Altitude works wonders

[KB2WIG]

Very interesting conditions on the East Coast. Worked,'HLR, WB2EMS, KJ4RGH and others. KC0HFL, Jason, from Kansas popped  in. As I finished with Jason, K7MYR broke in.  Jason was operating his Boing 737 in AM mode, somewhere near Amarillo TX. Nice to see mobile AM, especially at 32K.


KLC


EDIT ! ! ! Replace Jason with Rick ! ! !

[WB2EMS]

Dang, wished I'd stayed around longer! I'd have loved to have heard that and worked him.

I've worked 2 meters FM from a variety of light aircraft with very nice results. Amazing what you can do on simplex from 2000 feet.    Repeaters are harder as you tend to key up more than one!

Good to hear you on last night. I'll have to get on the 6 meter repeater and say hi again.

[KB2WIG]

Well, ya never know who will drop into 75, do one.......  right after I signed with Rick, the Hammarlund craped out. I dont know how long he stayed,  or who else worked him.

We'll do the 6m thing again. Maybee i'll string up a dipole and point it towards you.


KLC

[WD8KDG]

Heard K7MYR here in La Pine, OR. So............who was flying the Boeing 737?

Craig,

[KB2WIG]

C,

D'oh !@%4!

Well, it goes to show that I can't use the phone to send messages onto the Phone...

Rick was the driver on the '737.......

He said that he couldn't give me an S Meter report as the transceiver he was using didn't have one.  How primitive .... ..


klc

[KL7OF]

I worked him on 15 meters ....Most commercial aircraft have an HF radio installed that can operate SSB  or AMI  Most of these radios (that I am familar with) the panel usually only shows the freq and the knob shows the mode but at least they are expensive.....

[KB2WIG]

It usta be a requirement that commercial flights  flying over the ocean or out of line-of-site communications need a HF radio. Or at least that's my understanding of it......   I did a bit of AERO monitoring with a portable am/fm/weather/aero portible that I purchased from Ralph, W2WME, when he ran a' lectronics supply business.

I used to listen to NY Radio, Gander Radio and sometimes Shannon Radio (3485 and 3413 KC) for weather info and the propagation aspects. There is a lot, or at least there were 'utility broadcasts' on HF.

My wife got to the point of asking to please turn down, or turn off WWV/WWVH..... She just said it began to be tedious after a hour or so. I cant see why, but then again.....

klc

[Chris P.]

right after I signed with Rick, the Hammarlund craped out. I dont know how long he stayed,  or who else worked him.

Ahh, so thats what happened. His signal had begun to come up just after you worked him, so I gave it a shot. I think I heard him come back to me, not sure if he got the call right, but then he quickly faded away.

[K3ZS]

I talked to an Air Force refueling tanker.  He was 40 over nine on 20M SSB.  He was right overhead and gradually faded when he was about 200 miles away.  The ham was the boom operator who got to use the HF when not on a refueling mission.

[KD6VXI]

I worked a refueler for USAF as well!   I believe it was 20 ssb.

 Kid in the plane had said 'I can't say where we are going,  but watch the news tomorrow'.

No kidding.  The next day,  coalition hostilities began in Libya.

One of my 'coo' l qsos.......

--Shane
KD6VXI

[W6TOM]

  The night of the earthquake in Coalinga in 1983 they linked a bunch of 2 meter repeaters for emergency traffic, I listened to that traffic off the WB6OQS repeater on Loma Prieta Mountain. Later that night they took the link down and a bunch of locals were talking, one wondered if the fires were out in Coalinga.

  Next thing a guy with a 4 call came on, he identified as the flight engineer on a Delta 747 that had just taken off from San Francisco, bound to Atlanta, he was passing over Coalinga at 20,000 feet. He said the fires were out, you could hear the engines in the background, he was on a handheld. He talked for a bit until they were out over Nevada.

[N5RLR]

At first glance, I read the thread title as, "ATTitude Works Wonders."  But then, this is true, too. 
 

[Rick, K7MYR] said that he couldn't give me an S Meter report as the transceiver he was using didn't have one.  How primitive .... ..

He at least gave you a (R)eadability report, I hope. I'd love to see the antenna and coupler/tuner for HF on a 737. 

[KD6VXI]

Michael,

Radio is ruled by the Three A's

Altitude
Attitude
Amplitude

So your reading of the title wasn't far off lol

--Shane
KD6VXI

[K7MYR]

At first glance, I read the thread title as, "ATTitude Works Wonders."  But then, this is true, too. 
 

[Rick, K7MYR] said that he couldn't give me an S Meter report as the transceiver he was using didn't have one.  How primitive .... ..

He at least gave you a (R)eadability report, I hope. I'd love to see the antenna and coupler/tuner for HF on a 737. 

Howdy all!

Yeah, I guess you could call these radios are primitive I suppose (Collins HFS-900)......  most pilots wouldn't know what to do with an S-meter though!  And if I want to work 75 or 40, it has to be USB.  No HF user (except Hams and CB'ers) use LSB.  And "AM" is actually USB with carrier!

Attitude absolutely works wonders....  Altitude,  not so much.  I haven't found altitude  to make much difference on HF once you're above a couple of thousand feet. (Unless you're working line of sight 10m and above!

73/Rick

[WU2D]

About 10 years ago I worked a C-17 coming across the Atlantic on route from the middle east and headed to its base in Seattle on 20M SSB using the Marauder and R390A. They sent a nice QSL card showing the plane. I can probably dig it up.

[K7MYR]

About 10 years ago I worked a C-17 coming across the Atlantic on route from the middle east and headed to its base in Seattle on 20M SSB using the Marauder and R390A. They sent a nice QSL card showing the plane. I can probably dig it up.

That would have likely been a McChord AFB C-17, but  wouldn't have been me, I retired from the USAF in 2004 and my last HF contact from a C-17 was in 2003!

That radio actually was tunable in 100hz  steps (2.0000-29.9999) and could operate USB, LSB and AM (upper SB only) (although we NEVER used LSB or AM for anything!)

The fun radio was the UHF/VHF "command" radios.  they were tunable from below 6m 25khz steps, (where they automatically switched to FM) to I think 150.000mhz.  (AM only)   The UHF radios would tune from 225.000-399.975 (25khz steps, AM only)

FM below 6 was so we could talk to the ARMY which uses "Fox Mike" down around 30-50 mhz.

HF in airliners is pretty much for position reporting and ATC clearances in "over-water" legs where there is no radar coverage and/or VHF coverage.

That is changing though.  Controller–pilot data link communications (CPDLC) WILL (by mandate) replace HF SSB (voice) as primary communications with ATC for all over water flight.  Just about all the airplanes that are operated over water by airlines also have SAT phones. 

HF radios will become the secondary backup.  Which means that we will still call ARINC, ask for a SELCALL check and on the successful check, turn the audio off and go back to our newspapers!


I don't do over water "stuff".....I don't like sitting the airplane for more than about 4hrs, and I would rather have MORE throttles when over water (4 eng vs 2 eng  )


73/Rick