[MilCom] POTUS in Chicago

Mon Feb 16 01:37:15 EST 2009

Hey, GREAT list!  Nice work!

The newest Chicago Sectional I can actually locate right at the moment
says 2003 on it, I could swear I have a newer one but beats the heck outta me where it is.  Anyway, on that chart to the NE of Milwaukee there are two adjacent areas; one marked R-6903 and one called MINNOW MOA.  I seem to recall that these might still (or used to) correspond with one or more AR tracks/areas.  This might make sense, because given the level of air traffic close to Chicago O'Hare, it's hard to imagine having anything much closer.  I'm guessing that HILLTOP/TWELVEMILE over to my northeast might be the closest MOA's otherwise to Chicago.

I dug up the last AP1B I had dowloaded from anywhere, that's dated 17 MAR 05 and shows AR640A and B looks like it overlaps the R-6903 and MINNOW areas about exactly.  There are/were some other AR's shown NORTH but otherwise you look at the map and there is this big empty place just about centered on Chicago....imagine that.  :-)

>From personal observation as recently as Sunday afternoon (happened to be in chicago this weekend) O'Hare was routing outgoing traffic over downtown Chicago east over the lake.  On an earlier visit there was a flyover for Soldier Field, a Bears game I think, and we watched them orbit out over the lake low, underneath the altitude used by the civvies, and then they (group of F-18's) took off to the southeast over the lake picking up altitude in that direction. I am pretty sure that I have seen civvies also coming IN-bound on that same flight path, guessing typical altitude couple thousand feet - can't be too high, because you can read the planes pretty well on a clear day if your Mk-One eyeballs are working.  :-)

Wild card is Chicago Midway, I haven't hung around there enough to know what directions they are going in/out, and thus, what effect it might have on any "special" traffic.

Now - if you get out around O'Hare, the airspace out there is REAL busy.  But a great place if you like plane-spotting.  :-)

Since I am originally from Northern Indiana and get back up that way periodically, I can also point out that more than once I have seen F-16's flying along roughly parallel to US6 and US30 highways through LaPorte county and fairly low.  Who they were and where they were going I do not know........not in close formation, pretty much single-file in trail 3 to 6 ships at different times.  On that path heading west, which they have always been when I have seen them, could easily have been from 122 FW ANG in Fort Wayne heading towards Chicago area......and no reason why other units might not take the same route.  Also have seen small to mid-size civil air traffic pretty much on same path, guessing into or out of South Bend, IN and maybe to/from Chicago.

Don't know if any of that might add to or maybe just confuse the picture.

Duane
WB9OMC
West Central Indiana

--- On Sat, 2/14/09, Ted <tandkmoran at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Ted <tandkmoran at comcast.net>
> Subject: [MilCom] POTUS in Chicago
> To: milcom at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009, 8:30 AM
> Vocabulary:
> 
> WINDY CITY - The Chicago Combat Air Patrol
> UNTOUCHABLES - The refuelling track, nearby but unknown
> GUARD DOG CAP - Washington DC Combat Air Patrols
> MARSA - Military Assumes Responsibility for Separation of
> Aircraft
> AS FRAGGED - as scheduled
> RTB - Return to Base
> TRACK - Radar contacts
> BULLSEYE - Reference point(s) of CAP orbit, bearings,
> distance, etc
> NIGHTHAWKS - HMX-1 Presidential Helo Squadron, Including
> MARINE-1
> ARROW-## - 58th Fighter Squadron, 33rd FW Eglin AFB
> F-15's
> HUNTRESS - NORAD
> LINK 16 - Secure Data Link system
> 
> Frequencies: (Confirmed) (AM Mode)
> 
> 260.900 UNTOUCHABLES/HUNTRESS Primary
> 228.900 UNTOUCHABLES/HUNTRESS Secondary
> 353.550 WINDY CITY Chgo Center Kankakee Primary
> 256.800 WINDY CITY Chgo Center Kankakee Secondary
> 315.600 WINDY CITY Chgo TRACON contact
> 320.950 ARROW discrete
> 305.450 ARROW discrete
> 277.175 HMX-1 CONTROL
> 126.800 Chgo Radar TFR advisory service
> 127.925 O'Hare Tower AF1 and Helo ops at field
> 123.025 Chgo Copter Route Advisory
> 225.750 Eglin AFB 58th FS Command Post
> 
> (FM Mode)
> 
> 362.250 Airforce 1 Northstar FM/MPX downlink
> 460.250 CPD Citywide 6
> 166.5125 USSS Sierra WHCA command post (mostly encrypted
> P25)
> 164.8875 USSS Oscar Presidential Detail (mostly encrypted
> P25)
> 165.8500 USSS P25
> 
> Other possible F-15 discretes:
> 
> 338.750 369.150 259.550 316.450
> 253.700 326.475 276.550 257.350
> 
> Other likely frequencies for HMX-1:
> 
> 361.600 276.400 273.950 265.800 142.750 122.850
> 166.700 (FM P25 USSS November)
> 
> Other likely frequencies for USSS, FM analog and P25:
> 165.375
> 165.7875
> 165.2125
> 164.650
> 164.400
> 164.4625
> 165.625
> 167.0375
> 
> I suspect the F-15's may have a discrete air to air
> chat frequency assigned 
> by pairs of aircraft. They have two UHF radios. One is
> normally tuned to 
> WINDY CITY and the other to UNTOUCHABLES, so they have to
> leave one to chat 
> on discrete. 305.450 was used extensively last night. They
> sometimes chat 
> about radar track (targets) but they are mostly exchanging
> their track data 
> via Link 16.
> 
> I would be kind of surprised if there wasn't some other
> surveillance 
> platform (AWACS? E2C? J-STARS? UAV? E4B?) in orbit in the
> area, but I 
> haven't yet heard one myself.
> 
> HMX-1 is reportedly staged on Chicago Park District land
> north of 31st 
> street beach, south of McCormick Place and east of Lake
> Shore Drive.
> 
> I think the F-15's are now on their 7th or 8th tanker.
> I'm not sure who is 
> doing the refuelling for them. I'm also not sure
> exactly where UNTOUCHABLES 
> is, but it's configured as a regular (?) track with
> primary and secondary 
> frequencies assigned - but they are using 228.900 and
> 260.900 for it so far. 
> A whole lotta gas...
> 
> The federal mutual aid and 25 cities systems likely merit
> some checking. I 
> haven't done that yet. Probably a ton of media freqs
> out there. The Coast 
> Guard should be guarding the southern shore line.
> 
> It would be really cool to glean some of the center
> frequencies the F-15's 
> are using to transit into and out of WINDY CITY. At this
> point there is a 
> steady rotation of F-15's between here and Florida.
> I've heard them mention 
> calling their CP at Eglin ("Base" or "Base
> Ops") but haven't actually heard 
> that traffic, probably out of range.
> 
> I heard a few test counts from HMX-1 on 277.175, but city
> monitors report 
> hearing them on it quite a bit. If they are under 1000 feet
> on the southside 
> I tend to lose them out here in the burbs.
> 
> Local airports are fun to listen to as the stops dictated
> by the TFR are 
> driving local general aviation pretty batty. 126.800 should
> be paired with 
> 308.400 UHF.
> 
> No shortage of cool monitoring this weekend in Chicago.
> 
> Happy Scanning! - Ted 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> MilCom mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milcom
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:MilCom at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list:
> http://www.qsl.net/donate.html