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Wayne Hack at work on lnternationa/-2 operating position at Sydney's Flight Service Centre
A Day ln The Life – Flight Service
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Flight Service, Guardians of the Long-Range Airwaves
From time to time, Australian Aviation readers who have VHF receivers write to me and enquire about those ‘strange’ frequencies bandied about by air traffic controllers just prior to an aircraft passing out of VHF range on a long transoceanic flight.
These four or five digit frequencies, where the ‘decimal’ is absent, are HF or high frequency channels and are used to maintain continuous contact for purposes of exchanging air traffic control information when VHF is of no further use due to distance from the ground station. Not only airliners use HF of course, there are military aircraft, executive and privately owned jets, ferry aircraft being delivered to owners outside the country of manufacture and assorted others who, for some reason or another, are flying an international air route.
International Airline aircraft must remain in voice communication with a ground station for the entire duration of their flight. VHF radio, by its very nature, is unsuitable for use in this regard. In fact, even at 39,000 feet, 200 nautical miles would be about the very limit that VHF communications could be maintained.
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