Radio audio of Chinese spy balloon shoot down

[Dog]

This is radio related and not political. If this fits better in a different section please move it.

Transcript of transmissions below:

The Shooting Down Of China's Spy Balloon In Moment-By-Moment Audio

Audio of the complex aerial ballet that downed the Chinese spy balloon at just the right time and place adds new detail to the operation.

www.thedrive.com

 

[Fast1eddie]

Nice shot. Easy target.

 

[rrobinso84]

Well done! Any idea what frequencies were monitored for the recording?

 

[cg]

I wonder how easy it was? They are going mach 1.3 and trying to hit something that likely has a small radar profile and by comparison is stationary. Probably no significant heat source.

 

[drdispatch]

Here's info on the AIM-9X Sidewinder:

AIM-9 Sidewinder - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[drdispatch]

The callsign "Frank01" is interesting, also. Frank Luke, Jr. was known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster". He shot down 16 German reconnaissance balloons during WWI, making him an ace. He also earned the Medal of Honor, and got an Air Force Base named after him.

 

[Token]

I wonder how easy it was? They are going mach 1.3 and trying to hit something that likely has a small radar profile and by comparison is stationary. Probably no significant heat source.

The AIM-9X is an imaging seeker. Yes, it happens to use IR wavelengths, but all it needs is contrast, not a lot of heat. And the IR realm is a world of contrast. They appear to have been shooting up slightly at the balloon, but even if not, the balloon against the cold blue sky would have had significant contrast, even if only by solar reflection. Think about it, your eye can see the outline of the balloon, why wouldn't an imaging seeker be able to?

Lets have an example of IR and contrast. The following IR image is the carpeted floor of the hallway of my old house. The footprints are my youngest daughters footprints from walking down the hallway a minute or so before. Just by placing her feet on each point for a second or less at a normal walking pace she, very slightly, changed the temperature where her feet landed. This image is the result. I would say "Probably no significant heat source", but still able to be imaged.

With this kind of contrast an imaging tracker could easily make out each footprint as a target with clearly defined edges.

The days of requiring a hot afterburner flare to be tracked by an IR missile are long gone. Even the temperature difference of the heating by air friction on the leading edges of the wings are, and have been for quite a while, enough.

T!

 

[Token]

Well done! Any idea what frequencies were monitored for the recording?

I think Huntress Control was on 260.9 MHz? But not sure about that, it was mentioned in a real time chat, but I am on the west coast, so never heard it myself.

T!

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

The callsign "Frank01" is interesting, also. Frank Luke, Jr. was known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster". He shot down 16 German reconnaissance balloons during WWI, making him an ace. He also earned the Medal of Honor, and got an Air Force Base named after him.

I think there was a backup Frank02 and perhaps a third aircraft with weapons armed. They were not letting it get away from the "box". I wonder if there was any concern some "unfreindlies" might join the party?

 

[Railbender]

If you go back through this thread you will a lot of real time coverage of the incident.

Mid-Atlantic MilAir 2023

Unrelated but interesting. First time I've seen these anyway...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[Token]

I think there was a backup Frank02 and perhaps a third aircraft with weapons armed. They were not letting it get away from the "box". I wonder if there was any concern some "unfreindlies" might join the party?

I think it was more of a case of wanting to plant the remains were it could be investigated easily. Off the coast, in US territorial waters and airspace so there is no question, in a controlled area with no one under it to get hurt, and in shallow water so it could be retrieved.

Realistically, there are no unfriendlies that could have joined the party. Were was such an unfriendly going to come from? What was such an unfreindly going to do, watch?

T!

 

[rescuecomm]

Since we let a foreign nation's intelligence gathering balloon float across the whole country, who's to say Russian TU-95's from Cuba might fly up unchallenged? Or maybe they are laughing at us from Cuba to Moscow.

 

[drdispatch]

I think there was a backup Frank02 and perhaps a third aircraft with weapons armed. They were not letting it get away from the "box". I wonder if there was any concern some "unfreindlies" might join the party?

Frank02 was the wingman. There were also 2 F-15's, Eagle01 & Eagle 02, one of which used its targeting pod to "paint the target" for the Raptor. There were also at least a couple of KC-135 tankers in the area to refuel the fighters.

 

[drdispatch]

Since we let a foreign nation's intelligence gathering balloon float across the whole country, who's to say Russian TU-95's from Cuba might fly up unchallenged? Or maybe they are laughing at us from Cuba to Moscow.

But we gathered counterintelligence pretty much the whole time. There were U-2's, RC-135's, and EC-130's around it. I also read that "non-kinetic means" were used to prevent the balloon from gathering any intel while over "sensitive areas". And now we have the thing in our possession, so there is all manner of intel to be gathered from what's left of it.

 

[kv5e]

 

[drdispatch]

Okay.....

 

[drdispatch]

And this:

 

[drdispatch]

On a more serious (yet congratulatory) note:

As fighter jets closed in on Chinese balloon, hobbyists were listening

A group of aviation enthusiasts was scanning radio frequencies for the exchanges between the pilots as an F-22 fired a missile and downed the balloon.

www.airforcetimes.com

 

[sprman1955]

Heard them tracking it here in TN at 9pm cst on 136.275 op asked other op if he was tracking it on the other freq.Op replied yes.Op then said he was going back to other freq.No call signs were used nor were any location or anything given.

 

[kv5e]