[Scan-DC] Aviation route frequency -- 129.45 MHz

[Eric C. Carlson]

That is the ARINC En Route Service.  Frequencies and coverage maps may
be found here:
http://www.arinc.com/products/voice_data_comm/air_ground_radio_svc/jepp_charts.html

-Eric

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Andrew Clegg <w4jecom at w4je.com> wrote:
> A couple of weeks ago I discovered a cool aviation route frequency, 129.45
> MHz. It is licensed to AIRINC, with a base station at National. Planes in
> route use this frequency to get phone patches to an aviation services
> company in San Francisco. It is used for a variety of purposes, but one of
> the more interesting (and more frequent) uses is to report problems with
> passengers, such as medical issues. On this frequency, the pilots can be
> patched through to a company called "Medstat" that has doctors on call 24/7
> who can talk to the pilot and assess the seriousness of the medical issues,
> and help decide whether the pilot needs to divert for a quick landing or
> have paramedics waiting upon a scheduled arrival.
>
> Over the last two weeks, I have been recording this frequency automatically
> using Scanrec. I get about one hour or so of activity for each 24 hours of
> recording. From where I am I can hear the base station at National, and
> usually I can also hear the planes. However, even if you are not within
> reach of National, you could probably hear the plane side of the
> conversation for a couple hundred miles, and it is usually the plane side
> that is the more interesting ("we are unable to get a pulse; passenger is
> unconscious;" etc.).
>
> So far I have heard several serious medical issues, two unruly passenger
> incidents, and one pilot that was getting worried because his main and
> alternate airports were both rerouting due to weather and the plane's fuel
> was running low (they ended up being routed to Allentown PA instead of
> Boston).
>
> Anyway, for those who haven't heard this one before, it can be quite
> interesting. If you have other specific route frequencies that are used for
> equally interesting comms, I would be interested to hear about them!