Are the hf marine/air bands dead ?

gunny123

I was very interested in swl'ing and general listening to hf bands about 20 years ago. Never had much in the way of high end equipment, but always had an old realistic dx394 in the shed.

For fun i got it out recently, and with a fairly crumby makeshift antenna had a listen to the amateur bands (20m), a bit of traffic there, but listening in to the marine and air hf bands, could hear little.

Have marine and air been modernised so much that there is no more traffic on these bands ? I presume satellite and digital have taken over ?

I would like to know, as if there is still something to listen to i will go through the bother of putting up a decent antenna, and maybe getting a better hf receiver.

dxhound2005

Before you decide whether to upgrade, you could take a listen to some online receivers. Thanks to Mad Lad in Co Carlow there is one in Ireland, see the thread on this page. Shannon Volmet is easy to receive on 5505 kHz. 5649 is a busy frequency for Shanwick ATC. You will hear Santa Maria (Azores), Gander (Newfoundland) and New York ATC on various frequencies depending on propagation. Further afield ATC from Africa is possible. Try 5517 and 11300. All are Upper Side Band.

http://www.canairradio.com/hf.html

Voice traffic on Marine HF is mostly gone. All the big coastal stations like Scheveningen and Portishead which you would have heard in the past are closed. There are lots of data signals, including some CW. MF between 1.7 and 3 MHz has some voice activity, including Malin Head and Valentia. Listen on 2182 kHz at 3 minutes past the hour and half hour to hear coastal stations announcing working frequencies.

WHL

I did a scan last weekend of the non-European aeronautical frequencies as I was ina rural area. I used an AOR7030 with a PAR-SWL wire antenna thrown over the bushes outside at about 8 foot high. I did this from dusk into darkness and found activity on the following frequencies:
6577 New York
6586 New York
11330 New York
8918 New York
8903 Africa
8861 Africa
10096 Atlantico
6535 South America
5565 South America Dhaka

marno21

If you listen to Shannon Control high (which would be VHF radio controlling the airspace over Ireland), when they hand off traffic to Shanwick HF radio they announce the frequency to the pilot for making contact, which would help finding HF frequencies. Shannon control can be streamed here: https://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=einn (includes list of VHF frequencies)

You can combine this with www.flightradar24.com to see if the North Atlantic is busy for traffic.

gunny123

I should have come back earlier and thanked you all for replying. Don't know what to do to be honest, i might just put up a long wire and continue as i am.

It was a hobby i really enjoyed years ago, before computers and all that became so prevalent. Great way to spend an afternoon or evening if the weather was bad, listening in to amateur bands, marine, and less so with me, aviation. But i suppose things move on.

WHL

You should hear plenty on the Shanwick aero frequencies during the day. Check the Volmet frequencies, 5450 (RAF) and 5505 (Shanwick) to get an idea of conditions. Active Shanwick frequencies in daytime will probably be in the 5, 6 or 8 MHz range - I can list these if you want.

After dark you can try the stations that I listed previously. You could also try Gander Volmet on 6604, 10051 or 13270. There are also a number of Volmet stations on 6676 if you sit there for a while after dark

For marine, sit on 2182 kHz after dark. Coast Stations will call in at 3 and 33 minutes after the hour and state what their working frequencies are. Not too exciting but you can follow to these stations.

It’s not as busy as it used to be but there is still a bit of life. You could also explore some of the digital modes

gunny123

Thank you whl. What do you mean by digital modes ? Rtty and that sort of thing ?

WHL

You can use YAND for Navtex or YADD for DSC messages on the marine band. FT8 seems very popular on the amateur bands but I haven’t tried it