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Author Topic: JetBlue 1304 Reporting Smoke in the Cockpit to New York Radio 6640 USB 0220 UTC  (Read 1235 times)

Offline jasmine

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Just happened upon this transmission, they asked New York for a phone patch (couldnt make out who to) and reported they had smoke in the cockpit. they had turned around near grand turks and were headed back to San Juan.
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Offline Josh

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Nice catch. Only interesting thing I caught on an ldoc was some passenger went nuts so crew and non nuts passengers held him down for the flight.
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Offline jasmine

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Nice catch. Only interesting thing I caught on an ldoc was some passenger went nuts so crew and non nuts passengers held him down for the flight.

i'm kinda new at this. i only became an SWLer this past summer. i assume from your reply this stuff is rare? if so i was extremely lucky to catch it on my RSP1a SDR and MLA-30 magnetic loop antenna up here in Seattle. i know propagation conditions aren't the best right now but when they are at their peak is this stuff more typical?
« Last Edit: September 17, 2019, 1945 UTC by jasmine »
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Offline KaySeeks

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i'm kinda new at this. i only became an SWLer this past summer. i assume from your reply this stuff is rare?

Yes, but the "stuff" he is referring to is actually hearing an emergency taking place while you are listening.


if so i was extremely lucky to catch it on my RSP1a SDR and MLA-30 magnetic loop antenna up here in Seattle. i know propagation conditions aren't the best right now but when they are at their peak is this stuff more typical?

Well, being able to hear the conversation is important but I don't think that this is what Josh was referring to. (See above.)

You are listening to one of the many transoceanic HF communication frequencies set aside for commercial aircraft. Each flight path zone has several frequencies allocated to it. (You probably already figured that out though.)

https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/MWARA

They do this so that at least one frequency of the many they are allocated will likely work well enough between aircraft scattered about and the land stations. They spend enough money on equipment, antennas and propagation forecasting to be sure that they can maintain contact. So it's not surprising that you can hear the conversations but it's much more unlikely that you hear an ongoing emergency in progress.

I hope that makes sense.
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Offline KaySeeks

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And yeah, it is a good catch. It's rare to be listening and hear one emergency but it appears that you've heard two in 24 hours. That's a big deal.
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Offline jasmine

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And yeah, it is a good catch. It's rare to be listening and hear one emergency but it appears that you've heard two in 24 hours. That's a big deal.

thanks, i'm amazed i can do this! and yes, i found this handy map for aeronautical frequencies (MWARA, LDOC, RDARA and others). it's from 2002 but i assume such frequencies don't change very often.
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Offline KaySeeks

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No, not too much. I know of a few changes but the allocation is in "chunks" (frequencies used are all within ~150 KHz of each other) so easy enough to find.
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