Hooligan
Member
I started UHF SATCOM monitoring back in the early 1980s, and heard a lot of cool/crazy things, but unfortunately, I took most of it for-granted, & left the tape recorder hooked-up to the HF receiver instead of the series of receivers dedicated to UHF SATCOM.
So one of the few recordings I made --pretty much just because I knew who they were & couldn't believe how juvenile they were acting on the air-- was of the USAF 'HAMMER ACE' quick-reaction communications support team during a deployment to Texas (from their home at Scott AFB) to support investigation/recovery efforts at a USAF fighter-type aircraft crash site.
'Hammer ACE' is still-around these days, but due to technological advancements, presents a much smaller profile, and not as 'elite' as they were in the 1980s when they had to employ a wider variety of comms gear, crypto, etc. & be proficient with all of it under field conditions.
Later on 1980s & 1990s I got to see 'Hammer ACE' dog & pony shows at events like the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association annual convention in Washington DC & similar events, and as I spoke to them or read the literature explaining how they're elite communicators, etc. I'd always smirk & think back to the silliness (young, bored guys...) over their non-secure UHF SATCOM circuit, which clearly they must have believed to be magically 'private,' and it was a great lesson for me at an early age about human nature.
SOMEWHERE in my files, I should have the exact date, time & frequency for this intercept logged, and a few days later, saw an article in the newspaper about the aircraft crash that they responded to, but haven't been able to find my old UHF SATCOM logs in many years. I'm thinking this recording should have been from 1984, plus/minus a year or two.
I've shared it with a few friends privately, but am now sharing it with the public:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwcx5qpycudc3kf/HAMMER ACE SATCOM.mp3?dl=0
So one of the few recordings I made --pretty much just because I knew who they were & couldn't believe how juvenile they were acting on the air-- was of the USAF 'HAMMER ACE' quick-reaction communications support team during a deployment to Texas (from their home at Scott AFB) to support investigation/recovery efforts at a USAF fighter-type aircraft crash site.
'Hammer ACE' is still-around these days, but due to technological advancements, presents a much smaller profile, and not as 'elite' as they were in the 1980s when they had to employ a wider variety of comms gear, crypto, etc. & be proficient with all of it under field conditions.
Later on 1980s & 1990s I got to see 'Hammer ACE' dog & pony shows at events like the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association annual convention in Washington DC & similar events, and as I spoke to them or read the literature explaining how they're elite communicators, etc. I'd always smirk & think back to the silliness (young, bored guys...) over their non-secure UHF SATCOM circuit, which clearly they must have believed to be magically 'private,' and it was a great lesson for me at an early age about human nature.
SOMEWHERE in my files, I should have the exact date, time & frequency for this intercept logged, and a few days later, saw an article in the newspaper about the aircraft crash that they responded to, but haven't been able to find my old UHF SATCOM logs in many years. I'm thinking this recording should have been from 1984, plus/minus a year or two.
I've shared it with a few friends privately, but am now sharing it with the public:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwcx5qpycudc3kf/HAMMER ACE SATCOM.mp3?dl=0