Sticky Thread for MilAir II

[TinEar]

I would figure they do since they must remain airborne for long periods. This site says they do. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/policy/vision/vis98/vis-p08.html

Guess they would need to if they stay up for 72 hours as suggested there. Thanks for the link Travis.

2052: TEAM 58 (KC-10A, 87-0121m 305th AMW Mcguire) w/McGuire CP...30 minutes out, A-2...319.4
2100: TEAM 48 to Atlantic City Approach...descending from 9 to 8000 feet, direct Coyle...124.6

 

[bpittman]

311.000?

Hi all. New to the group here but have been reading a lot of postings over the past couple months. Having listening to a few bases in Florida, including Macdill AFB, I beleive the military can use freqs at their leisure! At Macdill, I heard Lightning Ops called on both 311.00 and 372.xxx several times. Here the other day I caught comms on 311.00 but didn't catch who was on. Anyway, you guys are doing a great job at making all of our monitoring hobby an experience.

Bill, Berkeley Springs, WV

Well, that's surprising. I had no idea they used 311.0 at Patuxent. You're sure it was from Pax, right? (I was thinking last night the BIRDSONG that called AROMATIC on 311.0 might have been the 164410 E-6 but didn't want to say it out loud since I had nothing to support it.)
By the way, that 360.6 is not PCT. It's Norfolk TRACON (West). That one and 370.925 Norfolk TRACON (East) are fairly busy with Langley/Oceana/Chambers aircraft.
Edit: Just learned that LOBO 81 you heard was an F-16 from the 175th Fighter Squadron, SD-ANG Sioux Falls that was on his way to Langley.
***********************************************************************

Beginning around 1830, two KC-10As departed McGuire and headed south. They were TEAM 48 (87-0121) and TEAM 45 (83-0081). They did quite a bit of work with each other, while chatting on their primary interplane 139.875. They swapped flight leads, did an auto-pilot-off refueling among the training exercises. They were mainly with ZDC-Salisbury 120.975, ZDC-Norfolk 133.825 and ZDC-Sampson 124.025. They flew down to Wilmington NC. While on the way down, someone out in AR-636 called TEAM 48 on 238.9 and asked him to come in and give him some fuel. 48 told him he was doing another refueling and would come back when he was done. He eventually did that and is there now (1918) but I didn't hear the callsign of the aircraft he's refueling.

1911: CRAB 56 (C-130J, 98-1356, 135th AS MD-ANG) to Martin State Tower for landing runway 33...121.3
1920: ROYAL 50 (C-17A, 07-7169, 436th AW Dover) calling Dover Command Post...349.4 (Still calling at 1926, no joy)
1922: JEDI 51 (C-17A, 04-4129, 514th AMW AFRC McGuire) climbing out from McGuire....ZDC VHF (JEDI is an AFRC callsign)
1935: EVAC 80113 (KC-135R, 58-0113, 97th AMW Altus) calling Andrews on VHF CP freq...141.55 (He's got a bad sounding transmitter)
1937: EVAC 80113 w/TRACON on approach to Andrews....119.85 (Sounded fine here - must be a different radio)

2010: MUSSEL 1 (UH-1, 1st Helo Squadron Andrews) to Andrews Tower reporting at Greenbelt, Route 3 southbound...118.4

 

[TinEar]

Hi all. New to the group here but have been reading a lot of postings over the past couple months. Having listening to a few bases in Florida, including Macdill AFB, I beleive the military can use freqs at their leisure! At Macdill, I heard Lightning Ops called on both 311.00 and 372.xxx several times. Here the other day I caught comms on 311.00 but didn't catch who was on. Anyway, you guys are doing a great job at making all of our monitoring hobby an experience.

Bill, Berkeley Springs, WV

Hi Bill and welcome to our little corner of the monitoring universe. You're basically correct, they can use freqs at will to contact certain players along their flight route but can't just grab a freq and use it for their own purposes - but that's probably not what you meant. That 311.0 freq is used at many bases around the country as a Command Post freq and, of course, 372.2 is a Pilot-To-Dispatch freq at a great many Air Force bases. They often try one and then the other when having trouble making contact.

Hope you stick around and post what you hear from up your way. I'll look forward to it. You are in WV now, right? I noticed your location shows as Florida for your signin.

2116: REACH 0178 (C-17A, 00-0178, 62nd AW McChord) calling "NORAD, NORAD"...x2, no joy...364.2 (He's heading northeast...being heard over Nantucket about 25 minutes later - maybe heading to Europe. It's about a 45-50 minute flight from my location to Nantucket so he was about halfway there when he made the call to NORAD. Sounded very loud in spite of it.)
He's up at FL 310 overflying the area.
2121: TEAM 45 (KC-10A, 83-0081, 305th AMW McGuire) to McGuire CP....30 minutes out, A-1, will be down at our scheduled landing time...319.4
2134: TEAM 49 (KC-10A, 79-1947, 305th AMW McGuire) to MCGuire CP...30 minutes out, A-2 (repeats writeups)...says RODD 99 (C-5B from the 337th AS Westover MA) cancelled so he's early...319.4
2136: TEAM 45 with Atlantic City Approach descending for McGuire arrival...124.6

I salute:
Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, WV, and Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center FL
They are the last two living veterans of WW I

 

[SquelchKnob]

Hi all. New to the group here but have been reading a lot of postings over the past couple months. Having listening to a few bases in Florida, including Macdill AFB, I beleive the military can use freqs at their leisure! At Macdill, I heard Lightning Ops called on both 311.00 and 372.xxx several times. Here the other day I caught comms on 311.00 but didn't catch who was on. Anyway, you guys are doing a great job at making all of our monitoring hobby an experience.

Bill, Berkeley Springs, WV

Hello Bill, I am new here myself. Trying to figure out where I can fit into all of this. :wink:

 

[Mark]

2121: TEAM 45 (KC-10A, 83-0081, 305th AMW McGuire) to McGuire CP....30 minutes out, A-1, will be down at our scheduled landing time...319.4
2134: TEAM 49 (KC-10A, 79-1947, 305th AMW McGuire) to MCGuire CP...30 minutes out, A-2 (repeats writeups)...says RODD 99 (C-5B from the 337th AS Westover MA) cancelled so he's early...319.4
2136: TEAM 45 with Atlantic City Approach descending for McGuire arrival...124.6

TEAM 45 and TEAM 49 must have come straight up over Delaware as they blew my speakers off with Philly appch 128.400 direct McGuire which is unusual route.
Tons of air traffic tonite...All ATC Centers are busy crazy!
JetBlue airlines should be penalized.Seeing and hearing about dozen of them in last half-hour all doing the usual JFK-Florida routes.
No wonder they have so many problems in and out of JFK.They all leave and depart at same time and it is after 10pm local.
0334z BOLT-41 KC-135 (91 ARS/6 ARW) MacDill AFB on HF Tanker freq 6761 talking to unheard id will be landing 0426z.

Mark

 

[trainman111]

TIN,
1737: 311.O CLAXON CLAXON CLAXON
"Execute GIANTSHOT"
In other words VQ-4 doing a practice alert launch. I am still handicapped here but will do as best I can. I have been redoing radios all afternoon and trying out some new ways of doing things and I have not been able to tweak them yet so I dunno if I am going to be able to get anything from this or not. 'BUT' the main thing I just learned is, at least for these practice launches they are announced ahead of time on 311.0. It BOOOMED in here
1752: 310.15 388 Calling Maintenance. "Thanks for your help, we are on our way"

I heard them when I was in the car today driving up to the city. It was the exact same time too. I'm not sure who I was hearing though. I'd be pretty amazed if I heard them on the ground all the way here in Richmond. When I heard it at first, I just though it was someone at Langley, since I have that as a CP freq. for Langley. I guess what JR heard contradicts that. Were they using that frequency in the air as well, or just while on ground?

Edit: I was read something interesting on the site below. Those E-6's have 3 UHF radios that are capable of transmitting with 1,000 watts of power. Could that be why I heard them so good?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/e-6.htm

 

[SquelchKnob]

I heard them when I was in the car today driving up to the city. It was the exact same time too. I'm not sure who I was hearing though. I'd be pretty amazed if I heard them on the ground all the way here in Richmond. When I heard it at first, I just though it was someone at Langley, since I have that as a CP freq. for Langley. I guess what JR heard contradicts that. Were they using that frequency in the air as well, or just while on ground?

Edit: I was read something interesting on the site below. Those E-6's have 3 UHF radios that are capable of transmitting with 1,000 watts of power. Could that be why I heard them so good?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/e-6.htm

I dunno Nick and it appears we have stumbled onto something that is 'out of the norm' for this area. I am still sifting audio here and taking notes. Audio is a bit dirty as at the time this happened I was in the middle of tweaking the audio settings on that computer to make the scanner volume, recording volume and listening volume jive and come up with a happy medium. Unfortunately I can tell by the audio I have recorded that I had the scanners volume up just a bit too high so the audio has much to be desired. I can get about 60% out of it easy. The other 40% needs a bit of cleaning up and I am just now figuring out how to use the Audio Processing feature of my software for the first time to clan it up so it is taking a while.

I guess I can say with respectable confidence at this point that NAOMI 58 was indeed a TACAMO bird and did a Practice Alert launch out of PAX. There are a few more things I can get out of the audio but want to leave it there as I suspect once I finish cleaning it out it will make more sense. Plus I have the audio from 6 other scanners still to review and may be able to find a few more pieces to this puzzle.

Adding an Edit here: This seems to be the Most worthwhile stuff I have out of the audio thus far.
17.36:24 - 17:36:44 - 311.0
"CLAXON CLAXON CLAXON"
"Execute GIANTSHOT for NAOMI 58"
"I say again "
the next line was very hard to read but it very much sounds like:
"FOR TACAMO AIR FORCE" or "PROTAC AIR FORCE" or something simliar sounding. Keep in mind this is the best I could get out of it. Distorted audio due to volume set too high.
"CLAXON CLAXON CLAXON"
"Execute GIANTSHOT for NAOMI 58"
"Time 272335 ZULU" (* the numbers there were hard to copy. *)
"Authentication LIMA ROMEO"

19:05:50 238.9
I caught this in the middle of an echange Between NAOMI 58 and the Tanker:
"---cut off--- 388, is that your tail number?... That's affirmative...Okay How about your SQUAWK?... SQUAWK 4614."
TEAM confims his tail as well and confirms with 305th AMW

Also had NAOMI 58 making repeated calls to HUNTRESS 364.2..

Lots more aduio to got through but I have spent enought time focuing on this so I am just going to breeze through the rest. Doubt I will make any more notes unless I stumble accross something significant for our purposes.

I'll likely lay a bit low over the next few days. As much as I enjoy doing this it is getting quite aggrivating as I know my setup is handicapped and needs allot of tweaking. I am going to 'try' to focus on that goal for the next couple of days and not get so tied up on VQ-4. I am going through a learning curve BETA testing this new software at the same time I am putting my radio/pc setup together, installing antennas, soundwires. Trying to do all of this and at the same time trying to gain familiarity with the listening area, make freq files. LOL I think I got the point accross LOL

 

[Mark]

0920 local DC 51 and 52 are going offshore with GK check in 255.000 then 312.300
working W-107 area.
Odd thing is they were using 351.200 A/A and was simulcast on 266.500 as well.
Actually more like duplex cause DC 51 would transmit on 266.500 and DC 52 would reply on 351.200

1020 local REACH 981 C-130H Del Ang departing for Bagram with Philly departure 119.750
Probably make Mildenhall by tommorow.Saying "Ariva Dirce" farewell also on their Base Ops 343.000
Guess they have later stop at Aviano Italy I assume.

Mark

Ref below: Thanks Tin for those tails.I didn't originally have that 266.500 freq but added now as A/A.

Another one of our locals is also in Theatre.Looks like a BATON from 193rd SOW Harrisburg #98-1932 EC-130J on AF web site.
http://www.af.mil/news/story_media.asp?id=123080690 ... download High Res view.

 

[TinEar]

Absolutely great stuff JR. I think you've definitely provided the keys to the E-6B launch from Patuxent and proven beyond a doubt that they do use a freq such as 311.0 (which is also a nationwide freq.) And you've tied NAOMI 58 to the 164388 bird that I had in the air about that time and also confirmed it with the TEAM 48/NAOMI 58 refueling chat.

Whenever you get your gear in the shape you want it to be, perhaps we can continue the search for their frequencies for Pax arrival/departure. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at it along with Nick's help - and anyone else that wants to join in.

Many thanks for your efforts on this and for the valuable insight into that exercise launch.
***********************************************************

0920 local DC 51 and 52 are going offshore with GK check in 255.000 then 312.300
working W-107 area.
Odd thing is they were using 351.200 A/A and was simulcast on 266.500 as well.
Actually more like duplex cause DC 51 would transmit on 266.500 and DC 52 would reply on 351.200

1020 local REACH 981 C-130H Del Ang departing for Bagram with Philly departure 119.750
Probably make Mildenhall by tommorow.Saying "Ariva Dirce" farewell also on their Base Ops 343.000
Guess they have later stop at Aviano Italy I assume.

DC 51 and DC 52 were tails 61-0307 and 57-1487 from the 756th ARS. That 266.5 freq is interesting because I haven't caught them on it recently. It's another of the interplane freqs for the unit to go along with 351.2 although I'm not sure of the status of 351.2 anymore. It used to be Squadron Ops freq and now they seem to still use it but only for interplane chat. I think 266.5 is Comm 1 and 351.2 is Comm 2 in their radios although I'm not positive of that.

REACH 981 was tail 84-0212 if you want to continue to track him with your European friends.
Shortly after 1100, he has made it as far as Nantucket.

 

[SquelchKnob]

Absolutely great stuff JR. I think you've definitely provided the keys to the E-6B launch from Patuxent and proven beyond a doubt that they do use a freq such as 311.0 (which is also a nationwide freq.) And you've tied NAOMI 58 to the 164388 bird that I had in the air about that time and also confirmed it with the TEAM 48/NAOMI 58 refueling chat.

Whenever you get your gear in the shape you want it to be, perhaps we can continue the search for their frequencies for Pax arrival/departure. In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away at it along with Nick's help - and anyone else that wants to join in.

Many thanks for your efforts on this and for the valuable insight into that exercise launch.

My pleasure. I ended up staying up till 3AM messing with that stuff last night. But I could tell from your thoughts that we had stumbled accross something that even you folks who know this area found surprising. So I wanted to pull as much out of that Audio for NAOMI as I could because I suspect that GIANTSHOT Launch is not something we are going to be able to catch on a regualr basis.

I should be up & running pretty good by the the 1st I bet. I am about 70% done I guess. 17 Radios hooked up to 12V power, to the PCs and to the Antennas. Most are already programmmed, scanning and recording or searching. The next step is just tweaking. Making sure all the audio adjustemens are good, troublesome frequencies are looked out. I have yet to even start the stack of PCR-1000s. Those are going to be for recording on small groups of freqs.

But I will still be watching for the Dep Freqs. I just can't afford the time to get tied up into another review of recorded audio that takes me 5 hours right now. LOL

1656: 140.0375 FM Supposedly VQ-4 Security frequency. Just heard them advsing "MC of APLHA APLHA 388 has upgraded security to spot 1." Now I have been trying figure out wihat goes on there. When they Say "MC APLHA ALPHA" they are talking about the Mission Commander of aircraft. Not sure what APLHA APLHA is all about, The aicraft, apparently. That 388 is the tail number. Tin, this is further information on NAOMI. It is sitting on the line here at PAX. Not sure how this works into the grand scheme of things. Could possibly be an indicator for me as to the possible status of the aircraft when it is being prepped for a mission. Makes sense.

 

[TinEar]

1656: 140.0375 FM Supposedly VQ-4 Security frequency. Just heard them advsing "MC of APLHA APLHA 388 has upgraded security to spot 1." Now I have been trying figure out wihat goes on there. When they Say "MC APLHA ALPHA" they are talking about the Mission Commander of aircraft. Not sure what APLHA APLHA is all about, The aicraft, apparently. That 388 is the tail number. Tin, this is further information on NAOMI. It is sitting on the line here at PAX. Not sure how this works into the grand scheme of things. Could possibly be an indicator for me as to the possible status of the aircraft when it is being prepped for a mission. Makes sense.

That's something those of us more than a few miles from Pax will never hear. Every once in a great while, one of the FM freqs in that ground net breaks through my squelch but it's a rare occasion. I have no idea either what the Alpha Alpha pertains to. It's not the tail letters since AA belongs to Oceana. 388 is definitely 164388. This story is sprouting some interesting branches.

Very interesting I thought was that an E-6B was heard on the west coast last night. It was 164408 and that one also had suffix 58 but they couldn't pull out the callsign.

 

[TinEar]

Just heard them advsing "MC of APLHA APLHA 388 has upgraded security to spot 1."

"Alpha Alpha 388" = Alert Aircraft 388....according to someone "in the business" that suggests that definition as a good possibility. (With thanks to my correspondent)

 

[Mark]

ETHYL 48 KC-10 was just up with Andrews CP 378.100 at 0743 local
southbound req ppr to DSN-282-**** which Google search shows
Smasher - SOUTHAF Flt Monitoring Facility, Key West as posted back in October on HF Utility board.
We are 10 minutes late for reciever RHOMBA-01.(spelled out)
Sounds like Navy E-6 to me or something like that.

Mark

 

[TinEar]

ETHYL 48 KC-10 was just up with Andrews CP 378.100 at 0743 local
southbound req ppr to DSN-282-**** which Google search shows
Smasher - SOUTHAF Flt Monitoring Facility, Key West as posted back in October on HF Utility board.
We are 10 minutes late for reciever RHOMBA-01.(spelled out)
Sounds like Navy E-6 to me or something like that.

Mark

That ETHYL 48 was tail 84-0192 from McGuire. I don't know who RHOMBA 01 is but I don't seem to have any of the E-6s flying on this coast. Lots of other possibilities though.

 

[Mark]

That ETHYL 48 was tail 84-0192 from McGuire. I don't know who RHOMBA 01 is but I don't seem to have any of the E-6s flying on this coast. Lots of other possibilities though.

Thanks for KC-10 tail.I'm guessing reciever is based at Key West.
Any E-6's stationed down there? or E-4's? Maybe P-3?

Mark

 

[bpittman]

You've read between the lines in my post and are correct. I noticed after posting my comments that RadioReference has my former location. Yes I am in WV, Berkeley Springs, moved here last year but most of my time has been in completely remodeling our home so the radio gear is conected to minimal antenna stuff. But the station "will" be up this spring. I can get a lot of the comms when Thurmont CAP's are active, some comms with Andy when flight paths are right and Harrisburg. Now waiting for Martinsburg to be completed and active. If anyone has some "unpublished" freqs for there I'd appreicate those. Everyone have a Great New Year.

Bill

Hi Bill and welcome to our little corner of the monitoring universe. You're basically correct, they can use freqs at will to contact certain players along their flight route but can't just grab a freq and use it for their own purposes - but that's probably not what you meant. That 311.0 freq is used at many bases around the country as a Command Post freq and, of course, 372.2 is a Pilot-To-Dispatch freq at a great many Air Force bases. They often try one and then the other when having trouble making contact.

Hope you stick around and post what you hear from up your way. I'll look forward to it. You are in WV now, right? I noticed your location shows as Florida for your signin.

2116: REACH 0178 (C-17A, 00-0178, 62nd AW McChord) calling "NORAD, NORAD"...x2, no joy...364.2 (He's heading northeast...being heard over Nantucket about 25 minutes later - maybe heading to Europe. It's about a 45-50 minute flight from my location to Nantucket so he was about halfway there when he made the call to NORAD. Sounded very loud in spite of it.)
He's up at FL 310 overflying the area.
2121: TEAM 45 (KC-10A, 83-0081, 305th AMW McGuire) to McGuire CP....30 minutes out, A-1, will be down at our scheduled landing time...319.4
2134: TEAM 49 (KC-10A, 79-1947, 305th AMW McGuire) to MCGuire CP...30 minutes out, A-2 (repeats writeups)...says RODD 99 (C-5B from the 337th AS Westover MA) cancelled so he's early...319.4
2136: TEAM 45 with Atlantic City Approach descending for McGuire arrival...124.6

I salute:
Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, WV, and Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center FL
They are the last two living veterans of WW I

 

[TinEar]

Thanks for KC-10 tail.I'm guessing reciever is based at Key West.
Any E-6's stationed down there? or E-4's? Maybe P-3?

Mark

That's what I meant when I said, "Lots of other possibilities though."
There are several types and units that might be using one-time-calls making it difficult to even try to pin one down.

Early 0900 hour there were a couple of KC-10A tankers from the 305th at McGuire chatting on interplane primary 139.875. Sounded like TEAM 60 and 61 (It must be Saturday) heading to the northeast and they mentioned switching to a Center freq (ZNY or ZBW) that was not one of Washington Center's freqs. Believe they were 79-1947 and 83-0082. There might have been a third tanker with those two....87-0123.
0929: Heard one of the tankers say (very weakly) on 139.875 to switch to the other freq and they came up on 228.0. They are currently uncopiable from my location.
0936: REACH 515 (C-17A, 97-0043, 437th AW Charleston) departs Andrews...climbing...w/TRACON...125.65
0938: Russian AN-124 (Polet Flight - POT 2100, tail RA-82077) overhead at FL 290...departed Charleston (KCHS), heading for Bangor (KBGR)...ZDC
0939: Brazilian Air Force Learjet 55 (tail FAB 6100) in the area...might have departed Dulles (caught him late)...TRACON

 

[bpittman]

Where are you located? As for fitting in, looks like the new kids on the block will be "learning" a lot. These guys have have it together. Probably retired mil with a lot of connections, plenty of time, all the toys, etc!! Looks like we'll be filling up our 1000 channel scanners fast.

Bill

Hello Bill, I am new here myself. Trying to figure out where I can fit into all of this. :wink:

 

[CitationJet]

Re: welcome

Hi Bill,

Welcome to the Forum. As for myself, not retired mil but from a USAF family with one civil "connection" , primarily an airplane spotter interested in serials but have been monitoring HF [EDIT: since the mid-1970s! SWBC DX and aero] or VHF/UHF off and on since the early 1980s, not a lot of time right now what with a five year old son and seven month old son here at home, no radio room - yet, hardly any toys, but love monitoring when I get the chance!

Looking forward to your contributions from WVA.

Best regards,

Tony

Where are you located? As for fitting in, looks like the new kids on the block will be "learning" a lot. These guys have have it together. Probably retired mil with a lot of connections, plenty of time, all the toys, etc!! Looks like we'll be filling up our 1000 channel scanners fast.

Bill

 

[TinEar]

Probably retired mil with a lot of connections, plenty of time, all the toys, etc!!
Bill

Have you been spying on me?


1040: HUNTRESS talking w/BLACKJACK (HH-65, CG Detachment DCA)...139.7 (Can't hear the helo, only NORAD)
1045: EVAC 0320 (C-130H, 80-0320, 158th AS GA-ANG) departs Andrews...climbing out w/TRACON (didn't notice which freq)