[MilCom] Florida Mil Monitoring

[AllanStern at aol.com]

     If you are monitoring Mil action in Florida you had a huge day yesterday 
 (Wednesday) and will have and even better one today.
    Yesterday there were multiple AWACS acft controlling fighters in the 
Tarpon Range near Key West, in addition to the normal action at the other 
ranges 
and in the offshore Whiskey areas, including the Dutch Air Force F-16s who 
have 
been here for over a month.
    Yesterday's  AWACS acft are up again, but add some more visitors to the 
mix now.
    Just when most of the annual Snowbirds are leaving Florida to return to 
their northern homes, a bevy of NY-ANG F-16s (174FW, Hancock ANGB, Syracuse 
NY) arrived at Patrick yesterday and will be remaining here for a week to work 
our ranges.  
    The "chicks" were accompanied to here by McGuire KC-10A tanker "Hoist 95" 
and big C-5A "Reach 8224" (#68-0224, Stewart ANGB 105AW).  Hoist 95 departed 
this morning to Robins AFB, and Reach 8224 departed afterwards to Stewart.
     I snagged comms from the F-16s this morning as two flights of them 
worked the offshore Whiskey Areas here, and one flight worked Avon Park Bombing 
Range.
     Yesterday they arrived using the FAST callsign and air-air freqs 
138.475, 141.575 and 141.7. 
     Today they used COBRA and APEX callsigns and air-air freqs 148.125, 
141.7 and 141.75.
     As I write this, Dutch Air Force F-16s "Spider 81 Flight" are arriving 
to work at Avon Park Bombing Range and are chatting away on their 141.7 air-air 
freq.

AL STERN  Satellite Beach FL  (28-11N  80-36W) monitoring
 Patrick AFB (KCOF)            NASA-KSC Shuttle Landing Facility (KX68)
 Avon Park Bombing Range (KAGR)   Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (KXMR)
 JSTARS E-8 Acft Integration Facility, Melbourne IAP (KMLB)
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 Life Member: Missile, Space and Range Pioneers.