one of my favorite past times

   One of my favorite past times is listening to aeronautical mobiles,mainly on HF as in airplanes from say San Diego to Los Angeles and the same flight traveling across the big ocean to manila or singapore or even in europe. Its fun to hear what the pilots have to say like there height and location. Once in a while you can hear the not everyday transmissions like hijacking but that seldom. I did monitor one from Indonesia to Manila.
    
     It was a PAL flight out of Malaysia I believe and it was 811 which had been over run by a person who attempted to steal the valuables of every one on the flight including passports and jewels and money. Only problem he had a home made parachute in which was made of bed sheets. He jumped at 7,000 ft although the news papers said 6,000. He never made it alive and was found in mud in the middle of manila bay.

      When you listen to these bands you need a radio with SSB capabilities like a Sangean 505 or 909 and if possible one with a recorder or one you can attach to the radio to help eliminate interference from those chatting around you. The fun of listening is the art of catching rare locations as like in a airport that the aircraft is still on the ground say in Guam or Palau and your in Oakland or Singapore. Some usually come on line and mention to ATC there intentions like destinations and what the flight schedule is, you can track the flight to its location like when the aircraft changes frequencies. For example Singapore tower will give a Primary and a secondary frequency. Just before the flight passes from one part of the world. The flight controller will pass on to them to now contact say SFO.

     I heard one a few days ago when they mentioned to flight controllers they were allowed a 25 mile deviation due to weather, in this case the aircraft was asked 2 times and finally got the word it was granted by Oakland Center.

    Check out the website at bottom and start listening to the fun world of aircraft monitoring. Carry a notebook and jot down some of what you hear and if possible send a small copy of your logs to magazines like Popcomm and MT. They will appreciate it

http://www.g4nsj.co.uk/air.shtml