Your Best Airband DX Catch, [HF,VHF,UHF, Civilian or Military]?

[Alain]

The year was 1993. The place, San Diego, near Lindbergh Field, in a 600 sq. ft. apartment. The rig was my trusty ICOM R71-A receiver, w/o passband. I still have the ICOM, but it needs new caps; the LSB is really garbeled! Back then, I had installed the WILLCO Electronics "ICM1024" [P.O. Box 788, New Lenox, Ill. 60451] channel/expanded memory board. The cost, [I stll have the receipt!] was $128.95. Lots of money back then.

It took the radio from 99 memories to a total of 1024 memories. Lots of "utes" loaded. {I believe that someone is still reproducing these boards for the ICOM unit]. My antenna was strung around the perimeter of the room's ceiling; sort of a "square loop", consisting of 150+' of stranded copperwire, terminated into the R71-A.

Anyway, one day I was tuning in on the 10 MHz band and just happened to catch a Boeing heavy [747] about to depart for...Rio de Janeiro. In a nutshell, I followed the Boeing across the U.S.A. to the Gulf of Mexico, just entering the South Atlantic. By that time I was so tired, I had to go to sleep.

I fell asleep; the radio still on, still listening to the Boeing. I assume he was about 30-60 minutes from touching down. It was quite a thrill following for so many hours and the many contacts the pilot made along the way!

What is your greatest DX catch?

 

[mancow]

Two F-16s colliding mid-air and hearing one fly back with half a wing while others talked the ejected pilot on a SAR freq.

 

[trentbob]

Two F-16s colliding mid-air and hearing one fly back with half a wing while others talked the ejected pilot on a SAR freq.

That is very very kweel. The ultimate!

 

[trentbob]

The year was 1993. The place, San Diego, near Lindbergh Field, in a 600 sq. ft. apartment. The rig was my trusty ICOM R71-A receiver, w/o passband. I still have the ICOM, but it needs new caps; the LSB is really garbeled! Back then, I had installed the WILLCO Electronics "ICM1024" [P.O. Box 788, New Lenox, Ill. 60451] channel/expanded memory board. The cost, [I stll have the receipt!] was $128.95. Lots of money back then.

It took the radio from 99 memories to a total of 1024 memories. Lots of "utes" loaded. {I believe that someone is still reproducing these boards for the ICOM unit]. My antenna was strung around the perimeter of the room's ceiling; sort of a "square loop", consisting of 150+' of stranded copperwire, terminated into the R71-A.

Anyway, one day I was tuning in on the 10 MHz band and just happened to catch a Boeing heavy [747] about to depart for...Rio de Janeiro. In a nutshell, I followed the Boeing across the U.S.A. to the Gulf of Mexico, just entering the South Atlantic. By that time I was so tired, I had to go to sleep.

I fell asleep; the radio still on, still listening to the Boeing. I assume he was about 30-60 minutes from touching down. It was quite a thrill following for so many hours and the many contacts the pilot made along the way!

What is your greatest DX catch?

So way back, as a in the mid-60s had a 200 ft copper wire well insulated and grounded done by my dad and uncle. When I had a dorm room at College in 1971 I ran a rectangular Loop on my ceiling in my dorm room but it certainly wasn't 150 ft but we still didn't have the interference that we have now. I don't think you and I are the first ones who ever did that.

My first house, big backyard with a wooden fence, sturdy with no chain link fence backup but I was able to, "Let the Dogs Out", I ran copper wire on the top of the fence in a Square fashion, well insulated and grounded, best HF antenna I ever had!

As far as my best experience other than the usual arguments with ATC and pilots about being in the Bravo, short approach, long approach, either the pilot or the ATC woke up on the wrong side of the bad stuff..

.. because, I live on the border of the city of Philadelphia in between Trenton, New Jersey, I monitor all of the cap frequencies.

Because the big guy, you know who I mean, spent most of the campaign and his presidency in his basement in Delaware, I would listen from time to time.

I've listened to guard since the beginning of my monitoring, what an experience it was to hear a innocent rogue plane being intercepted by a armed fighter jet. Just to hear those words, this is a armed United States military aircraft you are to make an immediate right turn and rock your wings to acknowledge or you will be shot down.

Guy probably didn't even have a second radio but they got his attention and since then, of course, it's happened many times, including firing flares, to get their attention LOL.

 

[mancow]

I also caught airliners talking to a downed pilot on 121.5. They all kept trying to help, stepping on each other, etc., so one took over and acted as the main relay. He said it was a student pilot in a small aircraft that didn't know where he was. They eventually got enough information to forward to authorities to get help.

 

[dmchalmers]

Mine would be about a year befor the balloon over northern sates when i listened to 2 airliners talking about something they had bever seen before over northern Wisc the size of a 747, next ady another was refering to an Orb that was following his aircraft over Aplleton Wi. for hundreds of miles.

 

[kny2xb]

It was mid-April 1989

I lived in Rochester, NY, the southwest side off Thurston Road in the 19th Ward

My radio was a Realistic PRO-2003 with a back-of-set multi-band antenna

I monitored on 121.5, a co-pilot on an Air Canada 747 talking down a guy who was suicidal, he'd stolen a small plane & was going to fly it into the CN Tower

The guy had had medical problems, surgeries, had missed his sons birthday
The co-pilot talked to him, listened to him...

I lost the comms when they dropped below line-of-sight altitude

I checked the CBC 740 kHz AM station the next day for any news

The guy landed the plane without incident, the co-pilot & tower controller were going to be nominated for commendations

Distance wise, not a very long DX, 93-94 miles as the crow flies, but the most exciting thing that I've ever copied on air band

 

[FedFyrGuy]

Afghanistan / MILAIR UHF / "KINGPIN" at Al Udeid in Qatar from 2016 - 2020

Listened to all sorts of theatre traffic using an old RS Pro 18 and Pro 2052 - aerial refueling, heavy aircraft cargo missions and occasional routing of tactical aircraft. Clear as a bell many times, no encryption.

The system is now based out of Shaw Air Force Base back in the States.

AFCENT Can Now Generate Air Tasking Orders in the Cloud | Air & Space Forces Magazine

The Combined Air Operations Center took a major step this month in overhauling how the Air Force can plan and execute an air war.

www.airandspaceforces.com

 

[WB5UOM]

1983 Beruit Bombing.....
Using my Mackay Dymek DR-22C on 11176khz.
Caught (this is light years in past of course) a C-141 out of Beruit inbound to Andrews AFB.
Asked for phone patch to State Department, Secretary of State.
Aircraft kept stressing that communications were in the clear, satellite was down and warning everyone to not say too much.
They named who and what was on board, including apparently a few who had no passports and no papers
Sad, but interesting times.

 

[sprman1955]

Has to be when i heard them tracking the balloon over TN. Angelo

 

[n6hgg]

All over the globe when the hf bands are hot. India and Africa have lots of hf aeronautical stuff happening. I live in Humboldt County in California near the ocean. On HF ACARS, on a daily basis I can monitor aircraft telemetry all over mainland China, all of Asia, Siberia and other global regions in the early mornings and evenings. On a good morning I can map 30 to 50 Asian aircraft real time flying routes in Asia and Australia and many other places. On VHF ACARS it's not uncommon to monitor oceanic flights as far as 600 statute miles distant. Normal propagation on VHF ACARS gives about 270 statute miles without having any ducting or skipping conditions present. As I write, I'm getting a few targets out at about 370 statute miles out there. On VHF ACARS I monitor 131.55 mhz. The HF ACARS frequencies are all over the hf shortwave spectrum.

 

[W8HDU]

I think my best aeronautical catch had to be back in the 1990s when Terry Sterman, W9DIA, was flying his plane over South Bend, IN. (The plane he flew also has an interesting side story). I was driving north on M-23 and was near Dundee, MI. I had my Alinco mobile in the scan simplex mode when it locked on 146.5400 to his CQ. We talked for about 5 minutes before the hoards of hams discovered him and descended for a contact. I heard him reply to one with, "Fine signal, if you're just east of Buffalo on the NY turnpike by Batavia." I have his QSL in my book.

A friend of mine is a pilot, and we often talk when we're up in the U.P. of Michigan, usually to meet up with him for a ride from the airport. It's amazing how far we could talk.

When I worked in broadcasting, a lot of times we would hear another station's traffic copter when the band opened up. It was usually just a one way reception, but it was fun to hear. The one I remember well was Denver CO to Detroit MI on 450.650. Their signal had our S-meter pegged on our receiver. It was heard about four times over one year.

 

[kny2xb]

I think my best aeronautical catch had to be back in the 1990's when Terry Sterman, W9DIA, was flying his plane over South Bend, IN. (The plane he flew also has an interesting side story). I was driving north on M-23 and was near Dundee, MI. I had my Alinco mobile in the scan simplex mode when it locked on 146.5400 to his CQ. We talked for about 5 minutes before the hoards of hams discovered him and descended for a contact. I heard him reply to one with, "Fine signal, if you're just east of Buffalo on the NY turnpike by Batavia."

Distance Conversions​

Here is the distance in miles, and kilometers between South Bend, Saint Joseph County, Indiana, United States and City of Batavia, Genesee County, New York, 14020, United States

Distance type	Miles	Kilometers	Nautical Miles
Driving distance	481.0 mi	774.1 km	417.9 nmi
Straight distance	421.47 mi	678.29 km	366.18 nmi

Wow, a great catch for him & for you
I've never been to Indiana, but I'm from Rochester, east of Batavia, I used to make deliveries there
And the table isn't accounting for his altitude, so the straight distance is probably greater

 

[W8HDU]

Additional on my post above. My Alinco DR570 radio's max power (IIRC) was 35 or 40 watts. I think the antenna at the time was a Diamond NR7900A mounted on the trunk of my Buick Century. (I think I still have the radio/antenna in my garage)

And old memory seems to recall his altitude was 5,500 over South Bend. He was eastbound, (destination unknown), at a pretty decent clip. Again, we're talking old memory, but I recall his QSL had a picture of a Beechcraft Starship, Cool looking plane (he could afford), but sadly it was bomb in the aviation world.

The antenna on the plane was modified, and bent backwards at 30-degrees, and appeared to be some model of short dual-band antenna, located about 2/3 the way back on the bottom of the plane. Not sure about the rig, but his QSL stated 5 watts. Obviously, he had the advantage with elevation! But he stated the radiation pattern favored the direction he was flying. Makes sense.

My friend, Fritz, who lives up north uses a Yaesu 2600, and a Diamond NR72BNMO mounted between the cargo area, and tail, on the bottom of a King Aire. He normally uses the lowest power setting, (5w??). Sometimes he'll take his UHF HT and connect onto the antenna when on the ground. We can typically work each other about 40-25 miles ground to air crystal clear. Favorite frequencies are 146.48, 146.49, 146.50, 146,40, and 146.50. I've flown with him once using ham radio and I can testify that once the word gets out that you're on the air, a pileup ensues. Nobody on the ground can hear each other, but we would hear ALL of them. A lot of times we just have to QSY to another frequency and start all over.

I wonder if it's like that on the International Space Station?

 

[jwt873]

I've managed to speak to two airline pilots on HF. The HF gear in most aircraft can be tuned to the amateur HF bands and pilots with amateur licenses occasionally did that.

I worked a Pan Am pilot flying over New York state and an Air Canada pilot over Alberta Canada. Both were on 20 meters. This was back in the late 70's early 80's.. I don't believe amateur radio licensed pilots are allowed to do this any more.

 

[kny2xb]

Additional on my post above. My Alinco DR570 radio's max power (IIRC) was 35 or 40 watts. I think the antenna at the time was a Diamond NR7900A mounted on the trunk of my Buick Century. (I think I still have the radio/antenna in my garage)

And old memory seems to recall his altitude was 5,500 over South Bend. He was eastbound, (destination unknown), at a pretty decent clip. Again, we're talking old memory, but I recall his QSL had a picture of a Beechcraft Starship, Cool looking plane (he could afford), but sadly it was bomb in the aviation world.

The antenna on the plane was modified, and bent backwards at 30-degrees, and appeared to be some model of short dual-band antenna, located about 2/3 the way back on the bottom of the plane. Not sure about the rig, but his QSL stated 5 watts. Obviously, he had the advantage with elevation! But he stated the radiation pattern favored the direction he was flying. Makes sense.

My friend, Fritz, who lives up north uses a Yaesu 2600, and a Diamond NR72BNMO mounted between the cargo area, and tail, on the bottom of a King Aire. He normally uses the lowest power setting, (5w??). Sometimes he'll take his UHF HT and connect onto the antenna when on the ground. We can typically work each other about 40-25 miles ground to air crystal clear. Favorite frequencies are 146.48, 146.49, 146.50, 146,40, and 146.50. I've flown with him once using ham radio and I can testify that once the word gets out that you're on the air, a pileup ensues. Nobody on the ground can hear each other, but we would hear ALL of them. A lot of times we just have to QSY to another frequency and start all over.

I wonder if it's like that on the International Space Station?

According to the Alinco sales/spec sheet https://www.alinco.com/Archives/Mobile/dr570spec.pdf 45 watts on VHF, 35 watts on UHF

I need to program the ham calling & simplex frequencies into my scanner, I haven't listened to them in a long time

I used to hear N3QP fly his home-built from the St. Pete, FL area up the coast on 146.52
If he stated his equipment, I don't remember what he used

It probably is like that for the ISS, IIRC, I don't think that they have many frequencies to QSY to, I'd have to look up their band plan

 

[RichardKramer]

If you listen to the ISS fm uhf downlink on 437.8 when it's in range of your qth, you can hear the pileup.
Uplink is145.990 fm pl 67.0