lots of questions...

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flydream777

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What do you guys listen to on MilAir??? besides airshows.... Can you sit at home and hear military aircraft and if so, how do you know what they are and what they are doing, etc.? Do certain planes have certain call signs? How in the heck do you know what you are listening to???
 

ThunderBritches

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I'm in San Antonio with several air bases here. I'm close to Kelly/Lackland and listen in on the Fighter Training in F-16's and also the Air Force Reserve C-5's. Of course the tower for Kelly is something that I keep on as well as the air to air comms of the F-16's while dogfighting out west of town here. Plenty of other transient military aircraft come through and aircraft arriving and leaving from the Boeing Depot there as well.
 

ka3jjz

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Here in the central Maryland area, there's a loose 'team' of folks that keeps an eye on the milair activity in the DC metro area. We happen to be quite lucky in that we have a former aero editor for a now-defunct scanner club, 1 or 2 ex pilots and a couple of folk that are otherwise very knowledgeable in the field.

Me, I usually check out stuff when there's a CAP (the Prez runs to Camp David, you can be sure there will be a CAP in place), and when there's unusual amounts of activity. The team usually posts logs and freqs in the Maryland forum. The Delmarva Milcom wiki has the results of almost 2 years of monitoring.

Flydream, I would be quite surprised if you didn't have a few -maybe more than a few - CARMA guys that have similar interests. 73s Mike
 

flydream777

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What are milair call signs like? My boss was a radio dispatcher in the Air Force... How do you know what aircraft you're listening to?? My guess is they don't identify on the radio by saying, "F-16 one to F-16 two, let's head back to base...." haha right?
 

DPD1

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Actually, sometimes they do tell ATC what type they are, but not often. Most squadrons use the same call. Some use more than one, and those are typically USAF. Navy usually sticks to the same one. And many calls are used by more than one unit, so sometimes you have to use other info to figure it out... Like what base they are going to and so on. After a while you can tell a type by the sound of the radio. There's stuff floating around on the internet... You just start learning them as you go. It's a slow process.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, Aviation, MURS, GMRS, Marine & Ham Antennas -
 

ka3jjz

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In addition, there are many callsign lists floating around the net - whether they're up to date or accurate is another story. Really the only way to get a handle on a specific call in a given area is to pay close attention to the various forums and mailing lists - many of which we have in our Wiki, but are by no means complete - as it's very likely someone has the inside scoop on who's using what callsign.

Some folks keep whole spreadsheets on the subject, and it's entirely possible that a call might be repeated by someone else in a completely different area. This is an aspect that takes a great deal of time, organization and listening, as Dave has implied.

73s Mike
 

TinEar

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VernM

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Here in no-where, ARkansas, I follow some 40 frequencies that are active almost daily. As noted above, it is mostly Air Guard (St. Louis 'Bud" calls and Ft. Smith's "Hog"s) fighter traiining with AWACS and tankers, tanker refueling track conversation, and occasional air-to-air of transients.
 
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