251.850 CONUS: Draco 77 calling Draco 99 on “sat 2” for radio check.
Tags: CONUS
11282 USB 0130Z: Raider 28 wkg San Francisco Radio with position report FLITY at 0130, FL240, estimate for FIZEL at 0249, FOMAS next.
11282 USB 0133Z: Bowie 04 wkg San Francisco Radio with position CUNDU at 0133, FL350, estimate for CREAN at 0225 and CINNY next.
I recently heard some ham traffic being relayed by pirates on UHF SATCOM (263.675) – Someone was rebroadcasting: “CQ CQ CQ Parks on the Air KE8WLW in K-6803” which sounded like it was coming from HF SSB. A quick Google Search found that Parks on the Air (POTA) is a program that encourages amateur radio operators to get outdoors and operate from state and national parks. The park identifier “K-6803” is Vestaburg State Game Land according to the POTA website. Obviously these hams probably don’t realize pirates are rebroadcasting their traffic across US military satellites. As to why they would retransmit ham radio comms is a total mystery to me and quite strange. In addition, there was a lot of the other usual shenanigans, whistling and inappropriate noises being transmitted on the frequency. Here is a recording of the intercept. Caution: Use headphones if in public setting otherwise you might get strange looks from those around you. The ham stuff starts around the 1:55 marker.
5574 USB 0624Z: Yukon 7002 wkg San Francisco Radio reporting position ETECO at 0621, FL350, estimate for EDSEL at 0713 and ENTOO next. Boeing 767-300 operated by Northern Air Cargo en route from Honolulu to LAX.
5574 USB 0738Z: Air France 078 wkg San Francisco Radio. Signal likely was very garbled due to the geomagnetic storm. Boeing 777-200 en route from LAX to Papeete.
5574 USB 0744Z: CSS7532 wkg San Francisco Radio. Signal likely was very garbled due to the geomagnetic storm. Boeing 747-400 operated by SF Airlines en route from LAX to Shenzhen.
5574 USB 0841Z: San Francisco Radio attempting comms with Dynasty 007 – signal extremely garbled at first! Most likely related to the geomagnetic storm conditions causing aurora at lower than normal latitudes. The China Airlines flight sounded just fine though, but said he was unable CPDLC. Eventually both sides of the communications became a bit clearer as it progressed.
5628 USB 0904Z: Pearl 18 flight in comms with Tokyo Radio – cleared direct ADGOR and PUTER – will have Mask 11 come up on freq. Mask 11 cleared direct PASRO in the block FL280.
6929 USB 0038Z: 1361BPA sounding in ALE.
8843 USB 0541Z: ATN 3394 wkg San Francisco with position estimate CEBEN at 0552, FL390 and estimate CIVIT at 0637. Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767-300 from Honolulu to Ontario.
US military units Charlie One Romeo and Charlie 37 with Iridium voice comms regarding “multiple gunshot wounds, 2 bilateral tourniquets, CASEVAC Wounded Eagle…” appears to be some type of training exercise but quite interesting.
Tags: iridium
4125 LSB 0134Z: Unid OM and YL with casual chit chat in Spanish language.
9502 USB 0340Z: J4A with EAM message LXY4OT.
10281 USB 0340Z: M6Z with EAM message LXY4OT.
11175 USB 0020Z: Abba 84 with one message of 4 items “VSA2” to Lord Ship.
11175 USB 0028Z: Skull 71 with one message of 4 items “O1Y6” to Lord Ship.
11175 USB 0046Z: Skull 72 with message relays of 6 groups LXB6HK, E4UURO and LXSJF2 to Skymaster.
11175 USB 0049Z: Abba 83 one message of 4 items “9W34” to Skymaster. Station sounded a bit off frequency.
11175 USB 0050Z: Fandango with EAM messages LXY4OT, LX55AZ and LXNK2C to all stations.
11282 USB 2059Z: Convoy 3837 wkg San Francisco Radio with position reporting DINTY at 2058, FL170, estimates DUETS at 2120 and DADIE next.
11539 USB 0248Z: M9Q with EAM message LX55AZ.
13895 USB 0313Z: I2T with EAM messages E4UURO, LX55AZ, LXNK2C, LXSJF2, LXY4OT and LX53R3.
16117 USB 0241Z: J4A with EAM message LXMMAZ.
Aircraft identifying as “Tail 10015” calling “Cactus” for radio checks on 262.125.
Tags: CONUS
I have logged more Spanish speaking stations over the past few days on UHF SATCOM. Just like the traffic on 258.650 from a couple weeks ago, I really don’t get the vibe that these are typical pirates. Today the stations were testing in both Spanish and English. Here are recordings of the recently logged traffic.
265.550: Stations w/ test counts, “hola hola hola holas” and asking “me copia?” – it sounds as if they were giving each other signal reports.
267.050: Person whispering into the radio. This was logged in the middle of the night. I cannot make out what they were saying except maybe “tienes tienes cuatro” (you have 4?) between the encoded traffic.
261.775: Test counts and radio checks in both Spanish and English.
11175 USB 0039Z: Red River clg any station for radio check.
11175 USB 0140Z: Aircraft 48 with radio check.
11282 USB 2335: Zoro 11 wkg San Francisco Radio with position report ALANN at 2333 at FL320.
11494 USB 1904Z: Golf Mike Lima calling TSC for radio check.
11282 USB 2114Z: Ghost 52 wkg San Francisco Radio reports CPDLC established and request selcal check on HRGP.
11282 USB 2132Z: Epic 77 requesting selcal check.