More aero mobile

I've worked almost 1,000 stations so far in the couple of months I've been active aeronautical mobile, so I thought it only fair to add some information about the aircraft and the equipment.

The aircraft is a Boeing B757-200 with an Allied Signal / Rhode & Schwarz 400W transceiver installed. There are a number of items in the system including an audio selector panel for radio selection, PTT, and volume control, then the radio control panel which has frequency selection, mode control (AM/SSB), then transceiver, antenna coupler and finally antenna. The antenna is one section of the vertical stabiliser leading edge and like all components of the aircraft it is DC grounded.

Below is a picture of the radio control panel:

Below is a photo of the transceiver:

And finally an image from the maintenance manual depicting the antenna:

Regards

Stephen G7DIE

Aeronautical Mobile

Part of my work involves being posted overseas during the WInter on work detachments, and as part of my current detachment I have to fly from Gran Canaria to either Sweden or Finland every fourth day. Aeronautical mobile is currently forbidden in the UK, along with Italy, however the rest of EU allows /AM. If I apply CEPT temporary recommendation TR61-01 whilst operating from a foreign country I am bound by the rules and limitations of that particular country. Each country retains sovereignty for it's own airspace and therefore that countries rules apply, so as long as I'm not in UK airspace, and follow TR61-01 recommendations, I can operate aeronautical mobile in the airspace of a country that allows such.

Still with me? good.

So yesterday I had to fly to Oulou in Finland, some 6hrs 10min flight time, the captain had no problem with me operating /AM so I decided to put out a call. During the outbound and inbound sector I operated on 15, 17, and 20m and made 167 contacts with the following country prefixes:

VK, ZL, JA, YB, CT, DL, F, EA, SP, PA, OE, OK, OH, OM, SM, LA, 9A, I, SV, D, GI, GM, GW, ZD8, V21, J69, V44, 8P6, W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, W8, W9, VE1, VE2, VE3, VE5, RA, UY, YO, YL.

I'll be flying again on Friday morning, please listen out for operating /AM

Stephen G7DIE