[ARC5] Light Aircraft LF/HF Comm

[Robert Eleazer]

Speaking of the receive on LF, transmit on HF approach that was used by 
aircraft, somewhere I have a hilarious piece by William F. Buckley.  When he 
was in college he a few other students bought an Ercoupe and learned to fly 
in it.  Very early in his instruction, just after he had soloed after a very 
few hours of flight time, he offered to take a friend to another city.  He 
flew his friend to the destination, circ;led the airport until he got a 
green light from the tower indicating it was Okay to land, landed, let his 
friend off, and then got back in the airplane and restarted it.  Being 
vaguely familiar with tower communications based on observing his 
instructor, he switched on the radio and was astonished to hear not the 
control tower but the latest episode of the radio serial "Portia Faces 
Life."  He thought for a moment that perhaps the tower broadcast the serial 
to entertain pilots during slow periods, decided that sounded absurd, and 
took off.  He made it home successfully but did receive a visit from his 
instructor asking if he knew anything about an Ercoupe that took off from a 
controlled airport without clearance.

So there were some disadvantages to those two-band radio receivers!

Wayne
WB5WSV