Heard this on USAF Command.... What is it?

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whooey

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On my Uniden 996T Tonight I heard this on USAF Command (311.000)

He said a few letters and numbers (Almost like his call sign), then "Message Follows"

Then he said, "W B 2 M I F 2 B 2 V M G L B 6 Z B F Y Z B Z Y U S 2 C I" Then he repeated the whole thing, "W B 2 M I F 2 B 2 V M G L B 6 Z B F Y Z B Z Y U S 2 C I".

What could this mean?
 

Mark

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That sounds like a EAM,(Emergency Action Message)
They are done routinely done on HF radio like 11175 etc.
311.000 is sometimes common UHF broadcast aircraft freq.
Most are bogus routine or training but you never know when the real one
may come. Hopefully not ever...

(btw this same EAM was reported by several others down South.
Probably an E-4B aircraft flying around there)

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/c3i/e-4b.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Action_Message

Mark
Maryland
 
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jerseymilair

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The "28" character EAM is pretty much standard on the HF-GCS radio network day and night. There are some occasional "32" character and some rarely heard "108" character EAM's. Yes, they also occasionally use 311.000 (SAC Primary Ch. 9) and 321.000 (SAC Secondary Ch. 11). The few letters and numbers you heard is usually 6 characters/numbers long. It is known as the "preamble". The preamble is the first 6 characters/numbers of the actual EAM.
f.y.i.
The EAM's that have been heard by myself and several others that are over 100 characters long are repeated 2 to 3 times and the broadcast generally takes about 30 minutes to air. Also, if you ever get a chance to monitor SW radio, don't be surprised to hear EAM's simultaneously broadcasted over several frequencies at the same time (re: 4.724, 6.739, 8.992, 11.175, 11.244, 13.200 or 15.015). I've heard the same EAM on 5 GCS frequencies at the same time. The same can happen on the above mentioned SAC frequencies also.
Steve
 
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eorange

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jerseymilair said:
311.000 (SAC Primary Ch. 9) and 321.000 (SAC Secondary Ch. 11)
I have 311.0 and 321.0 and see many references to them being primary and secondary, but didn't know they were designated by Ch. 9 and Ch. 11. Are there other SAC channels in between that are typically active (like Ch. 1, 2, 3...)?
 

Chief71

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I've heard tankers reporting to their tanker command giving similar sounding messages (numbers and letters in phonetics) but not as long. Does anyone know what those mean?
 

ka3jjz

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No; these are codes that are never made public.

There's an article by Jeff Haverlah on EAMs - it's on the MT website, and linked in our Utility Wiki if anyone's interested. Not a long article, but interesting background. 73s Mike
 

DCHarris

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I had a friend who once heard the following: " Big Silver Balloon, Big Silver Balloon. Do not acknowlege, do not acknowlege," followed by a string of apparent digitally encrypted code. He said he could hear this being repeated for several minutes at varying transmission levels, as if being transmitted from different stations around the world. This would have been back in the 70's/early 80's; was this a message being sent to airborne B-52's?
 

KC8WLZ

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eorange said:
I have 311.0 and 321.0 and see many references to them being primary and secondary, but didn't know they were designated by Ch. 9 and Ch. 11. Are there other SAC channels in between that are typically active (like Ch. 1, 2, 3...)?

Great question. I was wondering the same thing. I have never seen a numeric designation to any of the USAF freqs...
 

jerseymilair

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EAM's are "Emergency Action Messages" and from our area here, you can generally here Andrews AFB and Offutt AFB on the above mentioned HF-GCS radio network.
Do a Goggle search and you can learn a lot.
Gotta run,
Steve
 

ka3jjz

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Steve and list - Google? You have got to be kidding! We have a nice Wiki article on the HF-GCS network, and as I mentioned earlier, a link to an article by ex-WUN Jeff Haverlah on what an EAM is...

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/eam.html

You'd be very surprised as to what has been built into the Wiki. Surf that sometime - you almost certainly will learn something :.>> 73s Mike
 

Chad_Okc

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Hearing EAM's on 311.000 today, probably from Tinker AFB. Message was V F S E V 2. I've monitored this freq. before but never heard an EAM until today. Interesting though.
 

eorange

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eorange said:
I have 311.0 and 321.0 and see many references to them being primary and secondary, but didn't know they were designated by Ch. 9 and Ch. 11. Are there other SAC channels in between that are typically active (like Ch. 1, 2, 3...)?
Bump - anyone know of other SAC channels?
 
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