Short- Wave radio...

[dave]

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hi,
   just sitting here waiting for my next aircraft of interest on ads-b, and it bought to mind of spotting back in the day, get their flt. numbers, then to the seclusion of our box room at night, and then switching on the short-wave, and trying to tie those seen with a sel-cal and hence a reg... 5616 US/Can, 5649 Eur, also 8891,5598, 8825, 8864, 8879, 8906, 11309, my mate got me into sw, he lent me his old dial tuning radio, that meant finding NEW YORK weather station, to see what the reception was like, then going to the station, then wait, up it comes, and a burst of static, blanked it so onto the next along the line... it was fun... Then when i was hooked a digital tuner, which was easier but the static was still around. Is it not too easy nowadays? Does anyone still bother with SW?
regards,
                   dave...

[chrisj]

Dave , my set is still packed away and I hope , not gathering too much dust ! The batteries would require a mortgage to purchase now ! The last use I can recall , was the Pan Am 747 , Flt 103 . I was serving with the RAFSKTU at Culdrose at that time and as avionics I 'had' the required frequencies to hand . First report on TV of a large aircraft going down near Scotland and I went directly to my set . After a short wait , I heard the first helicopter arrive at the location . they were shocked at what the found . Then I heard as more aircraft were called for , arrived , and set up operational locations . Quite historic ! The four letter selcal assigned to an aircraft would give a tone to activate a particular aircraft's HF set to 'wake up' the crew to a call . Later , I think a program was available to listeners so that this tone would be translated back into the four letter code so that the aircraft could be identified ( with luck !) . Only so many combinations of codes so they were allocated in such a way that an aircraft operating north of the equator could have the same code as one operating to the south ( and hope they do not stray !) . oh well , coffee time . Chris

[davebasing]

My HF set is also long unused and stored away, as is my then much used ACARS disc. Before the days of Flight Radar, ADSB etc both were really the only reliable way to tie up overflights. There was a magazine which listed trans-Atlantic tie ups but the data came from filed flight plans, and with aircraft reg not a critical field on the plan, late aircraft changes (of the same type) did not require a re-file. Didn’t happen too often but there were occasions when it did as aircraft serviceability was not what it is now. My old logs from decades ago at home remain littered with notes of overflights never tied up.

I remember long ago late evenings listening on HF to the African net and hearing Khartoum and Cairo trying to hand aircraft off to each other, often unsuccessfully. Used to wonder why I could hear them clearly this far away, but they couldn’t hear each other. Then when sent to Khartoum to help with the establishment of a Sudanese CAA I visited the local HF controller sitting in a wooden shack with fairly basic equipment and a dirty great aerial. HF was essential over many parts of Africa but was not always reliable, particularly at lower level. I remember one occasion being in a CL44 cruising at FL140 and calling Cairo & Khartoum in vain on HF and ending up using a Saudi Air Force Jet Star flying far above us as a relay. We for our part, when we could, acted as a relay on occasions for the aircraft crop spraying etc below us.
Nostalgia is not what it used to be!

[paulmartin]

Back in the day I was well interested in this. I got introduced to it by a pal I used to meet on the queens building at LHR. He brought his portable SW radio up one day and gave me a demo, we listened to New York and Gander and was instantly hooked.


So mid 1980s I dipped into my savings and bought a Sony ICF-2001D radio which was the portable to have at the time, a fantastic bit of kit which also had air band on it as well as pretty much all the other radio bands on it too.


I quite often used to listen to India in the evening to try and pick up the far-east flights on their way to LHR the following morning, no flying in Russian airspace for Asian flights back then. Particularly the Singapore 747 for its SELCAL and if it was one I needed I would visit LHR in the morning to see it. Those were the days!


Back then there was no internet so a trip to LHR was largely pot luck as you never knew what would turn up, so knowing what was on some of the far-east flights guaranteed you would at least see something new. Always used to buy the ‘high in the sky’ book, and the LAAS magazine used to have a monthly update on the newest SELCAL/registration tie ups.


I had 1000s of hours of enjoyment out of it, still got it and still works as good as ever.


I gave up with the SW air listening some years back once all the trackers appeared on the net and the spotters web sites appeared telling you what was due in advance at airports and life for the spotter became dead easy !


Right, nostalgia over but spotting was a bit more enjoyable back then, bit too easy these days.


Paul.

[lordevanelpuss]

Dec 23, 2022 9:27:11 GMT davebasing said:

 There was a magazine which listed trans-Atlantic tie ups but the data came from filed flight plans,

This was probably Air Scotland. Back in the 1980s, when I was 'dot spotting' this was my way of tying up what I had seen during the day when not at LHR. If you did see them over LHR you could tie up your European airline trails at the terminal 2 airline desks, thankfully the majority were co-operative. Never tried the, then terminal 3 airlines (Pan Am & TWA) as you could see them at LHR anyway.

[Trevor B]

I love HF and I also still have my ICF-2001D as well as years of Air Scotland

Trev

[dave]

hi,
there's 2 that bring back memories, High in the Sky, also Air Scotland,(if the static beat you)...as a back-up.
regards,
dave...

[foxfire]

My radio amateur father found me a wartime short wave receiver, a BC348, which had come out of a Flying Fortress or maybe a Superfortress. I remember listening to aircraft crossing the Atlantic calling at 30 west, 40 west etc but not much else aviation-wise. Unfortunately the receiver and I parted company years ago but I wish I still had it.