Message posted by Richard C on May 25, 2000 at 10:35:43 EST:

Mike,

Many of the base operations are not encrypted or scrambled but can be monitored easily.
VHF and UHF are only Line of Sight signals so if a mountain is in the way you will not hear anything.

Tower Freqs are generally low power and some towers have a very short range.
UHF range is upto 250 miles Line of Sight.
From Tikaboo its easy to pick up Base traffic such as tower and Operations however the actual Test Flight aircraft would use a KG-58 or similar Secure Voice system and maybe have a 'Have quick' system installed.
Have Quick skips channels likes theres no tomorrow thus not enabling the monitor to keep track.
It uses the whole of the UHF range so its near enough impossible to keep track of the channel hopping.

If you hear an aircraft or ground comms say 'go green' this is Secure. 'Go red' is in the clear.
Its strange red being clear and green not, but thats the way it goes.

HF comms is a different matter, this has a global range, however the test aircraft will use encryption again on HF when out in the Pacific.
They will also use secure voice SATCOM.

You can monitor SATCOM from Tikaboo no problem, a normal VHF/UHF Scanner does the trick but you need something like an X-dipole or similar.
My X-dipole works fine (sometimes!)
HF relies on Weather, Sun Spots, Aurora and other phenomina and so is effected. Sun spots can really decrease Range and so does Aurora. however you can increase range by bouncing the signal off Meteors....
Its all complicated stuff but its what they use out there in desert.
Some of the comms are of course Microwave, which is why you see the dishes on the Camera tripods etc and towers. these are Micro Dishes which all point to Bald Mnt.

Im not sure if the MH-60 uses secure voice, it may do, but may not, so its worth getting a Frequency Counter and when he approaches, Zap him with it and get his freqs.
the same goes with the Cammos....Zap them too.

Rich

In Reply to: Base / mobile radio strength at A51 posted by Mike on May 25, 2000 at 00:50:31 EST:

Replies:

• Re: Try this frequency list first ... radioman 5/25/2000, 19:20:39 EST (0)
• Re: Here's a Frequency List ... radioman 5/25/2000, 19:10:12 EST (4)
  • Re: Here's a Frequency List ... Keith 5/27/2000, 10:43:23 EST (3)
    • Re: Here's a Frequency List ... Gary Sellani 6/28/2000, 01:10:09 EST (2)
      • Re: Here's a Frequency List ... Keith 7/01/2000, 17:39:07 EST (1)
        • Re: Here's a Frequency List ... Gary Sellani 7/05/2000, 18:21:08 EST (0)