MWARA NCA (North Central Asia)

[brandon]

Does anyone have luck picking up the MWARA NCA (North Central Asia) aero freqs from North America? Seems to be a challenge to find confirmed logging for the NCA region. Do they still use HF or are they mostly VHF now?

So far the only North Asia aero comms I have recently monitored from the western USA have been:

8837 - Magadan Radio (polar routes)
11390 - Magadan Radio (polar routes)
6529 - Aerolist shows as: RDARA/Russia FE Petropavlovsk ACC (International traffic), Ust-Bolsheretsk ACC
6631 - Aerolist shows as: RDARA/Russia FE Petropavlovsk ACC (International traffic), Ust-Bolsheretsk ACC

A quick search through udxf shows some semi recent logs on:

5596 Syktyvkar RUS ACC (NCA-1)
6592 Irkutsk RUS AIR (NCA)
5664 Khabarovsk RUS ACC (NCA)
5646 Unid Russian (NCA-1)

I'll start recording each of these overnight and see what turns up.

[nickcarr]

I haven't had much luck with MWARA unless it's relatively close (in terms of region.) Every now and then I can pick up Gander radio from the NE USA but it's rare.

We need more sunspots!

[brandon]

Early this morning I logged aero comms on 6692 kHz. Voice traffic was in Russian. The ground station identifies what sounds like 'Khabarovsk' and matches the Aerolist document.

Here are 2 recordings
6692.0_Khabarovsk_atc_1.mp3
6692.0_Khabarovsk_atc_2.mp3

I will try other frequencies and report back on what is heard.

[nickcarr]

Very cool. Yeah that's a great catch. I wish I could hear that. What time frame were you listening?

(I don't usually have time to listen in the AM - but we can make an exception!)

BTW, there is a Russian military exercise happening thru the end of September.

Found this on the UDXF Yahoo group:

Following extract taken from the pages of the Russian Armed Forces
daily "Red Star". Translated and submitted for information and
interest by "Old Crow". Date of publication 1st Sep 2009..
(Translator's note/aside:- There are more Large Landing Ships than
was originally thought.. Wonder which one is RFH77.. if any)
.
<<... From cruising to exercising... ...>>
.
The detachment of Large Landing Ships (BDK): "Azov", "Yamal" and
"Novocherkassk" from the Black Sea Fleet, under the command of the
Brigade commander - Captain 1st Rank Oleg Ignasyuk - has arrived
from Sevastopol' at the Baltijsk naval base. To get here, they have
traversed 8 seas, an ocean, four inlets and twelve straits. In all,
they have covered a distance of some 4600 nautical miles. En route,
on the approaches to Baltijsk, there was a symbolic and agreeable
rendezvous when on the beam, there became visible the Large Landing
Ships (BDK) "Aleksandr Otrakovskij" and "Georgij Pobedonosets" from
the Northern Fleet.
The personnel of the ships of the Baltic, Black Sea and
Northern Fleets were welcomed by Vice-Admiral Viktor Chirkov -
carrying out the duties of CinC Baltic Fleet. He expressed his belief
in the success of the forthcoming exercises (presumably Ladoga-2009)
and also urged that all personnel should do their duty in an
extensive and painstaking way for the successful completion of the
schedule for the Strategic-Operations exercises (ie. Ladoga-2009).
They should help each other, enhance a spirit of cooperation and not
diminish the tempo of the combat training. ...>>
.
So, there's at least five large landing ships floating around in
the Southern Baltic and it seems highly likely that they'll all,
either collectively or separately, be involved the the exericise
which is planned to run through to the end of September. There'll be
other ships and aircraft involved, Leningrad Military District Ground
Force elements, Internal Security Forces, Border Guards - there
should be plenty to catch your ears if you happen to point them in the direction
of the Kaliningrad enclave and Central Baltic between now and the end of
September.
Best 73's
Old Crow

[brandon]

I am listening from the early hours local time or approx 0800-1200 UTC
This morning there was activity on 6589, also from Khabarovsk Radio and in Russian. I also heard plenty of HF ACARS mixed in probably from somewhere else.

[ka3jjz]

Likely site 11 Panama

HFDL - The RadioReference Wiki

73 Mike

[brandon]

This evening on 11390 Magadan Radio heard working Korean Air 082.
Signal was pretty weak but at least hearing them at a reasonable hour!

[brandon]

6544 had some weak traffic from unid aircraft (Hawker November... something) calling Petropavlovsk reporting at 54 north. Did not hear any response from ground station nor anything further from aircraft.

[brandon]

We can add 4712 kHz to the list. Past 2 nights the recorder picks up Khabarovsk and Magadan on this freq. The Magadan control was in English.

[brandon]

Another update to this thread:

The other night Continental 89 giving position report to "Petro" on 6631. I am sure it for Petropavlovsk but the ground station was quite weak.

Early this morning I heard selcal checks on 5550, which could be another frequency used in Russian air space. During the evenings New York is heard on this freq, but I don't think it was them. The selcal tones sounded "different" ... identical to the selcal tones sent by Magadan Radio.

[CqDx]

Good find! I always wanted to hear ATC from other side of globe.

Did you have any luck with Arctic Radio before?

With the one time use long wire (no kidding!) setup that I have, I can usually hear Gander, New York and Santa Maria. Shanwick comes in once in a while but that's about it.

[brandon]

I think Arctic Radio has been replaced by Gander.
Monitoring 8891 Gander can be heard talking to flights both for oceanic and polar routes. I have not heard Arctic Radio in a long time. The other station heard is Iceland but not very often at my location. Never had much luck with Shanwick either since they tend to use lower freqs.

Gander does work flights in the polar routes and routinely hear them talking to aircraft above 80 degrees north. Unfortunately the planes are almost impossible to pick up from here. Something else that's a bit interesting is when Gander transmits from multiple remotes you can hear a distinct echo effect. 8891 kHz Gander voice echoes