FedEx has signed with Atlantic radio

[engvan]

If anybody knows anything about this it would be great but I think FedEx air operations has signed an agreement with Atlantic radio which is Delta operations in Atlanta Georgia because I just caught a FedEx flight out of Oakland that is returning to base because his landing gear did not retract and I caught it on the Delta operations channel 130.775 which is the Delta operations channel in the San Francisco area does anybody know anything about this. It's also been quiet on which is the normal FedEx operations channel of 131.925

 

[engvan]

I'm sorry I meant to say Atlanta radio not Atlantic Atlanta radio is Delta operations in Atlanta Georgia thank you sorry I miss statement on my part

 

[Gatorman]

131.925 rarely used as most aircraft use ACARS or the pilots ignore the in-range reporting. I will ask a friend who is a FE captain and see if I can get an answer. I know that here in Memphis, the VHF channels that used to be filled with traffic are silent. My friend says this is a result of ACARS.

 

[andy51edge]

I'm a regional airline captain. I can confirm this. Most enroute comms go over ACARS (VDL2 if we're being specific). We use Atlanta Radio at my company mostly as the backup to ACARS. It's still worth monitoring, because even with ACARS, there are situations where it is easier to coordinate a phone patch to talk to dispatch or maintenance instead of text messaging. The amount of traffic on Atlantia Radio and ARINC San Francisco Radio may be way down, but when it is used it's more likely to be interesting.

 

[jsoergel]

I'm a regional airline captain. I can confirm this. Most enroute comms go over ACARS (VDL2 if we're being specific). We use Atlanta Radio at my company mostly as the backup to ACARS. It's still worth monitoring, because even with ACARS, there are situations where it is easier to coordinate a phone patch to talk to dispatch or maintenance instead of text messaging. The amount of traffic on Atlantia Radio and ARINC San Francisco Radio may be way down, but when it is used it's more likely to be interesting.

Depends on the airline and the location as to if they use ACARS or VDLM2. (On a related note for anyone who monitors them, I just submitted the new channel plan to the RadioReference nationwide database). I do hear a lot of voice traffic with the explanation of "our ACARS isn't working."

You will still catch a lot of calls on the airline enroute (non-airport) networks - Delta has Atlanta Radio, ARINC has a national network, American has their own dispatch, etc. I have heard Abex use Atlanta Radio a few times in the past week or two, so I do think it's possible some of the cargo carriers may have an agreement.

 

[andy51edge]

Depends on the airline and the location as to if they use ACARS or VDLM2. (On a related note for anyone who monitors them, I just submitted the new channel plan to the RadioReference nationwide database). I do hear a lot of voice traffic with the explanation of "our ACARS isn't working."

Good point. To clarify upon what I said in post #4: most of the planes at my carrier have VDL2 installed, and a handful of our oldest planes still have legacy ACARS only. All of the airplanes with VDL2 installed will use that as their primary method of datalink transmission but still have legacy ACARS available for transmission.

As the end user, the differences between the two modes of datalink transmission are completely transparent, except for the fact the datalink page will momentarily display "NO COMM" as it transitions from one mode to another. The jump from one mode to another is completely automatic (likewise the frequency switching that is required is also automatic).

But with all that said, Delta's Atlanta Radio or ARINC's San Francisco radio is always available when needed (or more convenient than texting).

Edit to add: these radio networks are required for the airlines by federal regulation 14 CFR 121.99(a). Atlanta Radio and San Francisco Radio are both ways to comply with this rule.