31.200 Mil helicopters

[mancow]

Hearing Mil helicopters using call signs blackhawk or blackheart on 31.200. Conditions are sporadic and it's difficult to make out much.

 

[zguy1243]

good catch. Man I have trouble catching much low band comms, What kind of antenna are you using??

 

[mancow]

I have about 5 mins of it recorded.

I will work on compressing it and if you want take a listen I can try to post it somwhere or email it to you. You might be able to pick out a bit more detail since you are used to Mil comms. It sounds like it's some sort of "blue force exercise" or at least that's what I thought I heard one guy say. They talk so damn fast it's hard to tell but it sounds like the callsigns are blackheart and then a number like 23, etc... I believe I heard dustoff as well.

I am using nothing more than an 80 meter inverted L in the back yard with 8 buried ground radials made from copper blasting wire. That antenna is on the 996 with ProScan recording. Another better receiver tailored to Mil stuff is on the Scantenna at about 20 feet. So far the results are almost the same. I think the better receiver on the ST2 antenna is making up for the smaller antenna size.

The plan this week is to get up on the roof and try to rig the 8 foot CB whip to the top of the rotator mast which would put the tip right about 40 feet. I won't have any ground plane elements on it but I am hoping the mast below and the dual band beam will act as a bit of counterpoise.

I suppose I should have put this in the Mil monitoring forum but I had forgotten it was there.


EDIT: IT'S STILL GOING. I JUST GOT BACK FROM BEING OUT OF THE HOUSE FOR AN HOUR AND HEARD THEM AGAIN JUST NOW.

 

[DaveNF2G]

There is no information in your posts or profile about where you are located. BLACKHEART has been used by the Army National Guard helicopters based in Rochester, NY.

 

[kb2vxa]

For the bottom end of that band it's more like 7' but if you'd rather the center frequency (40MHz) make it 5' 10" and it should cover 30-50MHz fairly well. It looks to me you need an antenna for VHF/UHF monitoring and most would suggest a discone with a Lo Band whip on top such as the Diamond D-130J pictured here. It'll do you justice for a "no gainer" on 6M, 2M and 70cM too, nothing special but for a list price of $100 you get a lot in a small package and it's pretty darn rugged too.

 

[mancow]

That would help wouldn't it.

I am about 40 miles SW of Kansas City, KS.

There is no information in your posts or profile about where you are located. BLACKHEART has been used by the Army National Guard helicopters based in Rochester, NY.

 

[mancow]

Actually, I have one of those but it's currently disassembled (well, radio shack model). I seem to get better results with the scantenna or just the little radio shack ground plane.

But, I suppose I could put the discone back up with a slightly larger whip and see how that goes.

For the bottom end of that band it's more like 7' but if you'd rather the center frequency (40MHz) make it 5' 10" and it should cover 30-50MHz fairly well. It looks to me you need an antenna for VHF/UHF monitoring and most would suggest a discone with a Lo Band whip on top such as the Diamond D-130J pictured here. It'll do you justice for a "no gainer" on 6M, 2M and 70cM too, nothing special but for a list price of $100 you get a lot in a small package and it's pretty darn rugged too.