WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Trying to pick up military aviation comms in amongst civil air traffic control can be really frustrating: to start with, there's a lot less aircraft flying around. Their communications with Pearce Approach and Pearce Tower are typically less 'verbose' than the civil aviation comms and to top it off,...

Interesting. I note a couple of things: these frequencies fall in the 'simplex' UHF band allocation. If you look at the licencees of these frequencies in other states (I couldn't see any in WA listed on ACMA) they're mostly 5-watt simplex (in other words, most likely handhelds). Also the document po...

Cathay Pacific are one of the few international carriers that don't use 131.9 as a 'company' channel in Perth - they use 131.8.

Further to that, the 'numbers' (123.45mhz) is widely used as an air-to-air frequency, not just on Skyshow night but all the time. Keep an ear on it if you're an airband listener: you'll often hear pilots chatting between themselves quite informally.

Having the aircraft communicate between themselves is a major part of operating the airspace on Skyshow night. In past years, Airservices Australia have basically handed the area over Perth Water over to the Royal Aero Club with the expectation the Aero Club control and monitor the air movements in ...

I wouldn't be surpised if it's CD507, Major Incident Group or MIG. Back in the days before the dual letter, three-number callsign allocations, the MIG was known as Division 79 (the unit was established in 1979) with a mobilised, 'crime responsive' role. They were often first on scene for major crime...

Stay safe everyone - looking forward to an interesting 2006.

But when you think about, both of these scenarios prompts one to ask 'what's a US sub doing contacting VKI anyway?!'

Intriguing!

The quote "I heard the direct order by Swan Towing Radio Supervisor, that the tow trucks responding to the accident scene were given the green light by Police to attend the scene ASAP. The tow truck company advised the drivers to have their Orange Lights on, and get there as quick as they could...

Absolutely he does! he's a serving police officer, he has a regimental number. If you were to meet him, and he was in uniform, his number would be clearly visible the same as any other officer.

I'm thinking that a US sub would be likely to have a radio that can 'dial up' 468.975 (or whatever frequency) manually - it's unlikely though to be a radio with the 64 police channels pre-programmed. They would, however, have a VHF marine set on board with the international marine channels programme...

I'd be interested to know then if he uses AA100 when he goes out on patrol on a motorbike as he does on the odd occasion.

New South Wales have a Channel 65: it's a simplex channel just above the 64 channel allocation intended for short range car-to-car comms.

Being mindful that it was a US sub, they may have been referring to VHF Marine channel 65 (which does exist).

Port of Fremantle control on marine channel 12 (156.600) is where you'll hear ships coming in and out of the harbour. The tugs use channel 6 (156.300) while they're operating. If you're interested in the marine side of things, I strongly recommend the marine radio handbook that can be downloaded at ...

I've not known in my experience (which I won't go into here) a TV network (or any media organisation) to be 'pinged' for using scanners or legal opinion toi be sought concerning their use. The police are well aware that a scanner is a widely-used tool in news gathering. Many newsroom chiefs of staff...