Janet Callsigns?

Hi,

I was wondering how often do Janet military callsigns change?
I know there janets, but when they fly into the Nellis or Groom Lake area, they do swtich to using their Military calls....

Do they use the same military calls all the time, or do they change them every month?

For instance, when a Janet enters the Nellis Control area to enter Groom Lake, they switch or use a callsign something like BAMBI, RAMBO, etc.....Do they use Bambi or Rambo all the time, or do they change these every month or so?

So in other words, when Janet 356 enters the Groom base area, is there any way to know what military callsign this particular Janet flight will use?

thx.

Good question. Groom is located in the Desert MOA, so Nellis Approach would be called in flight prior to entering the MOA. I think callsigns may be assigned before the flight actually occurs, probably as part of the flight plan. Do Janet's even file flight plans?? Do they turn off their Mode C (Alt. and GPS tracking) transponder upon entering the Groom Lake area? Do they fly only VFR as to avoid filing a flight plan all together?

What diffrence does it make? They are just transport planes, ferrying workers to and from the base. Even if you had a aviation scanner set up on a ridge, I don't know if you'd hear anything interesting, as the secret aircraft probably are equipped w/ super high or low freq comm gear, or maybe sat comms.

They change the callsign monthly. June's callsign was VEGAS. July's callsign is JONAS, yeah like the brothers.

Janet's most certainly file flight plans. You see a truncated version of the flight plan sometimes on flightaware.com. The full flight plan includes fixes that are private to Groom Lake. Flights to the Tonopah Test Range usually have KTPH in the routing. Flights to Groom Lake don't have KTPH, but use fixes like SHOWW and FIDOE. If you monitor the comms, they have more fixes than you get off the internet. For instance, ABBEY is a common one.

Groom uses an approach/departure frequency, a tower frequency (VHF and UHF), and ground. They usually talk to ground about 15 miles out since the fuel crew needs a bit advance notice.

All frequencies except for the UHF tower are easily obtained when you are in the general area. The Approach/Departure is easily heard in Vegas.

Flights to the Tonopah Test Range do not change callsign. They leave Vegas as a Janet and land at KTNX as a Janet.

How can we know their military callsigns in advance though?
Do you have a list or something?

I know for instance that if like Janet 356, their call numbers would switch from 56 + 15 = 71.

But what about their millitary callsign? How can we know in advance?

reply to post by darpa999


Well if you show up on the first of the month, you will know the callsign for the rest of the month, ;-)

I haven't looked into your equation, but they do follow a pattern. The Beech Janets or the LMCO PC-12s use a single digit numbering scheme. For instance, Jonas Zero would be N20RA.