121.5

I do, but then I also monitor 3 frequencies whenever I’m flying.
 
Shepherd said:
Even my handheld will monitor 121.5 no matter what my "active" frequency is.
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What else are you going to do with a handheld and there is no emergency at the moment?
Military radios are designed to monitor VHF or UHF guard. The switches are labeled "Off, Rec, Rec-Xmt and Rec-Xmt & Gd. A lot of the chatter is admin type stuff. Such as "Hey fred, meet you at happy hour."
 
My #2 is set either to 121.5 (barring anything better) or 122.75. It's amazing the amount of junk on 121.5. Anybody who says anything likely is responded to by a dozen idiots yelling "On Guard." Occasionally, it's a lost student pilot or something interesting. The two most pathetic cases was one guy panicking and demanding that someone find him less turbulent air (I was flying in his general vicinity and while it was bouncy, it wasn't airframe damaging levels). The other time I heard some bizjet calling ahead to an FBO (which they answered) arranging ground logistics for his passengers.
 
Lindberg said:
What radio/audio panel doesn't automatically mute the radio being monitored when there's a transmission on the primary?
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TRANSMISSION? Probably not many. RECEPTION? I bet many let it through. My old KMA 24 certainly does. I put 121.5 into radio 2 and put that into the overhead speaker. Lets me monitor it without being overly distracted.
 
Llewtrah381 said:
TRANSMISSION? Probably not many. RECEPTION? I bet many let it through. My old KMA 24 certainly does. I put 121.5 into radio 2 and put that into the overhead speaker. Lets me monitor it without being overly distracted.
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I guess I've never used one that old.
 
Part 1.1 - Aircraft means a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air.

ALL DEVICES OPERATING IN UNITED STATES NATIONAL AIRSPACE, IF CAPABLE, SHALL MAINTAIN A LISTENING WATCH ON VHF GUARD.

The devices I fly can receive radio signals, but are not capable of listening to anything.

 
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Quick question. Where can I now find the FDC NOTAM requiring guard being monitored? I used to show it to all my trainees and during flight reviews in the NOTAMS publication. But since that is discontinued, I can’t find it anywhere on an FAA website.
 
Lindberg said:
I guess I've never used one that old.
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First, I LOVE my KMA 24. It’s the only one I know that will let me listen to one source in my ears and another on the overhead speaker (I’m guessing the KMA 20 and some other older ones do too). I haven’t seen a new PS or Garmin that’ll do that. I can pick up the ATIS from the speaker even when Approach is chatting with someone else in the headset. And I do a fair amount of air-to-air work that makes it nice to be able to reliably monitor two channels and toggle between them without missing a call. For that, I push “speaker” for both, so the channel I’m off is still audible overhead. The “auto” button is set for the headset.

Second, while the new ones won’t let you split between headset and speaker, I thought you could indeed listen to two sources at the same time but I may be wrong. Can you listen to the ATIS in your ears while Approach is chatting? I had thought so but may well be wrong.
 
Yep, I loved my KMA24 as well for exactly that reason. You could leave stuff in AUTO if you liked, but you could pop things up on the overhead independently.
 
How do you monitor the SB frequency? I can monitor the other COM, but I have never heard of monitoring the SB freq. Is it a function of the radio or the audio panel? I have a PMA 6000B and MX170Bs.
 
LesGawlik said:
How do you monitor the SB frequency? I can monitor the other COM, but I have never heard of monitoring the SB freq. Is it a function of the radio or the audio panel? I have a PMA 6000B and MX170Bs.
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Monitoring the radio’s standby frequency is a function of the radio. My old Val couldn’t do it but my new Garmin GTR-200B can. Most audio panels can also monitor whichever radio isn’t being used for 2-way com.

I can listen on 3 frequencies at once: two from COM1 (standby and active) and one from COM2. If my COM2 had active and standby I could listen to four frequencies. Muting will give priority to whichever radio has MIC selected on the com panel, and then to the active frequency of the selected radio.
 
Low Level Flyer said:
Yeah. I saw that and I can find it on

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/us_restrictions/fdc_notams/pdf/FDC4-4386_FDC6-8818.pdf

But that requires a web search for FDC 4386. And it simply brings up a couple security notices. Was simply hoping to find a way to find it via the FAA’s notam or domestic notices page. Just seems odd I can’t find it now that the NOTAM Publication has been discontinued.


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I found this:

CF8C5FC1-D9D0-4856-9189-9CAA3F9F14EB.jpeg
 
Low Level Flyer said:
Quick question. Where can I now find the FDC NOTAM requiring guard being monitored? I used to show it to all my trainees and during flight reviews in the NOTAMS publication. But since that is discontinued, I can’t find it anywhere on an FAA website.
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https://www.notams.faa.gov/dinsQueryWeb/ Click on the FDC Special Notices button and it’s like the 3rd NOTAM down on the list.
 
tsts4 said:
https://www.notams.faa.gov/dinsQueryWeb/ Click on the FDC Special Notices button and it’s like the 3rd NOTAM down on the list.
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Thanks. Yeah. I’m aware of its location in DINS. And yes I know they are the same FDC NOTAMs that civilians see, but DINS is for DOD aircrews. That’s where I show it to my civilian students. I just find it odd I can’t find it anywhere, outside of a site for DOD aircrews, since the NOTAM Publication was discontinued.


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Tarheelpilot said:
The ones I’ve flown that are like yours have been very rare. As in I can’t remember any but I’m not willing to say I never have because I may have forgotten.
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The SL40 in my plane works that way. The GTR 225s in tow planes do to. Maybe it's a Garmin thing.
 
Garmin didn't design the SL40. Apollo did. Same comm as the SL30 and the GNS480 (CNS80). Between my GNS480 and SL30 I can monitor 4 frequencies.
 
Low Level Flyer said:
Thanks. Yeah. I’m aware of its location in DINS. And yes I know they are the same FDC NOTAMs that civilians see, but DINS is for DOD aircrews. That’s where I show it to my civilian students. I just find it odd I can’t find it anywhere, outside of a site for DOD aircrews, since the NOTAM Publication was discontinued.


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ok another option is to go to the flight service website and do a location brief. It will pull up all of the NOTAMs for that location to include all of the applicable FDCs just like it will for a normal route brief. Beyond that I got nothing.
 
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I don't understand the meow joke. I mean on guard makes sense cause it's guard frequency and you are "on guard" . But what's the relevance of the meow joke?

Are these pilots just fans of Super Troopers or is there some other meaning. I mean why meow instead of fart noises, singing or any other pop culture reference like Airplane! Joke. What's the connection?
 
You should try listening to Channel 16 some time. Far worse than AF common. There's been a (mariner) in the gulf that has been meowing since at least the Iraq-Iran war. Another guy that likes to clog up Ch 16 around the straits of Malaca. It's a great marine pastime to goof off on the one frequency everyone is supposed to be monitoring. I'd say the aviation world was a little late to the game IMO.
 
LesGawlik said:
How do you monitor the SB frequency? I can monitor the other COM, but I have never heard of monitoring the SB freq. Is it a function of the radio or the audio panel? I have a PMA 6000B and MX170Bs.
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To amplify what Half Fast said, some newer radios (such as my Trig in my gyro and many new Garmins) allow you to monitor the standby freq (to be flip-flopped) with the push of a “monitor” button. For these (at least my Trig), when there’s something being received on the active freq, the standby/monitored one is muted. That’s all a function of the radio and not the audio panel.

What I was actually referring to is monitoring my second radio, which is a function of the audio panel.

If you had two modern radios you could conceivably monitor four frequencies: Active and Standby on both, with the audio panel set to listen to both. In that case, technically, both Standby freqs would get muted if there was a transmission on their respective Active freq.

The nice thing about the audio panel approach is that it doesn’t get muted. That said, since 121.5 is really only of value if I can’t hear ATC because I’m out of range (when flying IFR), monitoring it on the active radio is a reasonable strategy since it wouldn’t get muted when I need to hear it.
 
tsts4 said:
ok another option is to go to the flight service website and do a location brief. It will pull up all of the NOTAMs for that location to include all of the applicable FDCs just like it will for a normal route brief. Beyond that I got nothing.
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That will have to do. Thanks!


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I have approach and last approach on COM1 and the ATIS and tower of the destination in COM2. I don't want to give up the previous approach freq so I know where I can go back to if the handoff doesn't work, or there's nobody home on the current approach (had that happen for a long time last Sunday on initial contact). I just done have the room.

I have wondered why radios didn't have a button dedicated to monitoring 121.5. The same idea as the dedicated 1200 on some transponders.
 
When I flew air ambulance and get bored around 2 or 3am, I would just flip through the frequencies. Sometimes I picked up on some very interesting conversations...
 
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Zeldman said:
When I flew air ambulance and get bored around 2 or 3am, I would just flip through the frequencies. Sometimes I picked up on so very interesting conversations...
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Did the same thing when I was tooling around the Gulf of Mexico. At times I tuned up the freq that the fish spotters were on. They were mostly CE-180s with aux tanks and spent half a day out of sight of land. One was describing to another how he repaired a crack in his crank case with JB Weld. Nice tip.
 
I do, until the meowing starts.
 
LesGawlik said:
I have wondered why radios didn't have a button dedicated to monitoring 121.5. The same idea as the dedicated 1200 on some transponders.
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Push in and hold Com Vol button on Garmin GTN series with com and 121.5 goes into active. Maybe the same for GNS series.
 
Martin__ said:
Push in and hold Com Vol button on Garmin GTN series with com and 121.5 goes into active. Maybe the same for GNS series.
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It does it with the GNS series, too. But that is not what we were talking about. The discussion was monitoring Guard while doing routine flights.
 
I routinely fly long XC legs past multiple airports and generally stay on 121.5 for most of my entire flight, not switching to every Unicom and I go unless I see traffic. You can never be assured that another plane is on that same frequency either. It helps when listening to XM or wanting silence when not hearing 20 airports worth of radio calls in a 200 mile radius.

My biggest pet peeve is all the random noises and stupid calls including the 5 airlines that chime up and say “guard”. No **** someone’s on guard, let them figure it out. If you wanna pretend you **** your pants do it on 123.45 or 122.75 and get it out of your system.
 
Jeff767 said:
Where do you guys fly that you hear all this on guard? I fly all over the SE and about all I hear is a occasional call from ATC trying to get someone over to the correct frequency.
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It seems to have gotten better in the last couple years, but it was getting downright stupid all along the east coast for a while

The ones that used to really annoy me were the Guard Nazis who would jump on and yell ‘you’re on guard!’ The second anyone transmitted, which was usually ATC trying to reach someone
 
Garavar said:
I don't understand the meow joke. I mean on guard makes sense cause it's guard frequency and you are "on guard" . But what's the relevance of the meow joke?
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Just people who are bored and have nothing better to do, but I don’t think there is any particular reason/connection.

It’s not like the “Filipino Monkey” calls you hear on VHF 16 in the maritime world.
 
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