Milair 2026

[bcast]

8/4 Tuesday activity, additional:

1525-1550 Central approx.
Several other KVOK arrivals, possibly mil, just couldn't pull callsigns out of my recordings or from LiveATC archive
135.25, KVOK APP/DEP
127.5, KVOK TOWER
KVOK GROUND, VHF, LiveATC archive

"req tac initial"
unknown c/s maybe HOG 01?
TOWN? 21, 22, 23 unk a/c

 

[bcast]

8/5 Wednesday morning activity:

0950-1200
346.525, VOLK MISSION COORDINATOR c/s PHOENIX, HOBEY 31 checking in, 2 ship KC-46 tankers seen on ADSBx
133.3, ZAU Lone Rock, BADGER 22, 3 ship launched from KMSN
396.6, 115th FW A/A
274.3, unk A/A
348.3, refueling here, tail numbers, a/c c/s LOBO
255.7, Volk MOA Red
286.4, Volk MOA Blue
377.0, unk A/A
244.875, KVOK APP/DEP
253.975, 115th FW A/A
238.2, 115th FW Ops, flights RTB, ETA, codes
363.35, 115th FW A/A, RTB speed checks, reference points, don't overfly an area

HOUND, LOBO c/s heard, MCL says both 114th FW SD ANG

1030-1130
Draken Int'l a/c seen on ADSBx in Volk MOAs:
A4 Skyhawk tail N162EM
Mirage F1 tail N575EM

 

[evilbrad]

Sure are loud right now overhead -

 

[bcast]

8/6 Thursday evening activity:

2000-2015
238.2, 115th FW Ops
363.35, 115th FW A/A, weak/readable brief chat on ramp
260.9, NORAD EAST PRI, announcement of "practice scramble, winds, altimeter, scramble JUDGE 11 & 12, 2x F35s"

 

[BrightAntenna]

8/6 Thursday evening activity:

Bcast, Thanks for taking the time to report what you are hearing. I'm trying to keep up with checking my recordings to see if I can help with IDs in a rare case you miss one. In such cases (so far) you're hearing stuff my scanner doesn't catch (or I have no signal at all).

 

[BrightAntenna]

8/6
1512-1520 341.750 [USAF Air-to-Air/Interplane] Female pilot/crew member assigning other ship/crew to check-in in 5 mikes. Requests notification when comms are established with MAD DOG. Communicating plan/schedule for use of airspace after saying "we are showing late 18 minutes".

8/7
0318-0320 341.750 Same female pilot/crew member "considering doing that triangle, should take about an hour and a half or so" and "we'll just turn early in the north to make up any time we need".

Caught these on my scanner in town. I'll try to review recordings from my lake scanner to see if I can pull out extra details.

 

[bcast]

8/7 Friday activity:

1035-1055

KESTRELX LLC a/c seen on ADSBx in Volk MOAs, possibly simulating UAV/cruise missile threats, tail numbers:
N22KX
N59KX
N81KX

Draken Int'l A4 & F1 also up.

244.875, KVOK APP/DEP
239.25, KVOK TOWER
255.7, KVOK MOA RED
348.3, unk A/A
346.525, VOLK MISSION COORDINATOR

 

[BrightAntenna]

I'm trying out ADS-B Exchange. Not sure if it is unusual to see UH-60 Blackhawks flying around on a Sunday. One over the south end of Lake Winnebago and another north of Milwaukee. Haven't heard anything on the radio (yet) but figured I'd mention it in case someone is hearing them or wants to try. One took off from Madison. The other didn't seem to have track info.

Edit: I see some H60s and H47s over Michigan so must not be unusual for Sunday...

 

[RichardKramer]

The helos out of Ft. Indiantown Gap, Muir Army Airfield, PA; fly on Sundays.
The tower freq is 126.200; and for a2a they use two National training freqs:
141.500 AM
227.300 AM
It would be interesting to see if either of those freqs are used in your areas.

 

[bcast]

Here are some confirmed, active freqs/TGs for 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Generally, UH-60 Blackhawk helos fly out of KMSN, & a mix of UH-60 Blackhawks & UH-72 Lakotas fly out of KETB/West Bend.

WISCOM TGs
8495
8498

ARNG OPS, KMSN:
40.8 FM
123.4 AM
138.025 FM/100.0 PL
299.9 AM

ARNG OPS, KETB:
40.9 FM
240.3 AM

Some additional, but unconfirmed freqs listed for KETB @ airnav.com :
41.6, 138.625, 241.0

They have used WI interop freq MARC2 151.28 FM/136.5 PL when working with Public Safety on missions like wild land firefighting, search & rescue, landing zone ops for public outreach, etc.

 

[BrightAntenna]

The tower freq is 126.200; and for a2a they use two National training freqs:
141.500 AM
227.300 AM

Thanks Richard, I do have 126.200 in my fav list but the other two weren't in my list. I'll consider adding them because they are Nationwide training freqs.

Here are some confirmed, active freqs/TGs for 1st Battalion, 147th Aviation Regiment of the Wisconsin Army National Guard. Generally, UH-60 Blackhawk helos fly out of KMSN, & a mix of UH-60 Blackhawks & UH-72 Lakotas fly out of KETB/West Bend.

Thanks bcast, awesome info, I have a couple of those confirmed freqs (240.3, 299.9) and one unconfirmed freq (138.625) but I'll strongly consider adding each of them. I do monitor WISCOM on a limited scale so I probably don't have those TGs enabled but I'll likewise strongly consider adding them.

I want to add VHF-Lo Mil monitoring at some point. My roots are in HF mil/ute monitoring and I'd love to get back to that too. I have two Drake receivers and two JRC receivers waiting to be re-commissioned.

I did watch those helos on ADS-B Exchange for a while yesterday. I didn't see the one that came from Madison RTB but it might have. For a while they were both very near/right over West Bend. I don't think I captured any comms in town but I'll also review my lake scanner recordings. One helo came as far north as Oshkosh and flew an east-west or west-east line across the middle of the lake. So they were less than 15 miles away over water. If they talked unencrypted on a freq I was scanning I should certainly have received something.

At present, for the number of scanners I have dedicated to Mil, I think I'm scanning too much. So I'm re-evaluating but, at the same time, I'm always looking for active freqs that should be in the list. I'm also considering ways to scan more during quiet periods and scan a more focused list during active periods. I don't currently use "Quick Keys" but I know with good list organization it's possible to develop flexible methodologies to maximize efficiency in what's being scanned based on what's currently being heard (or not heard). I want to add a couple more scanners dedicated to MilAir but I think first I'll invest in an antenna upgrade at the lake (Miltenna Omni I think its called).

Also trying to keep an eye on the FAA Special Use Airspace website for hot MOAs and trying to learn using LiveATC mostly for the archive lookup.

 

[bcast]

My antenna recommendation:
Diamond D130NJ, 25-1300 MHz discone antenna with N Connector:
-Usable for receive or transmit (paying attention to the power limitations)
-wide freq range (the antenna you mentioned appears to have somewhat limited bandwidth)

invest in an antenna upgrade

Forgot to mention callsigns heard for WI ARNG 147th Av Reg helos on ATC freqs:
KMSN helos, generally "LANCE + 2 numbers"
KETB helos, generally "Guard Copter + last few digits of the a/c's reg. number"

See them frequently on ADSBx bouncing to/from Ft. McCoy, to/from Madison/West Bend, & doing pattern work at numerous airports. I also understand that UH-60s have rotor blade deicing & UH-72s do not, thus affecting operations during cold WX.

 

[BrightAntenna]

My antenna recommendation:
Diamond D130NJ, 25-1300 MHz discone antenna with N Connector:

I appreciate the antenna recommendation and will consider it. I've heard it is a good discone. I'm familiar as I have two, one an old Radio Shack model, the other is one I bought many years ago from Universal Radio, might be a Diamond but lost track of exactly what type. If I dug through my records I might find the details. Both have always been used indoors so still in decent shape. But SO-239 connectors, not N connectors.

I briefly reviewed my lake scanner MilAir recordings from yesterday and nothing jumped at me as being possible helo hits. However, related to a past post, I again had hits on 150.150 AM. I believe I heard the callsign AERO 42 (four two), not direct but referenced/called by another pilot/crew. So, a possible crumb of evidence as to who I'm hearing on this freq. I have to listen again with headphones to be more certain that's what I heard and see if I can pull out any additional details.

 

[BrightAntenna]

It looks (based on Dept of Military Affairs notice) as if the 115th FW night training continues this week (10th thru 13th) AND next week (17th thru 20th). They say F-35s may be taking off and landing until about 10:30pm each night. Good luck and good listening...

 

[autovon]

Weekend flying is possibly drill weekend for National Guard units.
As far as finding a more efficient way of scanning the whole milair band, there is a way to do with a with a USB dongle receiver and search the whole band in a few seconds. I'm not up to speed on this, but there is info out there on the forum. IIRC there is someone that's participated in previous years thread with a setup like this.

 

[BrightAntenna]

As far as finding a more efficient way of scanning the whole milair band, there is a way to do with a with a USB dongle receiver and search the whole band in a few seconds.

Aha! Yes, you're referring to Software Defined Radio or SDR receivers. I'm not up on this advanced technology either but it's on my radar for a future upgrade experiment.

 

[RichardKramer]

Aha! Yes, you're referring to Software Defined Radio or SDR receivers. I'm not up on this advanced technology either but it's on my radar for a future upgrade experiment.

I have the Airspy 2, connected to a RS discone with a stridesberg amp.
Scans 225-400MHz in 2.5 seconds.
I'm in a high rf saturated area, so I have to lock out a number of freqs from rfi, but none of the active ones in my area are affected.
The VHF 118-137MHz scans in less than a half second.
I have the amp in use because I use a TV 16 port splitter for other scanners.

 

[BrightAntenna]

I have the Airspy 2, connected to a RS discone with a stridesberg amp.

That sounds like a nice setup Richard. I know Airspy is a long established brand. I remember ads in Monitoring Times and Popular Communications when SDR was pretty new stuff.

I've been checking out the Stridsberg stuff. Right now I only have passive 2-port splitters (rated up to 950MHz). I was so concerned about the Uniden SDS200 front-end overload talk that I figured cutting the signal level in half would be beneficial.

Recently I took out the passive splitter at the lake for the MilAir scanner, it's now directly connected to the RS discone. I took the VHF-Lo/6M whip element off just to evaluate the effect. No conclusion yet.

 

[BrightAntenna]

I briefly reviewed my lake scanner MilAir recordings from yesterday and nothing jumped at me as being possible helo hits. However, related to a past post, I again had hits on 150.150 AM. I believe I heard the callsign AERO 42 (four two), not direct

The thought just occurred to me as I reviewed the 150.150 recordings, he could be saying/calling ARROW 42 instead of AERO 42. Interesting that one ARROW is for UH-60s from CO.

Still not sure if I heard AERO/ARROW directly or if he was talking to AERO/ARROW.

The more I listen, it sounds like he was making arrangements for what he needed when he landed and got to "Gate B". So, that makes me think his ship was AERO/ARROW. Unfortunately, chunks of the signals are suppressed, probably due to a nearby strong transmission at the same time. A pitfall of the SDS200.

AERO F-16, 119th FS NJ ANG Atlantic City NJ

ARROW C-130H AFRC 302ndAW/731st AS Colorado Springs CO

ARROW C-130H NV-ANG Reno NV

ARROW C-130J, 48th AS/314th AW, Little Rock AR

ARROW F-15, Tyndall AFB FL

ARROW F-15, 33rd FW/58th FS Eglin AFB FL

ARROW F-16 119th FS NJ ANG Atlantic City NJ

ARROW C-130H/J RAAF 37 Sqn Richmond

ARROW UH-60 CO ArNG Buckley SFB CO

ARROW P-3C VP-62 NAS Jacksonville FL

ARROW F-16C/D 138th FW, OK-ANG, Tulsa, OK

 

[evilbrad]

Expect evening F-35 flight activity Aug. 10-13 & 17-20. Area residents may see or hear aircraft taking off or landing until approx. 10:30 p.m.