Vulcan XH558 Flies Again!

Vulcan XH558 was airborne again just after midday from Bruntingthorpe (about 10 miles from me). I didn't see or hear her but my brother caught site of it in the Bruntingthorpe area. I cannot wait to see this great delta in the skies again. Did any of you readers see her? please let us know, thanks. Mark.

C-17 Aircraft Spotted!

Its a beautiful, almost completely clear morning (thursday 4th October) I am up and about at 7am watching southbound departures climbing out of East Midlands to the west of me (working WELIN on 130.925 then handed off to COWLY on 133.075) and I spot a military crosser just south of Leicester heading East on this occasion. A quick look with the binoculars confirms the unmistakable shape of a C-17 (possibly heading for Amsterdam??).
I immediately tune the scanner to CENTRAL SECTOR MILITARY on 252.875.
Surely enough after a few minutes he is given a new squawk ready for handoff to Eastern military, he is routing to 'NAVPI' - a reporting point some 57nm east of Norwich at the edge of UK airspace. After a few minutes he is handed to eastern military 277.775. I have seen these overflights just south of Leicester on a number of occasions, anybody with any further info on their departure and destination points please do let us know more about these overflights. Thanks all, Mark.

Interesting Aircraft Sighting!

Yesterday I spotted an Antonov AN2 biplane in formation with a Yak trainer overflying Leicester on a westerly heading. Anybody else see this formation on the 4th September and have any info on destination and departure points? I couldn't pick them up on the scanner but then they were in 'no mans land' in terms of airspace.

Newquay Airport St Mawgan

Neil has asked the following question:

'Hi, I've recently rediscovered my Yupiteru VT25II scanner and thought about taking it on holiday with me. We'll be very close to Newquay Airport (St Mawgan).Is there anywhere online that can tell me what the local frequencies are? I've tried to find something but don't appear to be googling with the right words.'

Neil - the only frequency I can find on the UK Aeronautical Info Service website is 128.425Mhz for approach control. Anybody else able to shed further light here?

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Uniden UBC3500XLT Question....

Ken has sent the following question in:

'I have just bought a Uniden 3500XLT with serial lead and software. The problem is in connecting to the PC - I don't have a serial port on my PC, so, on advice from Nevada, I went to Maplin and bought a USB Serial converter and installed it. However on installing the ARC3500 software and connecting the scanner nothing I do helps the PC recognize that the scanner is attached. Would you have any ideas or could you point me to a source for help.

The other think I am trying to get my head around is programming the scanner but I guess that will come in time though I have seen it written that it is easier to do from the PC which is why I wanted to get that going.

Any help very much appreciated.

Thanks

-ken'


I'm afraid I have no experience in connecting my UBC3500XLT to the computer so can any other readers help?

Off To Corfu On Monday!!

I'm flying to the sun for a much needed two-week break on Monday so I won't be posting for a while. Please feel free to continue to comment and on my return I will add your post to the main column here. Thanks all, Mark.

A Question From 'ErnieB' On The Uniden UBC3500XLT

ErnieB has posted the following:

Hi Mark
I have just got myself a Uniden 3500XLT and I like very much the close call but find it very hard to come to grips with inputting Freqs on my old radio. I just put in 124.0 and saved it then then all the rest for EMA and saved it to band 1 then the same for BHX into band 2 and so on. but I don't seem to be able to this with the new radio any help PleaseErnieB

Hi ErnieB - the UBC3500XLT is the best scanner I have come across in years, but it does work in a completely different way to most scanners you will be familiar with. Please send me an email to : mg170466@hotmail.co.uk from an address I can reply to, and I will be happy to get in touch by phone if necessary and 'talk you' through it.

Cheers, Mark


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New Info On The Kinetic SBS-1

Thanks to Matt Harvey for the following information:

'Hi, just to mention that Kinetic have reduced the price of the SBS-1 from £500 to £380 now. This should help a lot of new users to buy into this great piece of kit. Agree with your comments about Airnav...Matt

Comment From Dave Key (MilitaryAirshows.co.uk)

'There is not much in the way of foreign display aircraft again at Waddington but then again we will get to see the Indian AF Su-30s & IL-78 even if its only a flypast as well as on the ground. Also the Sentinel, E-3D Sentry, and Nimrod recon. aircraft in formation, also the first display of the new Sentinel with a flypast with the Red Arrows and of course the new RAF Role Demo. What frequencies do you expect to be used at Waddington Airshow?'

Thanks Dave -btw I like the glider pic on your site, http://www.militaryairshows.co.uk/ I was an active PPL with the Leicester Aero Club for many years.

Getting back on subject, I'm not certain about show frequencies for this year, but here's a list of Waddington published frequencies and also the 'general' frequencies that are allocated for airshows only:

Waddington:
Approach: 250.85
DATIS: 291.675
Ground: 342.125
Radar (standby) 125.35
Radar (zone) 127.35 / 259.525
Departures: 308.625
Director: 378.5
Tower: 256.675

Airshow Allocations:
130.5
130.625
130.675
132.9
134.55
135.475

It's also worth including the NATO common frequencies on your scanner at an airshow too:

Tower: 122.1 / 257.8
Radar: 123.3 / 344.0 / 362.3 / 385.4

Hope this is useful!

Mark.

Kinetic SBS-1

David has posted the following comment regarding the SBS-1:

'Re the SBS-1, just a small anecdote. I was looking at the demo on in M Lynch & Sons' place in Chertsey a while back and noticed it was even picking up aircraft taxi-ing at LHR. As I'd just come back from Moscow, I watched BA872 until it obviously took off and headed East.'
David. Egham.

Thanks for that David - that's one piece of equipment I am drooling over! Just haven't worked out the sales pitch to my wife yet as to how it will be £500 well spent!!

Interestingly there is a a new web-based product similar to the SBS-1. It's called the Airnav RadarBox - it appears to be about £100 cheaper and comes with 1 years free access but after that, you have to pay £120 a year to access the system via the web! over a few years that would work out considerably more expensive than just buying the SBS-1.

Btw I am considering attending Waddington airshow again this year but unfortunately it looks a rather 'weak' line up again, very little foreign air force participation. For a two day event, Waddington is becoming bit of a let-down, what do you think?

cheers for now, Mark.