Bruntingthorpe - A Unique Experience

Bruntingthorpe airfield is quite local to myself being an ex USAF base (closed in the 50's). It is home to quite a few ex cold war jets, many maintained in flying condition, although many are not allowed to be flown anymore. About once or twice a year they hold an open day where you can go along and watch aircraft such as the two lightnings and also the likes of a Victor tanker, Buccanneer, Comet and many more carry out full power taxy runs down the 2 mile runway.(the most notable resident aircraft being Vulcan XH558 which is due to return to the air in 2006). It's a unique experience as you can stand right by the runway, much closer than at a conventional airshow. I believe the next open day is going to be August bank holiday Sunday. For more info check out: www.ColdWarJets.co.uk

Very often other aircraft will visit on these open days and there is also sporadic weekend flying activity. Seems a shame it doesn't see much flying activity these days with such a huge runway. The owner, a dedicated enthusiast has put forward plans for a freight airport in the past but to no avail.
By the way, their air/ground frequency is: 122.825.

Air To Air Frequencies

I don't want to go into a list of military air to air frequencies right now as there are hundreds of them. These are generally allocated to individual squadrons, however its always worth checking the following VHF frequencies that are frequently used for civil air to air and they are: 118.0, 122.65 & 123.45. I have heard all of these in use in the last week or so.

Atmospherics & The Civil Airband

Whilst I definitely don't claim to be a radio expert, I do know from experience that atmospheric conditions can drastically increase reception from time to time. These atmospheric effects are most prominent on the short wave bands but can effect the civil VHF airband also. I understand there is some relation to sunspot activity which apparently runs in seven year cycles. Anyway enough of that, if your still reading, thanks for bearing with me! As far as I'm aware the UHF military band never experiences this but I have experienced it on the civil VHF band. The last occasion was probably over a year ago for me. At the time I was able to clearly here the controllers at: Gatwick (126.825) , Brize Norton (various) and Mildenhall tower on 122.55. Pretty amazing from my location in Leicester! I wonder if any of you readers have experienced this also?

Signal R535

I have been asked how much I payed for my Signal R535. I bought it for £200 on Ebay. Maybe it's more than it's worth, I'm not sure, but it is a great performer although a little dated and long-winded in it's operation (having to move the cursor along and then use the up and down arrows to tune the desired frequency) but I still like this radio. On my own testing it just has the edge on the trusty Yupiteru MVT7100, but there's very little in it.

Stoke Golding Airfield

I'll be visiting Stoke Golding airfield (near Hinckley - Leicestershire) which is not far from myself this weekend. They are having a fly-in this Saturday & Sunday 23rd & 24th July. It is not announced to the public for insurance reasons but visitors are welcome. Its a great little airstrip with a single east - west grass runway. There are several interesting types based here (Yaks etc.) and the fly-in will no doubt attract some interesting aircraft also. You can park right next to the edge of the strip which is great although on-airfield parking is very limited. The air/ground frequency allocated to Stoke Golding is 127.925Mhz. If you would like to make an announcement about any less well known fly-ins, then hit the comments button at the bottom of this post.

P.S. Take a look at Stoke Goldings own web site at http://www.StokeGoldingAirfield.co.uk

Emergency Call

I was listening to Swanwick control at 6.35am yesterday on 132.840 when Easyjet 3869 (Stansted To Alicante) made a 'PAN PAN PAN' call declaring a medical emergency and requesting a diversion to Gatwick. It was then passed to Dover sector on 134.9 and then Timba arrivals on 120.175. The aircraft was descending rapidly and I lost radio contact with it whilst working this sector. Has anybody else heard an emergency call you would like to share with other readers of the site?

East Midlands Airport (EGNX)

There have been some fairly drastic airspace changes to East Mids, my nearest airport recently. There are several new 'reporting points' in the vicinity including most notably, ROKUP to the North and PIGOT to the south. Both RP's have holding procedures if needed. Personally I don't think East Mids has enough traffic to warrant holding stacks but I imagine the procedures have been put in place to cover the traffic increases for years to come.

East Mids Frequencies:

Ground: 121.9
ATIS: 128.225
Tower: 124.00
Radar: 120.125 (not used much)
Approach: 134.175

Commercial Dep's to the North are transferred to Manchester Trent sector on: 133.4 / 134.425 / 133.8 (depending on which sectors are 'bandboxed' together.)

South dep's are transferred straight to London Terminal Control Welin sector now on 130.925.

Duxford

Dave has posted a comment regarding Duxford frequencies (flying legends show coming up). All I have listed is the AFIS (aerodrome flight information service) frequency of: 122.075. Anybody know of anymore frequencies?

Back From Waddington

Attended the Waddington Air Show on Saturday. The Icom IC-R2 proved ideal as I could 'pocket' the radio and when used with a good earphone, I could hear everything perfectly well. The frequencies in use were as follows:

VHF air show tower: 132.9
VHF ground: 122.1

Military traffic tended to use the normal ground (342.125) and tower (370.125) frequencies at Waddington.

There was some traffic on 134.55 although I didn't monitor it much it seemed to be used as an 'ops' frequency.

Its always worth entering all six 'common' air show frequencies which I have listed in an earlier post into memory channels and scanning when at an air show.

Signal R535 Has Arrived!

Well, my R535 Airband Scanner arrived yesterday. I bought it on Ebay and it's in very good condition & working order (thanks to Iain). I remember having one of these in the late '80s early '90s and it was a great receiver but my early version only tuned up to 379.975 on the military UHF band, this is one of the later models which actually tunes up to 399.975. I'd almost forgotten how good these radios are. This completes my new set up now, with the Icom IC-R2 as my mobile 'on site' receiver and the R535 set up on the bedside table (wife wont get a look in now!). Im camping about 12 miles from Waddington this coming Friday & Saturday and will be attending the show with the family on Saturday so the Icom will get a good 'field test' whilst there.