Janet/Groom scanner audio 7/26/2012

This is about 6 hours of audio (real time), and around 18 minutes with the gaps removed. Callsign of the month is Cheetah. Also heard are planes with "Crimson" callsign, and at the NTS Casper. In addition, Balmy Breeze and Sidewider Ops.

This is an AAC file, which many phones can play these days.
www.lazygranch.com...

For older devices, here is the same file in MP3 format.
www.lazygranch.com/sound/janet/groom_07262012.mp3

Many browsers will stream MP3 directly. AAC usually requires a download and then VLC.

When you get to the part where the plane sees a sudden change in the wind and Groom reports a dust devil being spotted, all hell broke loose in the general area. I could see half a dozen dust devils from my vantage point, all starting up at once. One was at the Sand Spring dry lake near Rachel. A huge dust cloud ended up visible over the range near Bald Mountain.

In the recording, the tower has severe multipath. You can still make out the audio, but it is distorted. There comes a point where the tower is warning a plane that the small arms range is hot. The plane can't copy. At that point, the tower becomes clear, as if there was a change in transmitter location or they boosted power.

I suspect Groom analyzes all their recordings that get posted and may have tried to limit how much RF spills out to prying eyes, er make that ears. They could reach Arizona, Utah, and California from Bald Mountain if they really wanted coverage.

I have some Red Flag audio that I will post in this thread. Boomer will get all excited hearing the word "MARSA". ;-)

would you happen to have the frequencies?

reply to post by shaneslaughta


I don't publish the Groom frequencies since traditionally the base changes them once they are published. However, the NTS frequencies, while no longer officially published, appear on this list as Dreamland/Mercury:
www.inplanesight.org...
Go to scanner frequencies.

Thanks Gariac, always interesting to listen to !

I have some Red Flag audio that I will post in this thread. Boomer will get all excited hearing the word "MARSA". ;-)

yeay!!! lol Should make for an excellent time to kill at work!

reply to post by boomer135


Two red flag scanner audio files. One afternoon session (39Mbytes), and one evening session (79Mbyes(. Actually the evening session went to 1AM (technically morning). I suggest downloading them rather than trying to stream the files.

afternoon red flag session

evening red flag session

These are stereo recordings. One channel has:
377.8 139.75 (black jack uniform and victor)
276.85 308.6 290.8

The other channel has:
352.6 317.525 293.5 270.025 231.1
143.825 139.85 381.3 303.1 228.2
259.95 340.2 281.025

Obviously when you hear "black jack", you can identify that channel and thus the set of frequencies used for each channel.

Often both channels are in use. There is so much radio traffic during a Red Flag that you could have half a dozen radios in use simultaneously.

Awesome post Gariac! You're very lucky to live in such an "interesting" area of North America. You wouldn't happen to know if there are any long range HF frequencies used in the area would you?

reply to post by Jocko Flocko


At one Red Flag a few years ago, a friend got to go to the first briefing. Every frequency was copied verbatim. Listed was 14.85usb HVAA. HVAA stands for high value airborne asset. As far as I can tell, it refers to the B-2. The frequency was active, but it was used at night. That is not a good frequency for night time propagation. I could hear it fine on the range.

There are a few cases where HF frequencies are picked in a counterintuitive fashion. HFDL for one, where they pick HF for range (beyond line of sight), but not a lot of range.

reply to post by gariac


Wow, that's right next to the 20 meter amateur radio band that spans from 14.00 to 14.35 USB. As of late HF propagation has been usable up to the 17 meter band (18.10mhz) at night and has been quite good up until around midnight, then it drops off quite drastically. I have a 4 element mono band yagi sitting on my tower at the 65 foot level, above that at about 85 feet I have a tri-band yagi for the amateur radio WARC bands. I'll definately be pointing the beam towards groom lake this afternoon and tonight listening for any activity.

Thanks for the frequency info, I'll be sure to record any HF transmissions I pickup and share them.

reply to post by Jocko Flocko


I suppose that frequency is used nationwide since it is hard to restrict HF frequencies to a small area given how they propagate, but I wouldn't expect it to be very busy. You would probably have to park a radio on it and use a recorder. The trouble is HF doesn't lend itself to squelching, so you would need some scheme to find when there is actually modulation.

If you look at the list of Nellis frequencies, it also has standard HF SAR frequencies that I pulled from government documents.

There is one HF frequency reserved for test flights. I never tried to catch anything on it, but here you go:

3281.0 USB

This is not to be confused with the Russian mil use on that frequency since the Russians are on CW. If you check the US registry of the frequency, they spec it as 3282.4khz, where the actual RF energy is found, but that isn't how HF receivers work.

There are a number of frequencies in the 123.x range for test flights (VHF).
123.125 123.15 123.25 123.275 123.325 123.35 123.425 123.475 123.525 123.550 123.575

General Atomics is listed as using some of these frequencies, are per the list on inplanesight.org.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by Jocko Flocko

 

At one Red Flag a few years ago, a friend got to go to the first briefing. Every frequency was copied verbatim. Listed was 14.85usb HVAA. HVAA stands for high value airborne asset. As far as I can tell, it refers to the B-2.

HVAA isn't necessarily for expensive aircraft. Any KC-135, KC-10, AWACS, JSTARS, etc are considered High Value Air Assets in the AOR. When the KC-135's flew into Iraq in March 2003, it was the first time ever a HVAA was flown into the country so close to SAM sites.

reply to post by boomer135


This makes a lot of sense. Lose a fighter aircraft..well sad for the loss of life but it isn't like you don't have another fighter to takes its place. Losing the AWACS is another story since they run the air war. Once at Red Flag they had the AWACS near the border, probably due to some conflict out in the eastern MOAs where it usually flies. They keep the AWACS far away from enemy territory.

Hey, speaking of tankers:



The flag on the last tanker is having some "issues".

reply to post by gariac


Was there any navy fighters at red flag? Kind of odd that they didn't have the tankers with the MPRS's pods on there. If I recall correctly, we had to take our MPRS's jets to red flag. But it's been some time.

Also gariac, we're you able to put the call signs to specific aircraft? I heard a "raid" call sign I think a couple times during the first ten min or so of the first audio. Just curious cause raid used to be the 319 arw call sign at grand forks. Now that there's no tankers there anymore I'm wondering who is using it or if it just means something else. Kinda hard to get that info if your not involved but you pull off miracles all the time it seems .

I think the tanker used the Baja callsign. However I don't know if the tankers like the AWACS have multiple callsigns depending on who you are talking to.

I will post a link to all the Red Flag photos, probably this weekend. The only Navy planes were the EA-6B. However the KFIRs use the same refueling scheme as the navy.
Columbian Air Force

reply to post by gariac


No we have the same callsign from the front and the boom. Just curious. Any kc-10's in the area? Or pics of the probe and drouge coming off the boom?

reply to post by boomer135


Other than climbing Mt. Stirling, I think it would be tough to get photos of refueling in action during Red Flag. The tracks are kept well away from the fighter action.

The only refueling I've seen was two F-16 in tow going past Tikaboo Peak. [Yes, I know that makes no sense.] I also saw a B-2 refueled while at the Cedar Pipeline ranch. Thas was quite low. I'd guess 5000ft AGL. That was a KC-10 on an unpublished track.

This is the Columbian tanker.


One of the scanner audio files has some pilot mumbling about "Where's the damn TACAN."

Originally posted by boomer135
Also gariac, we're you able to put the call signs to specific aircraft? I heard a "raid" call sign I think a couple times during the first ten min or so of the first audio. Just curious cause raid used to be the 319 arw call sign at grand forks. Now that there's no tankers there anymore I'm wondering who is using it or if it just means something else. Kinda hard to get that info if your not involved but you pull off miracles all the time it seems

.

I found this list somewhere on the web, not sure how accurate or relevant these callsigns are:
Military Callsigns

reply to post by FosterVS


That is an awesome word document brother. Where did you say you found that? I bet me and gariac can verify a bunch of those call signs. I skimmed through and some are still used today. Excellent job!