Tag Archives: Aviation

An aircraft hijacking story with “a shortwave twist”

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who writes:

[A] great aircraft hijacking story with a shortwave twist….

Read the full article from NK News on the link below–the shortwave twists are here in two interesting paragraphs…

“Two fight attendants from the YS-11 eventually emerged as announcers on the “Voice of the National Salvation,” a North Korean propaganda radio station targeting South Korean audiences.”

“The station claimed to be a voice of the alleged South Korean underground Juche resistance, and thus it badly needed broadcasters who were capable of speaking polished, Seoul-style Korean.”

Take to the skies: North Korea’s role in the mysterious hijacking of KAL YS-11 | NK News – North Korea News

https://www.nknews.org/2019/03/take-to-the-skies-north-koreas-role-in-the-mysterious-hijacking-of-kal-ys-11/

Thank you, Mark. I was not aware of this story. It was too bad for those flight attendants that they had a skill the North Korea propaganda machine needed.

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Boeing 787 Antennas

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Sally, who writes:

Besides being a bit of a radio geek, I also love aviation and am working on my PPL (private pilot license). I recently discovered this image [above] of the Boeing 787 antenna compliment. It’s amazing to see how many antennas they fit on this heavy bird!

Thank you for sharing, Sally! I can assure you, you’re not the only aviation nut here on the SWLing Post. I’m guilty as well!

It is amazing to see just how many various antennas are install on modern commercial aircraft. Looking at this image, you would think it’s a flying antenna farm!

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Tommy (N1SPY) on monitoring airplane communications

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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!

Click here to check out other projects by N1SPY.

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Aeronautical RDS: Ivan’s impressive collection of in-flight FM stations

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov (NO2CW), who writes:

Last week I took an Eton Satellit with me on a flight from Tampa, Florida to Washington DC. The radio is very light, portable and packed with features. I have used an SDR radio before for inlight FM reception where I recorded audio, but this time I decided to only count stations with an RDS lock. With so many signals battling RDS is tricky to catch as every 10 seconds or so one station comes on top of another. The flight was just short of 2 hours and I divided my logs into three 30 minute segments. Not suprisingly looking into the technicalities I noticed RDS is commonly received from stations 50 -100 kW of power and tall towers.

Interestingly signals seem to be stronger a lower altitudes. My theory is that FM broadcast antennas heavily favor gain on the horizontal plane parallel to the terrain and send as little signal as possible out into space. I overlaid my logs onto three maps and also a video:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Impressive Ivan! I’m taking a flight later this month and might even try this with the FM radio built into my Moto G6 smart phone which also includes RDS (although I doubt reception can match that of the Satellit.

This is fascinating, Ivan! Thank you for sharing.

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