Research one

[gcgrotz]

Heard an aircraft using this ID on 135.4 in VA recently, probably somewhere SW of Dulles. I've heard him before, does anyone know what this might be?

Thanks
george

 

[Larry51]

135.4 MHz

135.4 MHz is one of the air traffic control frequencies used by Washington Center. The transmitter site is located in sector 31 which is in Bucks Elbow, VA. That site has a companion UHF frequency of 263.1.

Hope this helps.

 

[gcgrotz]

Thanks for the reply, I was wondering about the plane. I'm familiar with Buck's Elbow freqs. I used to maintain a cell site up there. I went there once in an ice storm with an FAA guy and a guy from the county police, we were trying to asses the damage and check generators. Didn't make it, got stuck, got pulled out, and the county sent a guy with a dozer the next day to clear the road. I got some spectacular pictures if I ever find them. Ice on guy wires as thick as your arm, chainlink fence on one side was a solid wall of ice, and power poles were snapped off in the middle. Didn't get power back for 5 days.

Thanks for your reply, I used to live in Greenbrier over behind the mall, moved up here in 94. Boy has that place grown!

 

[AngelFire91]

I'm not sure who this would be in particular, but most of the time if there is a group or orginization that has coordinated ahead of time to do some research in the area ATC will assign them a callsign or descret transponder code. Last time we had 5 aircraft all doing weather research at the same time on the same storm we all were assigned the callsign Research 1 through 5. So I would imagine it's some Group or orginization flying research of some type. I've been assigned different things by different ATC facilities on many research flights, usually having something to do with the type of research we are doing. Some I've had in the past I can think of were, Anvil3, Icing1, Mod77, Grapple77, Light77 (our tail number ends in 77 which is where that comes from.) Not sure who is doing research flights around the VA area, but hope this helps some.

 

[gcgrotz]

Thanks for the info, I heard this callsign 2 different times but it was the same pilot, recognizable from his European (German?) accent. I'll try to note the weather if I hear him again. It could also be FAA or govt due to the proximity to DC. We get all kinds of traffic into CHO doing low approaches, etc up to 757s the AF flies out of Andrews for the executive fleets and military - mostly Navy - because CHO is not busy but has full ILS and TRACON/Tower support. And all the center freqs are on the mountain at about 3400' amsl so I can hear them all over the place.

Anyway, thanks.

 

[DPD1]

In that area, I would say maybe MIT Lincoln Labs, or VXS-1 from Pax.

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

 

[cristisphoto]

Uls It...

Always Try the FCC ULS as well
Regards,
Crisat