Late in the 1100 hour finds a group of tankers out in AR-636 working on primary 238.9. There is a TEAM 12 (KC-10A McGuire) working with ROCCO 61 (KC-135 McGuire) teaming up for AR practice. Both aircraft are also talking with other tankers to adjust altitudes and even offering to switch to alternate freqs if necessary. I can't hear those other aircraft though and they are just using names rather than callsigns so can't ID them other than to say they're probably also from McGuire since they all know each other.
At 1153, I heard a U/I flight with Norfolk TRACON on 370.95 say to switch to 288.3 and then heard them there talking about being at flight level 230. I don't know the user of 288.3 and haven't heard callsigns from the aircraft. Just a couple of quick transmissions on 288.3 and nothing further.
1202: OPEC 13 (KC-10A McGuire) calling (McGuire) Command Post...319.4. Four calls, no joy. Makes contact on fifth try to say he's 20 minutes out, A-1 and has 50K on the fuel, needs parking spot.
I also heard an aircraft a few minutes ago talking about returning to McGuire due to an A-3 maintenance status due to a TVSI indicator inoperative along with his Uniform radio number 1 also not working. No callsign was heard.
1218: JOSA 651 to Andrews Command Post with arrival message...20 minutes out, tail 84-0088, will need fuel, picking up an A-4, has 3 seats available on the outbound and plans to leave Andrews at 1850Z...141.55
1226: ARMY 01052 to Andrews Command Post with arrival message...20 minutes out and has an S-4 to offload. This is flight termination upon landing...141.55
It sure is quiet in this area today....36 degrees and mostly sunny just before 1300 local time with northwest winds at 13 at BWI. Flight conditions are good to excellent. (And Jack, don't dare pop in here and tell me it's 85 degrees at your house in Florida.)
1321: REACH 209 reports off the ground at 20 after...349.4 (Dover CP)
1326: JOSA 256 calling Griffin Command...no joy x3...378.1
1327: JOSA 256 changes to Victor, makes contact and wants takeoff time of 1824Z put into the system...141.55
1332: TEAM 12 (KC-10A McGuire) calling McGuire Command Post...no joy x2...319.4
1345: VENUS 92 to Andrews CP arriving on the hour, A-1, needs parking...378.1
1346: JOSA 651 to Griffin Ops...no joy x2...141.55
1347: JOSA 651 reports to Andrews they're off the deck at 1841Z and will see them later...141.55
1352: JOSA 256 talking to unknown JOSA aircraft on common freq...283.75....they are comparing speeds and destinations. The other aircraft is talking about Randolph and stopping at Maxwell before going to Andrews.
I'm doing some antenna comparisons today since it's slow. I'm using my normal Diamond Discone versus my Icom AH7000 (identical to the Diamond). The Icom is maybe 5 feet higher in the air and off the back of the house versus the Diamond located at the front of the house. The position of the Diamond in the front seems to provide better reception so far - at least of signals everywhere but to the north and I haven't had enough activity there yet to do a good comparison.
Diamond Discone is with 75 feet of LMR-400 coax, PL-259 at the antenna to BNC at the multicoupler
Icom AH7000 is with 100 feet of LMR-400 Ultraflex, N connector at the antenna to BNC at the multicoupler
If we ever have another warm, clear day, I'm going to try to find room on a mast for the DPD Log Periodic antenna I purchased that's cut for the MilAir band to see what it adds, if anything, to my reception improvement effort.
1356: Just heard a BICEP 1 (NJ-ANG F-16) with Patuxent on 270.8...seems to be a single ship flight (also heard a U/I with Atlantic City Approach on 327.125 a few minutes ago which might have been this same aircraft)
1407: AERO 21 (NJ-ANG F-16) with ZDC-Cape Charles 256.8 checking in at 16,000 feet.
1409-11: There is an aircraft calling Andrews Navy Ops on 139.3 approach for a landing and going to the Navy side...callsign sounds like SPIDER 1 but I'm not sure that's correct.
1412: AERO 21 flight handed off to Pax Advisory and checks in at 16,000 feet...305.2...cancel IFR and reports they are mission 44.
1413: AERO 21 handed to BayWatch on 354.8 and check in there while over Salisbury.
1414: DC 99 (KC-135 Andrews) to LIBERATOR on 378.1 with arrival message...20 minutes out, A-1 then changes that to A-2 with minor writeups and reports 49,000 pounds of fuel. (Better on the Diamond)
1415: AERO 21 flight using interflight freq...138.425...they are operating against simulated ground based insurgents at the range at Vienna MD which is setup like an Iraqi city. One is the attack aircraft and the other playing the role of a Forward-Air-Controller.
1424: JOSA 679 reports takeoff at 1921Z from Andrews...141.55
1424: DC 99 calls on 378.1 and requests their squadron be made aware of their arrival.
If you Google the satellite map position for Vienna MD, you can pick out many of the landmarks the aircraft call out when using that area for ground attack missions. Kind of wish I had a huge wall picture of that. Just thinking out loud here.
There seems to be a lot of traffic in the Pax area today. BayWatch keeps calling out aircraft in the vicinity to the AERO pair while doing their attacks. The flight leader keeps acknowledging these warnings on his UHF radio on 354.8 while directing his wingman to the attack on the VHF interflight 138.425 freq. His wingman is not paying attention to the UHF calls and was warned about talking over them by the flight leader. He got a humble apology.
1436: TESTER 15 (USN Test Pilot School Patuxent NAS) with Pax on 270.8 and asks for a VHF freq...he gets 119.275 and checks in there for his work.
1443: AERO 21 talking to BayWatch about their departure from the area for Atlantic City which will be at 1510 local...354.8
Interesting activity by the AERO pair...now the flight leader has his wingman looking for a light colored car with four insurgents that just carried out a drive by rocket attack. Flight leader knows the car they're looking for but it's up to the wingman to find it on the roads around Vienna. Wingman finds it, gets orders to strafe the car and get it stopped. Meanwhile, four guys are on their way to work and have no idea they're the target of an F-16 ready to blast them to hell...simulated of course.
1449: DRAGO 51 flight with TRACON on 279.575 - the normal freq for Arlington flyovers. (We had a four ship flight coming into Andrews on Saturday using callsign VALOR that said they'd be doing an Arlington flyby on Monday. And it's Monday.)
1453: DRAGO 51 reports time over target (at Arlington) will be 1503...279.575
1454: DRAGO flight leader tells his crew they need to leave the IP in 4 minutes, 30 seconds...279.575
As was the case Saturday, there doesn't seem to be a VHF interflight freq...searching for one in UHF
1455: DRAGO 51 makes contact with DRAGO 02 at Arlington...279.575
Found some activity on 252.6 that might be our DRAGO interflight freq...waiting for more.
Nope...northing further...they'd be talking up a storm getting in formation about now.
1501: DRAGO 51 on the way and dropping down to 1000 feet for the flyby...279.575
1503: DRAGO 51 over target...looks like DRAGO 53 broke out and headed for the skies...279.575
15043: BOLAR 70 to Dover CP 349.4 with arrival message (excellent on the Icom antenna)
1504: DRAGO 51 finished with the flyby...ascending to 5000 feet...279.575
1505: AERO 21 to BayWatch to request RTB in 5 minutes...354.8
1507: DRAGO 51 cleared direct Nottingham...279.575...then cleared from 5000 to 8000 feet.
1510: The four DRAGO aircraft all give fuel remainders from 1300 to 1400 pounds...getting low...279.575
1511: DRAGO 51 flight handed off to ZDC-Calvert 281.4 where they check in.
1513: AERO flight heading for home...both report Code 1 on interflight 138.425
1514: AERO 21 flight with ZDC-Kenton 354.15 expediting down to 8000 feet for traffic
1514: DRAGO 51 flight requesting direct Richmond...281.4
1515: AERO 21 requesting direct Atlantic City...354.15
1516: AERO 21 changes to U-6 with Atlantic City Approach 327.125 where they request heading for runway 31 at ACY
Again, much better reception with the Icom antenna...looks like that one is best for traffic to the north and east (McGuire, Atlantic City, Dover) while the Diamond is better in all other directions and about equal to the east for Dover. The Diamond and Icom are about 40 feet apart but that shows that placement can make a huge difference.
1516: There is also a U/i, with suffix 11, w/TRACON 335.5 heading for Andrews
1519: DRAGO 51 handed off to 282.375 where I then hear them chatting and checking in but didn't hear who they checked in with...they mention full stop for all four aircraft which makes this look like either an Ops or Approach freq.
The DRAGO flight had earlier asked for direct Richmond and they were handed off from ZDC-Calvert directly to the 282.375 freq so they are not too far away from here. And upon checking, the 282.375 freq is a Potomac TRACON freq for the James River (Richmond) area. I'm still not sure of the ID for the DRAGO 51 flight even though it looks like they may have gone into Richmond. They sure didn't sound like F-16s plus they didn't use a VHF interflight freq so I'm just not sure of the aircraft types.
1524: The flight coming into Andrews might just be ICEMAN 11 but still not sure of that callsign...they also seem to be working interflight 141.9 and with TRACON 270.275
1527: And that 11 flight is with Andrews Tower 349.0 for landing...flight of two.
1533: PAT 7176 going into Phillips AAF with Tower on 126.15..he's 5 minutes out. (Heard this aircraft about 15 earlier with Patuxent on 120.05...also heard a PAT 7177 a couple of hours ago but didn't log his freq but I believe it was with Pax also)
1533: TESTER 04, along with TESTER 08, on Pax discrete freq 256.5
1550: JOSA 633 to Griffin Command to report airborne from Andrews at 2047Z...378.1
End of log...time to do some reading to learn about my new Icom R2500 radio. It looks fascinating. Hope it works as well.
