One of the things about DXing far distant stations I like is listening to
Honolulu aeradio.
Honolulu is 11,500 miles from this QTH and is so far away that if you keep
going you start coming back again.
As a result, sunrise/sunset coincide and you get a double whammy grayline
boost to the radio signal, the path of which lies over the disturbed Auroral
belt and the Antarctic.

In our winter you can hear Honolulu and the aircraft on 6532 Mhz USB and it
always gives me a thrill to hear this very long-distance communication at
our sunset, that is from about 1500 Zulu onwards..

Now for the uninitiated, you will hear the callsign "San Francisco", as for
some years the Oakland ATC centre with callsign "San Francisco" works the
Honolulu transmitters via satellite links. The pilots on one of their chat
groups told me all this info. Apparently a/c West of 140 degrees West will
be working the Honolulu TX's, even though the call sign is still "San
Francisco". So if you listen to these frequencies, take a careful note of
the a/c's position report and the pilot will give the latitude and
longitude - if its West of 140 degrees, then you know they are working the
Honolulu TX's.

I know the ground transmitters are 10 Kw, but I never found out what power
output a big jet like the 747-400 puts out? Anyone know?
The a/c are always more difficult to copy than the more powerful ATC ground
TX's.
Tokyo and Narita can also be heard on this frequency.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

Hi John,

Yes, I know exactly what you mean about the "thrill" of receiving a
distant station. I used to do a lot of DXing of the areo bands. I
remember the first time that I heard Vietnam on 8.942 MHz! Some of the
South American countries as well, were great catches.

Alain...San Diego

8942 is also a great frequency. One evening I was sitting with a fellow DXer
in his garden overlooking the "Valley of a Thousand Hills", and handed him
my Sony 2010 portable and tuned to 8942. Hong Kong and Manila, some 7,000
miles away came in as clear as a bell working various a/c whilst we were
quaffing lager during sundowner time (happy hour). Very thrilling!!

I have a lovely tape recording of a SAA flight all the way from Taiwan to
Johannesburg"s Jan Smuts airport working those frequencies, with touch down
on VHF.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...

Hi John,

Yes, I know exactly what you mean about the "thrill" of receiving a
distant station. I used to do a lot of DXing of the areo bands. I
remember the first time that I heard Vietnam on 8.942 MHz! Some of the
South American countries as well, were great catches.

Alain...San Diego

John,

One of my most thrilling DX catches was one that lasted through most of
the night and into the early morning hours...

I had just come home from work and as I normally do, I turned on the R
71-A; as I was turning the dial in the 5 meg band I caught a Boeing 747
[heavy] departing Washington State {USA} discussing his flight plan to
someone over the air. As it turned out, this pilot was on a test flight
heading towards Rio! I followed him until I just could not keep my eyes
open. It was a fun voyage for me, that's for sure!

The longest DX I ever caught was a U.P.S. flight leaving Stockholm,
Sweden, heading home to the U.S.A. That too was a lot of fun to monitor.

Both were accomplished with a 100' long copper wire antenna wrapped
around the ceiling of my apartment, until I ran our of wire!

How about you, what's your best catch?

Alain...San Diego

John Plimmer wrote:
8942 is also a great frequency. One evening I was sitting with a fellow DXer
in his garden overlooking the "Valley of a Thousand Hills", and handed him
my Sony 2010 portable and tuned to 8942. Hong Kong and Manila, some 7,000
miles away came in as clear as a bell working various a/c whilst we were
quaffing lager during sundowner time (happy hour). Very thrilling!!

I have a lovely tape recording of a SAA flight all the way from Taiwan to
Johannesburg"s Jan Smuts airport working those frequencies, with touch down
on VHF.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...

Hi John,

Yes, I know exactly what you mean about the "thrill" of receiving a
distant station. I used to do a lot of DXing of the areo bands. I
remember the first time that I heard Vietnam on 8.942 MHz! Some of the
South American countries as well, were great catches.

Alain...San Diego




--
MZ�

"John Plimmer" wrote in message
...
Snippety-doo-da...

I know the ground transmitters are 10 Kw, but I never found out what power
output a big jet like the 747-400 puts out? Anyone know?

A 747 might be equipped, for example, with Collins HF-220 transceiver, with
a Collins PWR-200 amp. This puts out 100 Watts PEP with an average of 25
watts RF output (for SSB) according the unit spec.

Mark.

I am quite amazed at the very low power - sometimes they come in so well
over 10,000 miles away that I thought they were up in the 1000 watt range

--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"Mark" wrote in message
news:1096418579.904173@ftpsrv1...

"John Plimmer" wrote in message
...
Snippety-doo-da...

I know the ground transmitters are 10 Kw, but I never found out what
power
output a big jet like the 747-400 puts out? Anyone know?

A 747 might be equipped, for example, with Collins HF-220 transceiver,
with
a Collins PWR-200 amp. This puts out 100 Watts PEP with an average of 25
watts RF output (for SSB) according the unit spec.

Mark.

Hi Alain...San Diego
That's some nice catches = well done, especially considering you only had an
inside apartment antenna. Just shows what a determined DXer can do with
limited resources.

How about you, what's your best catch?

Had to give that some thought.........
A VHF catch, but still a big thrill - getting your U.S. president on "Air
force one" working Joburg ATC on VHF. U.S. Presidents have only been to
South Africa twice in history....

Listening to Cambridge Bay aeradio on 4675 Khz (9000 miles away) wkg various
a/c. This is a technically very difficult catch requiring extremely good
propagation conditions and has to be DXed on the grayline, as they are way
up in the Arctic circle at 70 North. Took me a year and several letters, but
I eventually got a QSL from them.

Listening to the Dakota command a/c working the rescue helicopters (on 8 Mhz
HF) removing all the crew and passengers safely from the "Oceanos" cruise
ship that was sinking in a gale off the South African Indian Ocean coast.
All 600 souls were saved and it goes down in history as one of the greatest
maritime rescues of all time. The final message "All souls removed safely"
was greeted with euphoria..!!

Listening to a Herkie Bird "rescue 555" doing a search for a lost
merchantman in the Indian Ocean (also on 8 Mhz) who were being controlled by
Mauritius ATC. At the end of the search pattern, the pilot was heading for
the French airbase on Reunion, and Mauritus ATC said the French wanted to
know how he was going to pay for his refuelling. By "Shell" carnet replied
the pilot. Later, ATC came back and said the French would only accept a
"Total" carnet, to which the pilot replied that he did not have one.

How was he going to pay for the fuel then, asked Mauritius? "CASH" replied
the pilot laconically. This stunned the ATC controller as it did me, as the
thought of this pilot carrying around a huge bag of cash to pay for the fuel
was quite funny.

Keep DXing there Alain, its a great hobby and you can always expect the
unexpected, that's why I'm still at it after 38 years.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...
John,

One of my most thrilling DX catches was one that lasted through most of
the night and into the early morning hours...

I had just come home from work and as I normally do, I turned on the R
71-A; as I was turning the dial in the 5 meg band I caught a Boeing 747
[heavy] departing Washington State {USA} discussing his flight plan to
someone over the air. As it turned out, this pilot was on a test flight
heading towards Rio! I followed him until I just could not keep my eyes
open. It was a fun voyage for me, that's for sure!

The longest DX I ever caught was a U.P.S. flight leaving Stockholm,
Sweden, heading home to the U.S.A. That too was a lot of fun to monitor.

Both were accomplished with a 100' long copper wire antenna wrapped
around the ceiling of my apartment, until I ran our of wire!

How about you, what's your best catch?

Alain...San Diego

John Plimmer wrote:
8942 is also a great frequency. One evening I was sitting with a fellow
DXer
in his garden overlooking the "Valley of a Thousand Hills", and handed
him
my Sony 2010 portable and tuned to 8942. Hong Kong and Manila, some
7,000
miles away came in as clear as a bell working various a/c whilst we were
quaffing lager during sundowner time (happy hour). Very thrilling!!

I have a lovely tape recording of a SAA flight all the way from Taiwan
to
Johannesburg"s Jan Smuts airport working those frequencies, with touch
down
on VHF.
--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...

Hi John,

Yes, I know exactly what you mean about the "thrill" of receiving a
distant station. I used to do a lot of DXing of the areo bands. I
remember the first time that I heard Vietnam on 8.942 MHz! Some of the
South American countries as well, were great catches.

Alain...San Diego




--
MZ�

Yes, seems a bit incredible that the aircraft may only be putting out 25
watts or so. Then again, I work Australia with 12 watts SSB regularly. And
I've reached the US with the same power.

Mark.

"John Plimmer" wrote in message
...
I am quite amazed at the very low power - sometimes they come in so well
over 10,000 miles away that I thought they were up in the 1000 watt range

--
John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa
South 33 d 47 m 540 s, East 20 d 07 m 541 s.
RX Drake R8B, SW8
BW XCR 30, Braun T1000, Sangean 818 & 803A.
Hallicrafters SX-100, Eddystone 940
GE circa 50's radiogram
Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro, Datong AD-270
Kiwa MW Loop

"Mark" wrote in message
news:1096418579.904173@ftpsrv1...

"John Plimmer" wrote in message
...
Snippety-doo-da...

I know the ground transmitters are 10 Kw, but I never found out what
power
output a big jet like the 747-400 puts out? Anyone know?

A 747 might be equipped, for example, with Collins HF-220 transceiver,
with
a Collins PWR-200 amp. This puts out 100 Watts PEP with an average of 25
watts RF output (for SSB) according the unit spec.

Mark.

Hey John Plimmer-n-crew, if you want to listen to Honolulu directly, try 8.825
mhz & 8.828 mhz. One frequency is Pacific aviation weather; the other is
air-to-ground communications! Best of dx to all!!!