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Sorry for the newbie question: are the Blue Angels maintainence freqs (~ 138 mhz) AM or FM? How about Unicom frequencies for commericial travel.

Actually that's a very good question - I'm pretty sure all the aviation freqs are AM - I know the general / commercial aviation stuff definitely is, and I'm assuming the Military stuff would be too. If I'm wrong somebody correct me.

There are loads of BA freq's around. Over the years I have only heard them on UHF AM and with the con cart in the pits on VHF FM where they get the wx and notice that they own the air space.

As I understand it UHf/VHF air comms are all AM because FM will capture a strong signal over a weak one while in AM it is very easy to hear that two units were transmiting over one another. That said, you will see a FM listing once and a while, espically 138-144. Given two guys that know their radios and how to (re) program them don't be surprised where you hear pilots.

Wow! I guess the team needed some flight time: they did a pretty long show this afternoon (Thursday), after a morning fly around. (Main frequency: 284.250. Were there any other frequencies the planes were using? I heard 275.350 too.


Favorite quote from this morning (as they flew over Mercer Island)

Pilot 1: Nice houses down there.
Pilot 2: Yeh, Microsoft money?
Pilot 1: Yup!
Pilot 2: Hey, doesn't Bill Gates live down there on Mercer Island?
Pilot 1: Yes, I think he lives on that golf course over there.

Well, they knew the island's name, but not exactly where Mr. Gates lives!

As someone noted, the morning fly around was a bit more of a chat. Interesting to hear how they choose landmarks to orient the show... even down to specifying a certain “house with white shutters and a red chimneyâ€

Wow, great job! I had my scanner here at work and didn't get great reception but caught pretty much the same you did. I agree main freqs were 284.25 and 275.35. I know, the more pooooooooower and puuuuuuull calls sound very strange over the scanner. Only thing I can guess is perhaps they carry on the vowel as the power is being added - i.e. when they stop adding power, they end the word. Just a guess.

The other reference I was trying to figure out was 'Crowd left' and 'Crowd right'. Which way exactly are they referring?

Anyways, interesting to hear!

In the theater world, they use the expressions "stage right" and "stage left" to refer to the right and left when standing on the stage (as opposed to the crowd's)

Since the "stage" for these shows is always moving, it makes sense to refer to things as "crowd left" (that would be South in this case) and "crowd right."

You heard the "Com cart" too, Andrec? That's the woman.

Well that's kind of what I figured I guess I just didn't think about what direction you would consider the "crowd" to be. I mean, when you're out there on a boat - which direction is Seafair? It's all around you man - 360 degrees! But I guess looking towards shore (i.e. WEST) would be the main direction of the crowd. So crowd left is South, and crowd right is North. Wouldn't it just be easier to say North or South?

No, I missed the com cart! I'll look for it on Saturday & Sunday when I'm actually out there (I gotta work today and tomorrow...)

--Andre..

Actually, I figured that the crowd was the folks on the shore, just the opposite of you! :-) My reasoning is that most frequently their crowd not on water. Of course, you hydro-chauvinist that you boomers are, got it backwards! :lol:

There wasn't much on the com cart transitions. She did mention "launching" Bert as soon as the BA had landed. I guess that's Big Bertha. I didn't hang outside to see if it flew by or what.

Other freqs you might key up include Show Control 118.975 and aerobatic performance 124.875. Apparently the Red Barron team and the Oracle team narrate their performances!

After the weekend I'll have to see what else this rig will do. And, yes, having the scanner software programmable is fantastic!!!

237.80, 255.20, 275.35, 284.25 and 305.50 mhz all reported active by the Blue Angels at this time.

Oh, it will do plenty. For starters, go to an empty bank in the scanner, program in 868.175, press mode until it's in Motorola mode, then hit scan.
Your scanner won't stop giving you conversations. If you want to know what all those numbers are on the bottom of the screen for each conversation, see here: http://interceptradio.com/s.php?sfreq=3 ... l=3D1C&z=1

That will keep you busy. Welcome back to scanning!

This is what I had
237.800
305.500
275.350
255.200
284.250
Dave

_________________
born to be wild

We got the same numbers, Dave.

Andrec: I'm going to have to read up a bit on how to set up the Pro-97 (with Win97) for Motorola trunking in order to use the freq you gave me.

Currently, I just get a loud "carrier" and occasionally a talk number shows up on the bottom, but no conversation. However, looking at the list you linked to, it appears that I'm about to try drinking from a firehose!

Yeah, you got it right.. Just hit SCAN (you're probably in manual mode when you're listening to the control channel, as it's called..) That's the Seattle sub system for the King County Regional 800 mhz Trunked Radio System (long name huh).

When you hit scan - make sure the scanner is set to scan the bank you've set the control channel freq in. (number should be visible on the screen when scanning). It's easy - you'll get it! The hard part is programming in the talk groups you want with Alpha tags, but that comes with time.

Dave, I'm surprised you didn't get 284.25? I have to agree with Tom, that seemed to be a primary freq to me as well. Maybe it would help if we could all start trying to figure out what these freqs are actually used for? 275.35 seemed to me to be the "interplane" freq? Was used alot earlier on in the day. Then, later in the day I did hear 237.8 used pretty much in the same capacity. I didn't hear 305.5 or 255.2 very much. I have seen 305.5 listed as the Fat Albert freq - did anybody get that sense today?

Maybe by the end of the weekend we can figure that all out.

-Andre...

305.5 was the solos

284.25 / 275.35 / 237.8 was diamond and delta stuff. I never have gotten a sense for why they change mid-maneuver but they usually have two frequencies going during any given show. I didn't make a note about 255.2 although I saw it come up a few times.

The leader (or lead solo) will draw out his instructions for a couple of reasons. One is that it keeps the transmitter on continuously, so you don't have to wait every time it keys up for the other airplanes' receivers to unsquelch - otherwise you clip the first syllable.

The other is that the crews need to be able to anticipate the leader's actions. They practice together (a lot!) and everyone gets the cadence down. The leader's inflection tells them how fast or slow he's about to do something - much better than the wingmen having to react after the lead airplane pulls away from the formation. Sort of like following somebody on the highway... with or without brake lights.

Flash