Sticky Thread for MilAir III

[SquelchKnob]

MISC FREQS
233.7500 02/05/08
This appears to be a new HMTC freq in use at PAX. I have SALTY DOG 400 being the primary user on the freq for this particualr flight. Also on the same freq here "ALL" other comms on numerous other freqs.

288.0 02/06/08 11:25:16 - 13:11:11
Used for TANKER OPS. Heard 30 talking to 32 about being at the IP 3 minutes early. Then caught a few Tanker related comms like "PRE CONTACT" & "CLEARED TO CONTACT". My last comm was " DEE CEE 32" Appears to go hand in hand with the DEE CEE flights you guys caught

312.25 02/05/08
This one appears to be another new PAX related Freq. Had "BLACKJACK 60" talking with "PLANE". Used plane as opposed to a callsign. I am under the suspicion BLACKJACK 60 is the callsign used for a Lab and it's not an actual Bird. Ron. Do you show any live 'in air' history from BLACKJACK 60?

Anyway, the comms on this freq referenced LINE OF SIGHT comms and a bunch of other test related jargon I am not going to get into here.

143.025 FM 02/06/08
I have been watching this freqs a few weeks now and I had to put it in the R-8500 to clean it up enough to be sure. This freq is used by SECURITY for the Presidential HELO HGR here at PAX.

 

[SquelchKnob]

JohnFB mentioned stuff he heard on 145.8 FM the other day. I have that one in my scanner as part of the ISS group. Today had several local ham operators up in radio checks (EM55 & W3AFE). Also had a smattering of Spanish on it.

145.8 15:07:05
"ROGER ROGER, WHISKEY THREE ALPHA FOXTROT ECHO, FM 19 Annapolis Maryland"

"ALPHA FOUR NOVEMBER OSCAR QUEBEC mobile" ECHO MARY 55

Foeign accent voice responds. Some sounded like possible english but hard to tell.

John I guess with all we have all caught this helps confrm you are catching HAM operations here. At least I am. Don't know if ISS related or not. Either way I am pulling it out of my rotation.

 

[SquelchKnob]

Patuxent River Nas (knhk) 02/06/08

All times Eastern
00:01:54 VQ-4 MAINT 404
30 Minutes out, Requesting Deer Sweep
08:24:51 CHECK-IN TESTER 12
Cleared for the Test Areas
08:26:28 CHECK-IN TESTER 14
Cleared for the Test Areas
08:50:37 CHECK-IN SALTY DOG 123
Cleared for the Test Areas
May have been SALTY DOG 213. The controller reading his clearance kept reversing the numbers.
09:04:29 CLNC DEL TESTER 61
Cleared for the Test Areas
09:10:32 CLNC DEL WARLOCK 5
Cleared to India Lima Mike
09:15:27 CLNC DEL NAVY WB 142
Cleared to Sierra Tango Lima
09:20:18 CLNC DEL WARLOCK *
Cleared to Elizabeth City
09:29:57 CLNC DEL BLACKJACK 069 (H-60)
Cleared to the West Area
09:35:24 CLNC DEL TESTER 63
Cleared to the West Area
10:38:15 RAYMOND 16 SENTRY 60
Signal Checks, Contact was made
10:38:58 CLNC DEL BLACKJACK 405
Cleared to the West Area
11:02:32 METRO KING 22
Requesting Landing Weather for FOXTROT OSCAR ?????
Could not catch last word of Destination May have been ZULU
11:40:21 CLNC DEL WATERBUG 815
Cleared for the Patuxent GCA BOX
12:29:07 CLNC DEL NAVY 7A326
Cleared to Cherry Point
13:48:12 CLNC DEL NAVY SD 322
Cleared to Oceana
16:15:27 CLNC DEL N420CM
Cleared to Binghamton
18:06:18 CHECK-IN TESTER 889
Cleared for the Test Areas

 

[JohnFB]

John I guess with all we have all caught this helps confrm you are catching HAM operations here. At least I am. Don't know if ISS related or not. Either way I am pulling it out of my rotation.

I concur ... tnx JR & MD & others. While mildly intrigueing, it's off my rotation as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And on the subject of 'old ears' [grin for Tin] when I got my Eton/Grundig Yacht Boy portable AM/FM/MW/SW/SSB radio I found it included very nice little ear buds.

I don't use headphones .... they bring back too many memories of being hunched over a work station, hands clenching the phones to my head, trying to figure out if I'm hearing genetive or dative case.

I do find the buds very handy when on the road ..... I plug them into my PRO-97 and I can hear just about everything over the traffic noise, without distracting my attention from the traffic.

 

[ka3jjz]

145.8 15:07:05
"ROGER ROGER, WHISKEY THREE ALPHA FOXTROT ECHO, FM 19 Annapolis Maryland"

"ALPHA FOUR NOVEMBER OSCAR QUEBEC mobile" ECHO MARY 55

Foeign accent voice responds. Some sounded like possible english but hard to tell.

John I guess with all we have all caught this helps confrm you are catching HAM operations here. At least I am. Don't know if ISS related or not. Either way I am pulling it out of my rotation.

[off topic]
guys see my message 727 about this. Yes, this is the ISS with their Kenwood radio working in repeater mode
The freqs between 144-146 mhz (148 mhz here in the Americas and Canada) is the 2 meter ham band. While it's certainly possible milcom types could wander in here, a lot of folks would be mightily annoyed if they started walking in the middle of the satellite subband, which is where 145.8 resides.
[/off topic]

73s Mike

 

[Mark]

Starting around 0600/1100zREACH 960 was inbound Dover with CP declaring IFE
as #1 engine had fire and is shutdown.Req customs/ag etc so assume coming in
from Moron and most likely a C-5.
0630 REACH 960 using Dover metro 342.000 asking about wx at McGuire and Andrews.
Seems he needs dry runway to land and lower winds.
0642 REACH 960 with Dover appch 132.425 circling at 2k so hard to read,says
if winds are still out of limits will head for McGuire.
0650 REACH 960 field in sight lining up for runway 19. sw to tower 126.350
0652 gear down asking for one more wind check on 126.350
0653 REACH 960 now requests winds for runway 1 and will do 180 to runway 1.
0657 REACH 960 gear down cleared for landing runway 1 full stop.
0725 REACH 0704 departing Dover sw to ZDC 127.700,sounded like commercial contract aircraft.
0730 TERRA 97 C-32B #00-9001 going from McGuire to Andrews with CP 378.100 and ZDC 127.700 eta at 1245.
0819 REACH 452 C-17 #03-3113 arriving McGuire 30 minutes,req 100k fuel.
1027/1527z TERRA 97 calling "Mainsail" on 11175 HF and gets Puerto Rico station reply.Loud and clear..out.

Mark

 

[mdmonitor]

312.25 02/05/08
This one appears to be another new PAX related Freq. Had "BLACKJACK 60" talking with "PLANE". Used plane as opposed to a callsign. I am under the suspicion BLACKJACK 60 is the callsign used for a Lab and it's not an actual Bird. Ron. Do you show any live 'in air' history from BLACKJACK 60?

Anyway, the comms on this freq referenced LINE OF SIGHT comms and a bunch of other test related jargon I am not going to get into here.

JR,

I don't have any record of Blackjack 60 flying in my notes. I have a hard time catching these guys as they are usually too low for me to hear at my location.

Ron

 

[SquelchKnob]

JR,

I don't have any record of Blackjack 60 flying in my notes. I have a hard time catching these guys as they are usually too low for me to hear at my location.

Ron

Copy Ron, I only mention this as I catch comms almost daily from a BLACKJACK 60. It is always leading tests relating to Comms systems and networks like LINK -16, GATOR, etc. I suspect BLACKJACK 60 is simply a LAB setup and possibly configured to duplicate the inner workings of a Helo.

BlackJack 60's comms arealways crystal clear with no hint of rotor noise.

 

[mdmonitor]

CLNC DEL N420CM
Cleared to Binghamton

Guys,

Anyone know why this guy flies between Pax River & Binghamton NY almost every day?

 

[Mark]

Guys,

Anyone know why this guy flies between Pax River & Binghamton NY almost every day?

The only info I found searching is that there is a Military & Naval Affairs Division
located in Binghampton.
Sounds like a Navy paper pushing operation...

Mark

 

[BM82557]

Activity 02/07/2008

0928 local - unid a/c (female) with altitude/bearing on ZDC-Azalea freg - 263.1 (I've had quite a bit of activity on this freq the last day or two)
0929 - same female calling Leesburg radio, couldn't make out the callsign but copied that it was an F18, 500' at 350kts, also mentioned Charlottesville. Heard Leesburg respond but she said they were broken and unreadable. She next said a good copy on that but I didn't hear Leesburg - 255.4 Can FSS sites switch transmitters like center does?
1027 - BULLY flight, DC-ANG, has been active for a while now - 143.6
1035 - HAWK 21 calling center X2 on ZDC-Montebello freq 284.7

 

[TinEar]

Most likely then Tin. Strikes me as odd as I have no recorded audio for 143.825 though. I was recording on it. Maybe something else had the scanner busy during that time frame. But at least we have another freq for them now. I have heard the TULSA C/S used on/off over the last few weeks. So these freqs are gonna come in handy for us.

EDITING HERE. Tin I forgot I had 143.825 in another scanner. I have your flight of two lining up for ADW in the time block you show then around 13:30 I have another flight of two, likely the same as I had one 138.5 as I double checked that audio and the voices are similar. I did not copy much on them. Only had three transmissions, used as Interflight. Last transmission sounds like "39" Don't know what the reference is to.
Heard something about one being on the left side for downwind and the other being on the right.

All this amounted to four F-16s from the OK-ANG coming to Andrews - two flights of two each. Their interflight freqs were 138.5 and 143.825. Nothing real unusual here other than to try to determine why they're here. Those flights are heard occasionally here but seldom anything other than in and out. I often wonder if some of the pilots from land-locked bases like Tulsa come here to train with the DC-ANG unit and work under local callsigns. I'm fairly sure they must due to the number of "newbie" sounding pilots we hear. Working the same mission as the Andrews birds would give them some different kinds of training over water. By the way, by "newbie" I mean new to the area, not a young, new pilot.
********************************************

I don't have any record of Blackjack 60 flying in my notes. I have a hard time catching these guys as they are usually too low for me to hear at my location.

Same here. JR, so much of what you post is stuff that doesn't even budge my signal strength meter. That's why some of it is so fascinating. It's all new and different. As Ron mentioned, most of it is at such low altitudes that it's simply out of range. Add in the dead zone effect for me in that area and it's like transmissions from another country.

And ref that N420CM guy: It would be interesting to know why that trip requires a daily aircraft. It's just a little Beech so it isn't hauling too much back and forth.
********************************************

Late 1000 hour...HAWK 21 and BOBCAT 34 flights w/ZDC-Irons...both flights descending and probably heading into NAS Oceana...360.85

1110: REACH 559T to Quantico Ops...IDs as a 130 for arrival message...355.3 (This may be in preparation for the President's visit to Tennessee tomorrow)
1115: NJ-ANG F-16s up on interflight freqs...138.425/138.875

1122: BATON 20 (EC-130J, 99-1933, 193rd SOW, PA-ANG Harrisburg) calling TAZZ 51 (KC-135R, 60-0347, 121st ARW OH-ANG Rickenbacker ANGB)...x2, no joy...295.8 (AR-631 Primary)
1125: Navy fighters all over the ZDC UHF freqs around the Oceana area...also have VFA-106 interflight freq 275.3 active.
1131: BATON 20 and TAZZ 51 make contact...BATON says he's 8 minutes early and wants to make sure that's okay with TAZZ 51. It is. BATON is at 11K, TAZZ 51 at FL 270 and will start his descent soon...BATON gives his squawk as 6276...BATON 20 requests that after the AR, he wants to backtrack on a route BLUE 24 to FISST, RADDS, V139, CCV, V38, RIC and delay there (in the Richmond area)...295.8
BLUE 24 is that AR track I recently recovered that is offshore from the Pax area up to around the W-107 area. One of the REACH aircraft finally gave me that name of BLUE 24 for the track and now this is the second reference I've heard to it.
1140: BATON 20 to TAZZ 51 to say he's now two minutes early...that's fine with TAZZ 51...295.8
1145: TAZZ 51 reports altimeter 2978...295.8 (These guys are staying loud and clear, however, they could quickly move out of range.)
1149: And that's exactly what's happening...getting much weaker now...TAZZ 51 reports at 16,000 feet and no response from BATON 20 heard so they probably are going to AR-631 as this freq indicates....295.8
1151: Belgian Air Force...flight BAF 605, Falcon 900B, tail CD-01, 21 Squadron...into the area w/TRACON...128.35
1157: JOSA 112 (C-21A, 84-0137, 457th AS Andrews) trying to contact Griffin...no joy...141.55

1200: BAF 605 w/TRACON heading for runway 1L at Andrews...128.35
1204: BAF 605 to ADW tower for landing...118.4 (This freq has been much weaker here the past couple of days than normal. Ron, you hearing any difference?)
1208: JOSA 112 w/TRACON...119.3
1231-38: REACH 283 (C-17A, 07-7170, 436th AW Dover) calling Norfolk many times before making contact...25 minutes out, needs parking spot, crew transportation for 8 crew members and info on his upload...349.5

 

[mdmonitor]

And ref that N420CM guy: It would be interesting to know why that trip requires a daily aircraft. It's just a little Beech so it isn't hauling too much back and forth.

Guys,

Did a web search on US Navy/Binghamtron Ny. Only thing that sounds sem i-logical is that there are couple of Defense Contractors in that area, Lockheed Martin being one of them.

Maybe these flights are carrying engineers, software types, etc supporting some programs underway at Pax River.

 

[BM82557]

C5 inbound to Martinsburg

1200 - last 10 minutes or so the Martinsburg tower has been prodding ga aircraft to take off. He reports that a C5 is inbound and it will take 45 minutes to tow it off the runway after it shuts down. Nothing heard from the C5 yet.

1204 - DECOY 22 HEAVY reporting over the vor, tower clears him to land saying the equipment is waiting for you at taxiway ALPHA -124.3
1212 - Tower asks 22 what's the nature of his problem. 22 reports that the rear gear didn't caster when they took off from Stewart and it scuffed the tires up pretty bad - 121.8
1214 - 22 with PIKESIDE (167th OPS) with more detailed info - 297.0
1412 - DECOY 59 HEAVY cleared to land by the tower - 124.3

 

[mdmonitor]

.1204: BAF 605 to ADW tower for landing...118.4 (This freq has been much weaker here the past couple of days than normal. Ron, you hearing any difference?)

Tin,

Yes, I've noticed that it's weaker lately. I used to be able to hear the tower on most days but haven't heard them in quite awhile. All comms on this freq appear to be wweaker lately.

Ron

 

[mdmonitor]

mdmonitor

Have Saudi Air Force 901 just landing at Dover. Tin, did you get anything on this guy?

 

[TinEar]

Have Saudi Air Force 901 just landing at Dover. Tin, did you get anything on this guy?

Of course I did.
He was a C-130H, tail 473. I don't have the unit though - just that he's Saudi AF. My Saudi AOB is in sorry shape.

And the Irish Air Corps 251 Gulfstream IV that came in yesterday departed today around 1400. About 40 minutes later he was logged over Nantucket so he's probably heading home.

Late 1600 hour, Royal Air Force...ASCOT 2501, VC-10/C1K, tail XR807 from 101 Squadron overhead the area toward the northeast. He came into the country on the 4th of the month and then was heard out west yesterday.

Ref below: Thanks Jordan

 

[jmhayes]

C-130, tail 473. I don't have the unit though - just that he's Saudi AF.

Scramble says 4sq, from Jeddah (Prince Abdullah Air Base) [OEJN]

 

[mdmonitor]

mdmnonitor

Here's what i have so far today:

1. VHF/UHF: ((Times are local))

Evening 6 Feb:

1940- DeeCee 34 (KC-135R, 459th ARS Andrews)-on AAR primary (228.0) for refueling w/ Mover 35 (KC-10, McGuire AFB NJ) at 26,000ft in AR 777. DeeCee 34 requests they use 35Y for interplane.
1945- Axeman 1 flt (2 X A-10Cs, 104th FS MD ANG, Martin State)-land at Martin State (297.2)
1948- Blackjack 1 & 2 (Coast Guard HH-65Cs, CGAS Washington DC) on marine chnl 23A (157.05) in intercept training at 2,000 ft at speeds 100-120kts using 23Y as interplane.

7 Feb:

0700- PAT 39-w/Leesburg Radio (255.4) landing at Easton MD.
0734- Reach 0704 (id as heavy)-w/ZDC (127.7 & 128.3).
0809- Navy TP 39 (C-12C, NTPS Pax River)-w/Pax approach (121.0). Returned to Pax River in the late 1500 hour.
1100- Venus 7 (Unid, 99th AS Andrews) -approaches at Andrews (118.4)
1107- Guard 23744 (UH-60, MD ArNG Weide AAF)-w/Weide Ops (126.2) & Phillips AAF (126.15).
1110- Reach 559- calling Quantico Ops (355.3).
1113- CG Sector Baltimore (157.15) calling USCGC Sledge (WLIC 75303, Baltimore) for clear & secure radio checks.
1142- Belgian Air Force 605 (A-310)-w/ZDC (127.7) descending to 14,000ft.
1249- Navy 7A326 (C-12, AOD Pax River)-check in w/Dover approach (132.425) at 7,000ft.
1407- Dragnet (E-3B AWACS, Tinker AFB OK)-w/Giantkiller (249.8) asking about status of Test Track Bravo.
1410- Guard 525 (UH-60 # 24525, MD ArNG, Weide AAF)-approaches at Weide AAF (126.2).
1424- Tulsa 91 (F-16C/D 125th FS, OK ANG at Tulsa)-w/ZDC (371.9) cleared direct to Little Rock AR. Headed back to OK from short stay at Andrews.
1509- Crab 57 (C-130J # 98-1357, 135th AS MD ANG Martin State)-w/Phillips Ops (126.15) for air drop training using sand bags.
1514- SPAR 148 (unid)-land at Andrews (118.4).
1519- Crab 54 (C-130J # 98-1357, 135th AS MD ANG Martin State)-approaches at Dover (132.425).
1520- Saudi Air Force 901 (C-130)- w/ZDC (127.7) then w/Dover approach (132.425).
1602- Waterbug 939 (T-34C # 160939, VX-20 Pax River)-w/ZDC (133.9) then w/Bay Watch (270.8) for entry into the South Spin area from 3500-16,500ft.
1605- Crab 54- land at Martin State (121.3).
1617- Reach 527T-w/Dover CP (349.4) w/inbound msg. Also w/Dover approach (132.425).
1627- Navy 692 (C-20D # 163692, VR-1, Andrews)-w/ZDC (133.9).


Ron
Baltimore MD
VHF/UHF: BC-895XLT/RS Pro-2045
Diamond D-130J discone
HF: Icom R75 & Sangean ATS 909
45-ft EF-SWL & 70-ft random wire

 

[SquelchKnob]

The only info I found searching is that there is a Military & Naval Affairs Division
located in Binghampton.
Sounds like a Navy paper pushing operation...

Mark

Mark, just to add to this. FWIW. Evertime I hear him , he is either going to or from the T-Line. The TWR has a little area for C-12s and small passenger planes to pick up & drop off passengers. I have never caught him going to/from any of the aircraft HGRS or Test Facilities on GND freq. And for him to be doing this daily like this I suspect he is hauling either Civil Service employess or Military Personnel.
As you said, very likely a paper pushing op.

And I'll also add the there have been a few days where he made this same trip 2x.

And Tin, REF the OK ANG guys. I have a guy I work within that is in the DC ANG. Maint Type. I'll try to catch him tonight and put a bug in his ear and see if he knows why they are here or can find out for us.