Anything on the aviation frequencies?

[ddbernadette]

Hello all,
Have any of you had any luck finding any MWAR (major world air route) and/or LDOC (long distance operations controls) stations on shortwave? I've tried listening for these stations on some online sdr's but no success. I know there haven't been many planes in the air because of the pandemic, but I thought I would hear something. If any of you have had any luck with finding some aviation frequencies, could you please state where and what time? Thanks

 

[Markb]

HF is still fairly active, although much of it has gone to satellite. Not sure of your location, but this site is helpful:

Pacific HF Assignments

Displays frequency assignments for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

radio.arinc.net

If you're on the east coast, the menu has the link for the Atlantic assignments.
Also, try top of the hour, that seems to be when position reports are requested, but there's traffic at all times really.

 

[ridgescan]

I don't know where you are but here in San Francisco I get the usual traffic from SFO HF on 8843, 5547, 10057 and 11282kHz, even all the way out to New York Radio on 8918kHz, and when Propagation is good, Shannon in Ireland (I think Shanwick too?) on 5505kHz.

 

[GB46]

I don't know where you are but here in San Francisco I get the usual traffic from SFO HF on 8843, 5547, 10057 and 11282kHz, even all the way out to New York Radio on 8918kHz, and when Propagation is good, Shannon in Ireland (I think Shanwick too?) on 5505kHz.

I rarely hear anything on those frequencies here; they were some of my favorites when I lived in Saskatchewan. Sometimes I can pick up Gander Radio on 8891 in the early evening. When I do hear something, however, it's usually too weak to make out, so I've gone over to monitoring San Francisco's HFDL frequencies, where I decode lots of activity, especially on 6559 kHz during the morning and evening hours.

 

[majoco]

Every over-water aircraft has to send a position report at every reporting point they cross but these days that's done over CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Control or something like that). BUT every time the aircraft goes from one HF control sector to another they have to call on HF and carry out a Selcal test with the new controller - that's about all I hear these days. Occasionally there's a non CPDLC aircraft which is more interesting - usually these aircraft are using their tail number/registration instead of a flight number - probably delivery flights.

 

[markclark]

The HF frequencies are very active between California and Hawaii. I also hear Tokyo and New York, sometimes Santa Maria and Shanwick. I hear LDOC mostly on 6640. I use two antennas: A Pixel Loop and a PAR Endfedz longwire with a JRC NRD receiver.

Here's a link for East and West coast AIRINC HF assignments.

Pacific HF Assignments

Displays frequency assignments for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

radio.arinc.net

Atlantic HF Assignments

Displays frequency assignments for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

radio.arinc.net

 

[ka3jjz]

Propagation willing....and don't ignore HFDL, which is still pretty active. You don't need fancy gear to hear and decode this, either....Mike

 

[GB46]

Every over-water aircraft has to send a position report at every reporting point they cross but these days that's done over CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Control or something like that). BUT every time the aircraft goes from one HF control sector to another they have to call on HF and carry out a Selcal test with the new controller - that's about all I hear these days. Occasionally there's a non CPDLC aircraft which is more interesting - usually these aircraft are using their tail number/registration instead of a flight number - probably delivery flights.

I see those position reports quite frequently over HFDL. Most of them are off the California or Washington State coast, as the ground station I monitor is in San Francisco. Lots of FedEx and UPS flights; also lots of Alaska Airlines flights arriving or departing from SeaTac Airport in Seattle. Sometimes they're farther inland. Also, Air Canada flights often report in from over my approximate location in the British Columbia interior with a startlingly strong signal. Once in a while I see a long unencrypted text message from the ground station, such as local weather conditions, etc. In one case, the controller was questioning the pilot's choice of runways, and whether the one he had chosen was even on the official runway list.

The flights are identified by their flight numbers and/or aircraft registration codes. Fortunately I was able to find a good list of airline codes online:

Airline Codes | Bureau of Transportation Statistics

*To note: Not all Carriers report data to the DOT.

www.bts.gov

Wikipedia has a long list of registration code prefixes.

 

[KM4OBL]

I've heard MWARA controllers all over the spectrum, recently, mainly New York and Caribbean. The frequencies change quite a bit day to day, so it is tricky to find them. Here are some of the recent frequencies I've heard them on (in Khz, all USB): 6577, 6586, 6886, 8891, 8918, 11279, 11396, and 13297.

 

[popnokick]

Two important things missing from the OP's original post: What antenna are you using for HF shortwave reception? And when tuning the online receivers, remember that MWARA comms are USB (upper sideband).

 

[ka3jjz]

The frequencies never change, their usage (or how you hear them due to propagation) does. We have numerous lists in our wiki and they can be found in lots of places. Nothing 'tricky' about it at all

Mike

 

[GB46]

I'm finally beginning to hear some activity on the MWARA frequencies in the evening, but most of the transmissions are still not strong enough to be heard clearly. It looks like I'll just have to wait for an improvement in propagation -- as if I haven't waited long enough already.

 

[popnokick]

Have you thought about a better antenna? What antenna are you using now?

 

[GB46]

Have you thought about a better antenna? What antenna are you using now?

I would build a better antenna if I didn't live in an apartment. When conditions are good my current antenna is adequate, judging by other stations besides the aviation ones. 23 ft. of wire inside this apartment is the best I can do; it can't be put outside on the balcony, and the balcony isn't much better, anyway, as it's too close to the noise sources inside the building and the nearby power lines.

I've thought of loops, but the RFI here comes from all directions, judging by a direction finding session I carried out with the AM loop in my portable. In fact, I get better results using the whip on the portable. All I get by connecting the wire antenna is a higher noise floor.

My R75 is currently suffering from a relapse of a problem that had disappeared for an entire year. That receiver has a couple of preamps, but they too only increase the noise. Along with that is the fact that the R75's audio accentuates the noise, making it uncomfortable to listen through all that din.

City living makes SWLing pretty difficult. In 2009 I took the portable on vacation with me, and used it outside in a park outside of town. Stations I could hardly hear back home came booming in. Of course, returning to my hotel room killed all that great reception.

As for aviation transmissions, the HFDL carriers from San Francisco are always much stronger here than the MWARA voice transmissions from the same location.

 

[majoco]

Contrary to popular belief, pre-amps actually increase noise by adding their own to the background. Turn off the pre-amps, reduce the RF gain so you can just hear the backgound, pick a reasonably distant station and a frequency suitable for the time of day (higher frequencies in the day, lower at evening/night) and sit on it. When you do catch one, listen to what frequency the controller gives as primary and secondary. You are unlikely to hear Vancouver as you are too close, often I can't hear Auckland when Brisbane and Hawaii are booming in.

 

[ridgescan]

I would build a better antenna if I didn't live in an apartment. When conditions are good my current antenna is adequate, judging by other stations besides the aviation ones. 23 ft. of wire inside this apartment is the best I can do; it can't be put outside on the balcony, and the balcony isn't much better, anyway, as it's too close to the noise sources inside the building and the nearby power lines.

I've thought of loops, but the RFI here comes from all directions, judging by a direction finding session I carried out with the AM loop in my portable. In fact, I get better results using the whip on the portable. All I get by connecting the wire antenna is a higher noise floor.

My R75 is currently suffering from a relapse of a problem that had disappeared for an entire year. That receiver has a couple of preamps, but they too only increase the noise. Along with that is the fact that the R75's audio accentuates the noise, making it uncomfortable to listen through all that din.

City living makes SWLing pretty difficult. In 2009 I took the portable on vacation with me, and used it outside in a park outside of town. Stations I could hardly hear back home came booming in. Of course, returning to my hotel room killed all that great reception.

As for aviation transmissions, the HFDL carriers from San Francisco are always much stronger here than the MWARA voice transmissions from the same location.

How are you feeding the 23-footer in your shack? Have you tried a piece of coax with a pl259 connected to the R75's so239 jack, then either grounding the coax braid, or running a counterpoise wire from the braid out along the floor in the radio room?
Sometimes giving the receive antenna something to work against can help out.

 

[GB46]

Contrary to popular belief, pre-amps actually increase noise by adding their own to the background. Turn off the pre-amps, reduce the RF gain so you can just hear the backgound, pick a reasonably distant station and a frequency suitable for the time of day (higher frequencies in the day, lower at evening/night) and sit on it. When you do catch one, listen to what frequency the controller gives as primary and secondary. You are unlikely to hear Vancouver as you are too close, often I can't hear Auckland when Brisbane and Hawaii are booming in.

As far as I know, Vancouver doesn't use HF for oceanic flights. Most of the flights headed up that way are communicating with San Francisco, and are given one of Vancouver Centre's VHF frequencies by the controller. SF may also be a bit too close, actually.

I knew about riding the RF gain, but it doesn't help much in this case. I've also done that with the AGC off at times. Often I forget to switch it back on when I tune around and happen to hit a strong signal, but remember just in time to preserve my hearing.

 

[GB46]

How are you feeding the 23-footer in your shack? Have you tried a piece of coax with a pl259 connected to the R75's so239 jack, then either grounding the coax braid, or running a counterpoise wire from the braid out along the floor in the radio room?
Sometimes giving the receive antenna something to work against can help out.

I'm not using it with the R75 at present, as it's gone out of commission again after a full year of behaving itself. I tried using coax with it in the past, but with no improvement. The 23-footer is the reel antenna that came with my ATS-909X, and I simply plug it into that radio's external antenna jack.

Now that you mention the counterpoise, the power cord from the portable's adapter appears to be serving as one, as sensitivity seems a lot better on AC. Fortunately the adapter doesn't create any RFI of its own.

 

[GB46]

I guess propagation must be getting a little bit better now, as I was able to get a fairly decent signal from SF Radio on 8843 kHz this morning. I've also been able to decode some FT8 activity on the 10m ham band (28.074 mHz) for the first time since I started monitoring FT8 a few years ago. Both of these frequencies were with my 909X, with just the whip antenna indoors. There's a lot less RFI up on 10 meters at my location.

 

[invergordon]

Hello all,
Have any of you had any luck finding any MWAR (major world air route) and/or LDOC (long distance operations controls) stations on shortwave? I've tried listening for these stations on some online sdr's but no success. I know there haven't been many planes in the air because of the pandemic, but I thought I would hear something. If any of you have had any luck with finding some aviation frequencies, could you please state where and what time? Thanks

Have a look at my online log at HF Reception Log | HF Aero Blog (michaeljackson.nz) it has mostly aero reception reports across the HF frequencies so this should give you an idea of where to start listening.