Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan (NO2CW), who writes:
If anyone is interested in monitoring aircraft communications across HF, VHF and UHF, Thomas, N1SPY put together a demo video of what you can hear and how:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Brilliant instructional video, Tommy! Like you, I love both radio and aviation so appreciate the effort you put behind this video. Great primer!
Many thanks to Craig Fuller who shared this excellent Aeronautical HF radio map on the Shortwave Listeners Global Facebook page.
Click here or here to download the map as a large graphic.
Note that this map is 13 years old and somewhat out-of-date. Paul Jones kindly posted some frequency updates to the Shortwave Listeners Global Facebook page:
Confirmed SHANWICK QRG’s.
(Shanwick = Shannon/Prestwick)
Clearance Delivery
123.950Mhz
127.650Mhz
135.525MhzSouthern Routes
3016 HF
5598 HF
8906 HF
13306 HF
17946 HFFamily ‘B’Central & Northern Routes
2899 HF
5616 HF
8864 HF
11279 HF
13291 HF
17946 HFFamily ‘C’ Central & Northern Routes
2872 HF
5649 HF
8879 HF
11336 HF
13306 HF
17946 HFFamily ‘D’ Central & Northern Routes
2971 HF
4675 HF
8891 HF
11279 HF
13291 HF
17946 HFFamily ‘F’ Central & Northern Routes
3476 HF
6622 HF
8831 HF
13291 HF
17946 HFShanwick VHF 127.900 Mhz
EMERGENCY 121.500 MHz
Regular SWLing Post readers may recall a peculiar VOLMET recording I published in 2013 where all of the regional aviation weather was noted as “missing.”
My buddy, David Goren–you know, the fellow behind the Shortwave Shindig and Shortwaveology–gave me the original tip for that VOLMET broadcast.
David recently posted a new mix on Soundcloud. David’s description reads:
“So, a year or two ago Ryan Stively made an instrumental piece called Missing Cities and around the same time I recorded a chunk of shortwave sound that I called Missing Cities. When making some pieces for the recent Shortwave Shindig 2015 broadcast I decided the twain should meet.”
Readers: follow all of David’s shortwave mixes by bookmarking his website, Shortwaveology.net.
“Uh, Charlie, where did Bermuda go?”
My good buddy, David Goren, directed me to the VOLMET frequency for New York Sunday afternoon on 3,485 kHz.
VOMET, for those of you not familiar, is a worldwide network of radio stations that broadcast TAF, SIGMET and METAR aviation weather reports on shortwave radio, and in some countries on VHF, too. All of the reports are broadcast in upper sideband, using automated voice transmissions.
At any rate, they must have experienced a glitch which resulted in the loss of meteorological data for most of the United States. The broadcast preamble is as usual, but as soon as specific airport regions (mostly major US cities and some islands) are mentioned, the report takes a disturbing turn. It’s fodder for science fiction–one is not sure whether to be alarmed or amused by this eyebrow-raising data (or, lack thereof).
The end result becomes almost like a numbers station, sans numbers, of course. Take a listen for yourself by clicking here to download the recording, or listen via the embedded player below: