stands for “Southern California”, and covers many of the airports in the Greater Los Angeles basin area. If you’re going to stay at the Renaissance Hotel, try for the 8th Floor and above for the really top views of Los Angeles International Airport, and remember to pack your scanner and batteries. An alternative to the batteries is to buy a compatible 115 volt AC wall plug pack with the right plug for your radio. Be careful that the polarity suits your receiver. Realistics or Netsets are negative centre/positive ground, while most of the others are positive centre/negative ground. A story from Adelaide, with the star being an Ansett 737. The frequency in use was Adelaide Approach 118.2, with Runway 05 being the duty runway at the time our story took place. Our correspondent is Michael Grover. The Ansett 737, “Charlie Zulu Mike” had been trailing an Indonesian A300, which had just been handed on to the Tower by the Approach Controller. The ATC spoke to the Ansett aircraft shortly after the Airbus changed to Tower: APPROACH: “Charlie Zulu Mike, come back to approach speed, you’re following an Indonesian Airbus on a four mile final, and he’s very very slow!” VH-CZM: “Yes … he’s slow alright, what’s his exact speed?” APPROACH: “One hundred and ten knots. Frankly … I don’t know how he’s staying airborne!” VH-CZM: (laughing) “… We thought he was a boat!” Thanks to Michael Grover for his letter. Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Avdeyev and Thomas Reiter (Germany) have just had some very bad news broken to them by radio to their orbiting space vehicle, the Russian Space Station MIR. Vsevolod Latyshev, spokesman in Moscow for the MIR project, has spoken to us here at “On the Airbands” and confirmed that a communication was sent to the space vehicle recently advising the crew that they would have to stay in orbit for an additional five to six weeks than what was originally planned. The problem appears to be a genuine lack of funds, and at this time, as I write this column, the EUROMIR Mission is apparently raising the necessary cash to put a replacement crew into space. The stranded crew arrived on board MIR on September 5 last year, and were due to be replaced last month, around the 16th, but now it looks as though the boys will remain in space until very late March. Russia’s Space Agency was trying to raise cash by selling space food in Moscow supermarkets, for the equivalent of $A20 a package. But sales have not been anywhere near as good as hoped for, and EUROMIR is in trouble. Paul Boger inquires re a “budget” antenna. He’s just bought a Tandy Realistic PRO-2006 tabletop scanner, and wants an antenna to go with it. My suggestion is the “Longreach Airband Antenna” from Oztennas, 465 Balcombe Rd Beaumaris 3193, for $130. It performs exceptionally between 119 and 135 MHz, and has stainless steel elements, ultraviolet resistant insulator, and assembles easily. It works better than the Dick Smith Benelec Scanner Discone on the aviation bands. The Benelec antenna is able to handle a broader variety of frequencies, but I have found it doesn’t pull in marginal aviation stations as well as the Oztennas model. The Benelec antenna is made from stainless steel and brass componentry for long life, and is priced now at $99.95. Yousuf Yousuf lives in Keilor Victoria, and was monitoring Melbourne Departures frequency 118.9 MHz. Qantas 17, a Boeing 747-300 rotated from Runway 34 and made a right turn out of 1300ft for Flight Level 330 (33,000ft). The weather was poor, and the captain of QFA 17, who was using the radio, requested a heading of 070 degrees, followed by a further request for a turn to 120 degrees. Yousuf was below … and watching, as the Qantas aircraft was struck by lightning! His scanner radio came alive: QFA 17: “Departures … Qantas One-Seven, we’ve just had a fairly heavy lightning strike!” MEL DEP: “Qantas One-Seven, Melbourne Departures, are all operations normal?” QFA 17: “Affirmative” (and then … a few seconds later ….) QFA 17: “Arr … there seems to be a hole now!” MEL DEP: “What? I hope you mean a hole in the weather?” QFA 17: “Yes Departures.” Whew! The Air Traffic Controller no doubt had a mighty big heart palpitation until he received that reassurance from the crew. This snippet was monitored some years back in Sydney by Greg Baker, an avid aircraft monitor. The aircraft involved was Continental 15, a DC-10-30 series, registered N12061, and it was tracking southwest, towards Palm Beach, for a left base Runway 16. The female Approach Controller was also vectoring four smaller commuter airliners for Runway 16. The frequency was 124.4 MHz, Approach (North/East) for Sydney International. COA 15: “Sydney Approach, Continental One-Five heavy, we’d like a short approach. Can you get those midgets out of the way?” APPROACH: “Continental One-Five, maintain present heading, I’ll give you a left turn in five miles.” COA 15: “Look ma’am, if you’d like to move those flying ants out of the way, I’d be on the ground in five minutes flat!” APPROACH: “Continental One-Five, I say again … maintain present heading Sir!” COA 15: “Look lady! You may not know this, but we’re a H-E-A-V-Y, so give us a break. Ever heard of a DC-10 ma’am?” APPROACH: (cool and very professional) “Continental One-Five, expect a left turn in five miles, until then, maintain present heading, Sir, you’re now number six to land behind two 747 aircraft approaching West Pymble that are even heavier than you!” Nice. What more can I say? “Climb into the Cockpit by Radio” is available for $22.95 including postage from yours truly at Airband Communications, PO Box 16 Georges Hall 2198 NSW.