US Navy Convoy flights

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Argus 01
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US Navy Convoy flights

Post by Argus 01 »

Quite regular I receive USN Convoy flights with my SBS-1. Most of the times it are C-130's flying around FL 200, I guess in and outbound Stuttgart. I live in Niesoord, North-east Groningen near the German border and my SBS-1 antenna has "free sight" towards the east so they can be very far to the east. I receive them most of the times for more than 30 minutes so they must fly north or south bound.
My question is: Why do we never hear these flights cross The Netherlands via the TB-6 Route NAVPI <> NOLRU? Almost daily there will land and depart interesting USN stuff at Stuttgart but I never hear them cross our country. What will make their route different than the other US flights we hear daily cross our country, their destination or place of departure?
Everytime I log " a Convoy" with my SBS-1, I search German ATC freqs to catch the plane but unfortunately without any luck. I guess they fly one of the German Military Tacan Routes (TB-1 from Frankfurt to Schleswig or maybe TR-11 which is situated a bit more tho the east and also cross Schleswig). Hope someone can help me to solve this "mystery"...

Thanks in advance
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Re: US Navy Convoy flights

Post by joost »

They don't fly TB6 route. they always seems to be on civil airways. in fact USAF & GAF are basicly the only ones to fly the TB6
Below FL245 you can hear them on either Brussel, Amsterdam, Langen or Bremen radar. above you can hear them on Maastricht or Lippe.

you might want to monitor Langen 124.475, which I think could be a frequency where USN from the West/North will be below FL245 whilst enroute stuttgart.
Also monitor 343.550 which is Stuttgart Ops
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Argus 01
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Re: US Navy Convoy flights

Post by Argus 01 »

joost wrote:They don't fly TB6 route. they always seems to be on civil airways. in fact USAF & GAF are basicly the only ones to fly the TB6
Below FL245 you can hear them on either Brussel, Amsterdam, Langen or Bremen radar. above you can hear them on Maastricht or Lippe.

you might want to monitor Langen 124.475, which I think could be a frequency where USN from the West/North will be below FL245 whilst enroute stuttgart.
Also monitor 343.550 which is Stuttgart Ops
Thanks Joost! So because they are on civil airways they are also on civil ATC freqs and I don't have to expect them on Dutch Mil? I'll also check the other Langen and Bremen sector freqs surrounding the RUD sector you mentioned. Unfortunately most of the comms on 343.550 are to weak for me because of the distance from here, the FL of the aircraft and the fact that UHF signals carries less far then vhf ones.
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