41.500 FM

[AlphaFive]

This is not much in totality, or in the grand scheme of things, but it is an oddity that I haven't latched onto before. At 3:15 E.S.T., 03/28/18, I received an unknown aircraft on approach to Asheville, K.A.V.L. It was on 41.500 FM. No i.d. was obtained. The pilot was attempting to communicate with some entity other than K.A.V.L.. He was letting them know their transmission was broken up and not received, and that he was on "R Nav approach to Asheville". That was it, nothing more. F.M. pretty cool.. A quick review of R.R. show use across the country by various Mil Air units. Closest to Asheville documented, either Indiana or Arkansas I believe. Take care.

 

[milcom_chaser]

This is not much in totality, or in the grand scheme of things, but it is an oddity that I haven't latched onto before. At 3:15 E.S.T., 03/28/18, I received an unknown aircraft on approach to Asheville, K.A.V.L. It was on 41.500 FM. No i.d. was obtained. The pilot was attempting to communicate with some entity other than K.A.V.L.. He was letting them know their transmission was broken up and not received, and that he was on "R Nav approach to Asheville". That was it, nothing more. F.M. pretty cool.. A quick review of R.R. show use across the country by various Mil Air units. Closest to Asheville documented, either Indiana or Arkansas I believe. Take care.

Not sure if you know that is a Military Helicopter Tower freq.

Here's a few more:
34.15 - Army Helicopters
34.65 - Army Helicopters
34.75 - Army Helicopters
41.50 - Army Helicopter Towers

 

[AlphaFive]

41.500

Interesting.. was not aware, I did see a reference in R.R. When I saw the reference, I did recall that at 3:15 I had been out of my shack/basement, upstairs. I did hear heavy choppers going over the house at the time. I have never observed choppers at K.A.V.L. Would you think that perhaps when he was referring to R Nav approach to Asheville, he may have been referring to another location? Thanks for your help. Take care.

 

[milcom_chaser]

Interesting.. was not aware, I did see a reference in R.R. When I saw the reference, I did recall that at 3:15 I had been out of my shack/basement, upstairs. I did hear heavy choppers going over the house at the time. I have never observed choppers at K.A.V.L. Would you think that perhaps when he was referring to R Nav approach to Asheville, he may have been referring to another location? Thanks for your help. Take care.

R-Nav is a type of approach into an air field.

If you have multiple choppers flying, the next cool thing would be to search the FM low band for their A/A coms.

 

[AlphaFive]

41.500

Absolutely, I custom/limit search those bands on my assorted radios. Just a luck of the draw to pick up one. Thanks again

 

[spacellamaman]

Well, well, well, K A V L, that's just swell.

Interesting.. was not aware, I did see a reference in R.R. When I saw the reference, I did recall that at 3:15 I had been out of my shack/basement, upstairs. I did hear heavy choppers going over the house at the time. I have never observed choppers at K.A.V.L. Would you think that perhaps when he was referring to R Nav approach to Asheville, he may have been referring to another location? Thanks for your help. Take care.

That's pretty cool man. Couple of possibilities and other thoughts:

only time I have ever heard 41.5 in use was about 2 years ago in central NC
during one of the common excercises. I only had in punched in cause of
common useage, usually towers, and not due to expecting hear anything. It
was a ground to ground SINCARS Tx making it an oddity.

But its the only time I have heard it. The persons keying up the mikes
obviously had no concern of reaching a nearby tower either, I would assume.
meaning by exclusion, whoever the chopper was talking to was likely not in
the areas to your east.

Asheville sounds a whole lot like Nashville, especially considering that
when scanning you rarely hit a active frequency at the very first moment of
transmission. I have done some neck-snaps when hearing "....Asheville,
blah blah blah..." and look at the alpha tag on the scanner and see it
listed as an RCAG freq covering areas of tennessee/nashville geographically
speaking.


That said, early in 2017, I picked up on some activity at KVUJ, and did my
leisurely Dukes of Hazzard drive out there looking for Kodak moments. It
sticks out in my mind for two reasons, enough that I remember it'd soon as
you mentioned AVL's lack of chopper traffic.

A: it was a UH60M, "ARMY20177" with the wings/pylons/arm-floaties on it, which I had
never seen before, and I was informed that apparently all H60s can strap em
on. For fuel tanks etc, which it didn't have. It was wearing an
emblem with a viper, that due to seeing it frequently around here, I assume its a Bragg area
based chopper. See Kodak Moment:

https://thesanityproject.shutterfly.com/pictures/1726#1726

B: They were topping off on fuel and departed via a flight plan toooooo....
KAVL

The moral of the story is....who knows where it was going.

as a side note, I dunno what gear you are working with, but i have a PRO668, which I have a real love hate relationship with. I have more gripes about it than just about anything other piece of radio equipment i have. Including some pieces that dont work anymore. BUT it has a couple of features that redeem it back as no Uniden I have can match it. My experience has shown, many times now, that the Signal Stalker function will pick up most any transmission as long as I can hear the rotor racket. a telescoping antenna or better is needed for reliability with Low Band, and other bands locked out to assure the catch, but thats how I caught my first Low Band Mil freq that started the deep dive into the dern hobby to begin with.

I assume the other brands/mfr of the group the PRO668 belongs to, with their Spectrum Sweeper functions, should work the same. I figure if you are dedicating scanners just to low band etc, you are in too deep and well past being saved from yourself, so ya might as well get one with a Stalker/Sweeper too. 50khz and 25khz step searches are pretty fast and so is 5khz turbo, but I can rarely force myself to go with 5 and its just painfully slow when Tx's are so brief. 41.88 and 44.18 caught with Signal Stalker proved to me that 25 just won't cut it. so my compromise is having the mix.

boy i sure can get long winded. im going to take a nap. keep us updated as i would like to know who they were talking to as well.


PPPPS: I just noted you have your equipment listed. I am going to leave the signal stalker bit anyway cause, well dernit, i type slow and bah forget it

 

[milcom_chaser]

That's pretty cool man. Couple of possibilities and other thoughts:

only time I have ever heard 41.5 in use was about 2 years ago in central NC
during one of the common excercises. I only had in punched in cause of
common useage, usually towers, and not due to expecting hear anything. It
was a ground to ground SINCARS Tx making it an oddity.

But its the only time I have heard it. The persons keying up the mikes
obviously had no concern of reaching a nearby tower either, I would assume.
meaning by exclusion, whoever the chopper was talking to was likely not in
the areas to your east.

Asheville sounds a whole lot like Nashville, especially considering that
when scanning you rarely hit a active frequency at the very first moment of
transmission. I have done some neck-snaps when hearing "....Asheville,
blah blah blah..." and look at the alpha tag on the scanner and see it
listed as an RCAG freq covering areas of tennessee/nashville geographically
speaking.


That said, early in 2017, I picked up on some activity at KVUJ, and did my
leisurely Dukes of Hazzard drive out there looking for Kodak moments. It
sticks out in my mind for two reasons, enough that I remember it'd soon as
you mentioned AVL's lack of chopper traffic.

A: it was a UH60M, "ARMY20177" with the wings/pylons/arm-floaties on it, which I had
never seen before, and I was informed that apparently all H60s can strap em
on. For fuel tanks etc, which it didn't have. It was wearing an
emblem with a viper, that due to seeing it frequently around here, I assume its a Bragg area
based chopper. See Kodak Moment:

https://thesanityproject.shutterfly.com/pictures/1726#1726

B: They were topping off on fuel and departed via a flight plan toooooo....
KAVL

The moral of the story is....who knows where it was going.

as a side note, I dunno what gear you are working with, but i have a PRO668, which I have a real love hate relationship with. I have more gripes about it than just about anything other piece of radio equipment i have. Including some pieces that dont work anymore. BUT it has a couple of features that redeem it back as no Uniden I have can match it. My experience has shown, many times now, that the Signal Stalker function will pick up most any transmission as long as I can hear the rotor racket. a telescoping antenna or better is needed for reliability with Low Band, and other bands locked out to assure the catch, but thats how I caught my first Low Band Mil freq that started the deep dive into the dern hobby to begin with.

I assume the other brands/mfr of the group the PRO668 belongs to, with their Spectrum Sweeper functions, should work the same. I figure if you are dedicating scanners just to low band etc, you are in too deep and well past being saved from yourself, so ya might as well get one with a Stalker/Sweeper too. 50khz and 25khz step searches are pretty fast and so is 5khz turbo, but I can rarely force myself to go with 5 and its just painfully slow when Tx's are so brief. 41.88 and 44.18 caught with Signal Stalker proved to me that 25 just won't cut it. so my compromise is having the mix.

boy i sure can get long winded. im going to take a nap. keep us updated as i would like to know who they were talking to as well.


PPPPS: I just noted you have your equipment listed. I am going to leave the signal stalker bit anyway cause, well dernit, i type slow and bah forget it

Close Call (Uniden) is based on near field signal strength.
Signal Stalker (GRE/Whistler) sweeps pre-determined bands.

We like them both, Signal Stalker/Sweep is great when set to record mode, and left unattended. We found an obscure UHF freq with Helicopter A/A coms. What would be useful is if Whistler would allow custom band plans like Uniden does (Step Size and Mode selection). Then the sweep function
on the Whister scanner could really be fine tuned (no pun intended).

 

[AlphaFive]

41.500

Nashville..? Just might have been...might have been. I erased the recording. Did a search earlier and recall reading an old post about TN. National Guard activity.. Spacellamaman, "You" might say your long winded, but your posts are always filled with huge amounts of useful tidbits, if a person just takes the time to read them. I appreciate it.
milcom chaser, your right on the money regarding the search capabilities regarding Whistler vs. Uniden. Just by luck this came up on Whistlers auto only band setting for a Limit Search.. Thank you much guys, keep listening.

 

[trashman43]

Logged this from Central Ky this morning.

07:24:33, 0080, CONV , Low Band , 41.150000, CTCSS, 151.4

 

[AlphaFive]

logged

Been away for a few days.. trashman, do you have logs for it being active over time, or was this a new entry?

 

[trashman43]

First time this year. I'd have to dig out an old computer to go back further than that.

Been away for a few days.. trashman, do you have logs for it being active over time, or was this a new entry?

 

[AlphaFive]

logs

Thank you, it was a new one for me, six years or so up here, first hit on it. Take care

 

[spacellamaman]

TN 41.5 options

Nashville..? Just might have been...might have been. I erased the recording. Did a search earlier and recall reading an old post about TN. National Guard activity.. Spacellamaman, "You" might say your long winded, but your posts are always filled with huge amounts of useful tidbits, if a person just takes the time to read them. I appreciate it.
milcom chaser, your right on the money regarding the search capabilities regarding Whistler vs. Uniden. Just by luck this came up on Whistlers auto only band setting for a Limit Search.. Thank you much guys, keep listening.

sorry this took so long. finally remembered to do a search of this verboten site and came up with these
options:

CHA LOVELL FIELD CHATTANOOGA, TN 41.5000 NG OPS 02/06/2014
MKL MC KELLAR-SIPES RGNL JACKSON, TN 41.5000 NG OPS 02/06/2014
TYS MC GHEE TYSON KNOXVILLE, TN 41.5000 NG OPS 02/06/2014
MQY SMYRNA SMYRNA, TN 41.5000 NG OPS

Whatcha think? any close enough to ya?

As a side note, some locals around my AO utilize 40.7 FM, and the other day I heard one pointing out a large screen TV at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the other to see. I was hooked up to a 20ft piece of wire in a tree and straight line distance was approx 35miles.

source:

Military Comms Searchable Frequency Database

don't tell anyone where you got it from tho.....

 

[AlphaFive]

41.500

Well thank you for that info man. From Asheville, if you sit on a frequency for McGhee Tyson you can pull it in. Have hit on a few N.G. air operations out of there in the past. Definitely had the pilot on this one identifying either Asheville or Nashville. Thanks again for your digging up that information. You must have a dumptruck full of notes lying around, haaaaaa. Take care out east over there.