President Bush Visit to San Antonio

[blantonl]

President Bush was in San Antonio today for a fund-raiser.

Air Force 1 flew right over my house on approach to San Antonio International Airport, which was a fantastic sight. Not only does AF1 look cool, it really *sounds* cool as well.

In any case, I caught the following operations:

166.5125 P25 Encrypted, US Secret Service Channel SIERRA, active before landing and while AF-1 was on approach, and during the event. Probably USSS Security operations at the airport and at the fundraisrer

165.3750 P25 Clear/Encrypted. US Secret Service Channel CHARLIE - the command post

164.8875 P25 Encrypted. US Secret Service Motorcade operations, only active during the motorcade

162.6875 Encrypted with what sounded very much like VINSON or ANDVT. Close to DES sounding however sounded very much like 16 Kbs VINSON encryption. I've never heard this type of encryption on the Fed Band, only on VHF-Low (mil), UHF Mil, and UHF Satcom. Interesting.

 

[texasemt13]

Lindsay,
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to catch these...

I even got some pictures of Air Force 1 while cruising down the 281 access into work.

I logged all of those frequencies +1... 166.5125 which is the White House Communications Agency ALPHA. This was in P-25 mode and encryoted as well.

I heard AF1 on the SAT VHF Clearance frequency as well... cool to hear that's for sure.

 

[blantonl]

I didn't know he was going to be in town, so unfortuantly, I didn't get any pics or video.

I was sitting in the house and had a radio on the SAT Tower Frequency, and noticed after a while the tower was VERY quiet. All the sudden I heard AF-1 check in and get clearance to land, so I knew he'd be flying over my place. No sooner did I run outside and yell at my wife to come out did I hear the aircraft and he then appears and lumbered on down the approach.

It was awesome.

 

[texasemt13]

I was sitting at Nakoma and 281 when I heard clearance given to AF1 to land. I kept looking out my window at the airport, waiting for something to appear- the young lady next to me kept looking at me like "What are you staring at?" Then she would glance back towards the airport to see if she could tell. Then all of a sudden here she came, low and slow.

Man that aircraft is beautiful...

You're right though- for about 2 hours things were real slow...

I was listening to employees of the various airlines commenting on the jet and if they got pictures or not.

 

[davidbond21]

Yeah, I got up this morning and saw on the news that Bush was coming to town this morning, and before I left the house, the news said that his plane had begun its descent. Well, when me an texasemt13 were carpooling to work, we were prepared(and had great luck on the timing as we got to the airport). Heard on the tower VHF Air Force One being cleared for landing, we saw its lights coming in, and we parked on the access road by 281 and watched it go overhead. Texasemt13 snapped a couple photos, not great, but at least you can see the Presidential Seal on the side of the aircraft in one of the pics.

I noticed SAT tower was conspicuously quiet when we were driving in to work too. I think what first tipped me off was that as we were stuck on Nakoma in traffic, we didn't see a single plane come in for almost 10 minutes. We tried to make it over to the airport again when we thought he was leaving, but we dropped the ball and missed him on the way out.

 

[blantonl]

I definitely now think the operations that I heard on 162.6875 was FACINATOR CVSD encryption. I wonder if there were some military special operations folks in the area providing support.

 

[Hooligan]

President Bush was in San Antonio today for a fund-raiser.

Air Force 1 flew right over my house on approach to San Antonio International Airport, which was a fantastic sight. Not only does AF1 look cool, it really *sounds* cool as well.

In any case, I caught the following operations:

166.5125 P25 Encrypted, US Secret Service Channel SIERRA, active before landing and while AF-1 was on approach, and during the event. Probably USSS Security operations at the airport and at the fundraisrer

165.3750 P25 Clear/Encrypted. US Secret Service Channel CHARLIE - the command post

164.8875 P25 Encrypted. US Secret Service Motorcade operations, only active during the motorcade

162.6875 Encrypted with what sounded very much like VINSON or ANDVT. Close to DES sounding however sounded very much like 16 Kbs VINSON encryption. I've never heard this type of encryption on the Fed Band, only on VHF-Low (mil), UHF Mil, and UHF Satcom. Interesting.

Not to get into semantics too much, but keep in mind that some of the phonetic-alphabet named channels usually listed as being USSS really aren't SS channels, but are more along the lines of Executive Office of the President or WHCA/WHMO channels. Just like Roadrunner is usually referred to as a USSS vehicle, when it's not. WHCA provides radio services for themselves & other WH-related organizations involved in POTUS activities & support, so it can be kind of confusing as to what agency actually controls what radio channel.

So in the case of the freqs you heard, one is commonly used by "WH staffers" & support groups from a couple different organizations, one is a SS channel that mostly would have been used by perimeter units, one is a channel used by the Presidential Protective Division, and then one is a special link channel. Encryption method is comensurate with the type of information nominally being passed over each circuit. In the event of an overnight visit or higher-profile event, there probably would have been a couple other channels in use.


With the right channel usage info, even if comms are secure, traffic analysis can reveal an upcoming POTUS visit at least several days in advance of it becoming public information.


Hoolie

 

[Caesar]

Very nice, when he visited columbia, SC several months back we swung by the airport to see AF1 parked in the airport and picked up VHF traffic as well, some of our sled was in the clear, but most all else was encrypted...

 

[andyishere]

There are many AF1. They had one here in Ohio at WPAFB [ Wright Patterson Air Force base ]
So did you see the decoy also? It should of landed at the same time to confuse people. :O I watch the decoy fly over my house. They take it on a test run.

 

[texasemt13]

There are many AF1. They had one here in Ohio at WPAFB [ Wright Patterson Air Force base ]
So did you see the decoy also? It should of landed at the same time to confuse people. :O I watch the decoy fly over my house. They take it on a test run.

There is really only one "Air Force One" (the callsign of the VC-25 when the Prez is on board) and only two VC-25s that are painted alike. One is a "decoy" you could say, though the Air Force will call it a "reserve..."

They usually don't land at the same time AND place either... the other "decoy" wasn't in San Antonio at all that day, probably because the Presdient was only here for a few hours.

 

[Rudy3145]

Any Air Force plane the President flies on uses the call sign Air Force 1. Air Force 2 for the Vice President.

People just refer to the 747 as Air Force 1.

The U.S. has an entire fleet of planes painted exactely like Air Force One. Two 747's, Gulf Streams, 737's etc. used by government officials on official business. Generally, t

 

[Rudy3145]

Any Air Force plane the President flies on uses the call sign Air Force 1. Air Force 2 for the Vice President.

People just refer to the 747 as Air Force 1.

The U.S. has an entire fleet of planes painted exactely like Air Force One. Two 747's, Gulf Streams, 737's etc. used by government officials on official business. Generally, the 747's are reserved for the President.

 

[Hooligan]

Yikes, lot of utter misinformation there...

'Air Force One' is the callsign of any USAF aircraft transporting the POTUS. VC-25As # 28000 & 29000 are known as Specially Designated Special Air Mission aircraft, and as such, as reserved for POTUS use, whereas other 89th AW SAM aircraft, with a couple minor exceptions, are used for general-purpose SAM missions as designated by the USAF & White House. The VC-25s, most frequently 28000, are used for the AF1 mission a lot because as the largest aircraft, they have the most resources, but for short-distance flights and/or to runways that can't support a 747, smaller aircraft can & are used for the AF1 role.


There's no effort to 'hide' which aircraft the POTUS is in -- most AF1 arrivals & departures are big affairs & it's pretty easy to see which bird the POTUS gets in. The secondary aircraft is mostly there as a maintenance back-up, and/or in the case of a C-20, an emergency evacuation aircraft ("COG bird"). It's not a 'decoy' because it's deliberately kept away from the primary AF1 for security purposes, and while both VC-25s are used for major missions, there are plenty of times where AF-1 might be a VC-25, but the back-up aircraft is obviously a different airframe. One of the most appreciated things aboard AF1 that the back-up bird does is it often flies the same route XXX time/distance ahead of AF1 & let's them know what in-flight weather conditions are like (turbulence).

 

[andyishere]

You know what I mean. They have Look-alikes.

 

[KE7JFF]

Hooligan has it right; pretty much its called AF1 if the president is aboard any USAF operated aircraft, Marine One if its operated by USMC, Navy One if its USN, Army One its US Army.

Now, if the president decides to instead fly on Southwest Airlines (why? well Bush secretly loves Love Field hahaha), the aircraft can use the callsign of Executive One. This was done once by Nixon for this who don't remember. Nixon flew on an United Airlines flight (with Air Force One following in behind as a backup; causing quite some controversy)

Also when the president is in his car, its called "Cadillac One". Now I wonder if the president hops on an Amtrak train, would be called "GE One?" following this convention?

 

[Cowthief]

Executive One.

Hello.

Correct, Nixon did indeed fly on a chartered 747, as this was one of the first flights of that airframe.
In order to keep the Saudi's happy, the first of the 747 aircraft was christened, not with champaign, but red white and blue colored water.
To keep everyone happy, his wife did the honors.
And, to keep up with the Jones' quite a few countries have a pair of 747's, including Japan and Saudi Arabia.
The French and British have Airbus aircraft, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747
In order to communicate within the aircraft, a full telephone system was fitted, and not just the interphone system.
In this era, SatPhones were the stuff of science fiction, so HF was used.
One could ask to use the HF radio, and more than one person has asked for 27.185 MHz AM, remember this was in the middle of the CB craze.
And, Facinator is not a type of encryption, it is a catagory, one can have a P-25 compliant radio equipped with Fascinator III.
Facinator I will not interoperate with II, etc.
Fasinator III is not quite digital, not quite analog, is what one person said.
Actually, P-25 supports a wide range of encryption, Fascinator is just one more option.
The major advantage from a government user standpoint is that Fascinator III is on a lot of government radios.
The AN/PRC-148 supports Fascinator.
The currrent Motorola mobile and portable radios (government models) support Fascinator.
M/A-Com government talkies support Fascinator.
There is even a landline interface for Fascinator, ISDN or VoIP.
There is no public/private Fascinator, it is Federal government only, and that makes the feds happy.
And, Fascinator is modular, type III can be loaded with limited encryption all the way to the maximum, on the fly.
Several levels of passwords can be assigned.
The AN/PRC-148 that is in Iraq, for example, will not have the same level of encryption loaded as one that is assigned to a white house staffer in the US.
Fascinator was developed jointly by IBM and NSA and has evolved to where it is now.

 

[bpckty1]

The Discovery Channel has a program about AF-1 and a trip to Africa. Interesting info about it and the backup. Look for reruns and catch it when it is on. There is an interesting part on communications, which includes AF-1 security. It doesn't go into much detail (duh!!!), but it should shed some light on some of the earlier posts.

 

[wwhitby]

AF-1 was ascending to altitude a couple hundred yards away from my house after President Bush spoke in Montgomery back in 2004. It was definately something to see. I wish I would have video taped it......

Back in 1992, my Dad and I parked off the highway at the end of the runway at Maxwell AFB. We watched AF-1 taxi, giving us a nice broadside view of the aircraft. I still have the pictures I took of that one.

Its also neat hearing control towers talk to AF-1.

Warren

 

[poltergeisty]

WTH! It's Air Farce One.

 

[RayAir]

I definitely now think the operations that I heard on 162.6875 was FACINATOR CVSD encryption. I wonder if there were some military special operations folks in the area providing support.

How does Fascinator sound different than normal digital encryption such as DES or AES? I thought it was the same , but with a classified algorithm.