WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hearing water bomber (callsign - Air Attack 2) in Dwellingup chatting to CALM Wanneroo on FESA ch23 78.325Mhz today.

Is this the usual water bomber channel? Is 77.200Mhz still used?

Hi

I understand this is new call sign for Air reccy is Air Attack 1 or 2 and Water bombers are still hellitack 668 or BOMBER 1=fixedwing.

Regards Glen

Ps: FIREBIRD ## is smoke spoters planes

I've heard them talking on ch 23 last fire season.So it's not uncommon to hear them on this channel.

Chan 23 is a CALM repeater which is used almost exclusively primarily for air operations. You may also find Chan 16 is sometimes used for incidents further to the north or when more than 1 incident with bombers is running at a time.

Air Attack and Air Recce are completely different. Air Attack 1 is a chopper, Air Attack 2 is a fixed wing aircraft. Air Recce 1 is operated by FESA, the other 2 are operated and staffed by CALM. Air Attack aircraft are used to co-ordinate the aerial assault of a fire, whereas Air Recce 1 is used to gather intelligence and do mapping only (has a FLIR camera onboard).

Fixed wing bombers are Bomber 60X.. Helitac's are 668, 669, 670 and 671 (when they begin).

The spotter aircraft you will seldom hear on channel 23 - they use the local CALM office frequencies. They use callsigns such as "Hills Spotter", "Wellington Spotter".

77.200Mhz (Chan 50) is only used for Simplex communication for Air Recce on a fireground. It's never been used for bombing operations.