It's rare for me to have a Labor Day off from work, so this year I decided to go to the Salzburger Festival in Ebeneezer (between Rincon and Springfield in Effingham County, GA) and from there go up GA-119 to US-321 and travel up to Columbia, SC to visit the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens. As Labor Day dawned, I didn't know if I would end up going to the Festival because the weather forecast called for rain throughout the morning; instead it turned out to be a pleasant morning and early afternoon. Tuesday was a pleasant day in Columbia; the morning wasn't too hot and I enjoyed my visit to the Zoo. Normally, I start these road trip reports with the radio information and then move on to where and what I visited during the trip, but this time I'm going to start with the Salzburger Festival because of how much I enjoyed it, what I learned, and the effect it had on me. The radio information comes afterward followed by Zoo photos and road trip food.
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| Jerusalem Lutheran Church; established in 1734 |
Regular readers will have noticed that over the last few months I haven't posted any monthly military monitoring recaps and removed previous ones from the blog. Primarily I haven't had as much radio time recently, which means I haven't had to the time to compile the recaps. The Iran War, our action in Venezuela, our commitment in the Ukraine War, and future potential conflicts/actions are the reason I took down the existing recaps. The static callsign/frequency information in the MilCom tab of the blog will remain.
I had a previous version of this post up earlier in the summer, but I haven't had a lot of monitoring opportunities and didn't realize there were F-15Es from multiple squadrons at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center instead of just one. It turns out that the F-15Es are (at least) from the 4th Fighter Wing's 333rd and 334th Fighter Squadrons. They're here this summer while runway maintenance is being done at their home, Seymour-Johnson AFB. Draken International A-4K Skyhawks are also at Savannah providing aggressor/red air flights. They're flying morning, afternoon, evening, and night sorties but due to other commitments, most of my monitoring opportunities are the evening and night sorties. I haven't had the chance to get out to the airport and put eyes on them except for a short time when they first arrived.
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| 4th FW/333rd FS F-15Es at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP on 15 June 2026 |
This past weekend, I went on an overnight road trip to the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, SC to see their Semi-quincentennial/American Revolution exhibit. As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent late June and early July on family leaving helping a relative after surgery, so it was a good opportunity to rest, relax, and enjoy myself. I left Savannah on Sunday morning, using US-321 for the trip up and returned on Monday morning, using I-26 and I-95. Sunday night, I stayed in Cayce, SC not far away from Columbia Municipal Airport (KCAE). Even though my travels were on a Sunday and early Monday, the trip still provided some good monitoring opportunities. As always, the Columbia area provided no shortage of public safety communications. There was steady traffic at Columbia Municipal Airport and although there was little military communications to be heard on Sunday I caught some F-5Ns out of MCAS Beaufort and some F-15Es from Savannah-Hilton Head IAP on Monday morning. There was usual VHF/UHF morning commute amateur radio traffic on Monday and I was surprised at the amount of VHF/UHF amateur radio traffic I heard around Orangeburg and Columbia on Sunday afternoon. There was some rain and thunderstorm activity on Sunday afternoon and evening and I think that played into less medevac helicopter activity than I usually hear in Columbia.
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| The South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, SC (the dome of their observatory is visible on the roof) |
I've been on FMLA for three weeks, caregiving for a family member after surgery and go back to work on Monday, so I visited the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive early before it got too hot (a high of 100F has been forecast). It turned out to be a beautiful morning and I saw plenty of alligators and birds. A visit to the Savannah NWR also presents a good opportunity to listen to Savannah-Hilton Head IAP and Georgia Ports as the Refuge is just across the Savannah River from Garden City, Port Wentworth, the Airport, and the port terminal and railyards.
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| Purple Gallinule at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge |
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| The Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA |
This weekend, both the Commemorative Air Force's AirPower History Tour and the US Coast Guard's Barque Eagle visited Savannah. Sunday morning was an opportunity to indulge my inner History and Aviation Geeks and visit both. I'm glad that for once, my days off and time in Savannah coincided with opportunities to see something historical and interesting. Even though the morning started off gray and drizzly, it turned out to be a good one.
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| The Commemorative Air Force's B-29 FiFi under cloudy, drizzly skies at Sheltair Savannah on Sunday morning |
For those who don't live in the southeast, you may not be aware that southern Georgia has two large wildfires burning at the same time: the Pineland Road Fire in Clinch and Echols Counties (west of the Okefenokee Swamp) and the Highway 82 Fire in Brantley County (east of the Okefenokee Swamp). As I write, the Highway 82 Fire has burned over 22,000 acres and is 33% contained and the Pineland Road Fire has burned over 32,000 acres and is 38% contained. Both fires are due to the extraordinary drought in the region. Over the last few days, I've been able to hear some of the firefighting radio traffic from the two fires; most from the Highway 82 Fire, but some of the same assets and frequencies are being used for both fires.
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| Monitoring the Highway 82 Fire from a safe distance from KF4LMT Mobile using a Uniden SDS100, two Uniden BCD325P2s, a Uniden BCD436HP, and a Whistler TRX-1 |
Last Friday afternoon, I drove up to Charleston, SC to visit some Low Country Colonial and Revolutionary War historic sites. My first stop was Colonial Dorchester near Summerville before heading to the hotel in North Charleston. I spent Saturday morning at Drayton Hall and the afternoon at Middleton Place, both of which are on Ashley River Rd in Charleston. Some months back, I'd booked a behind-the-scenes tour of the work being done on Drayton Hall's Great Hall ceiling and that was the main reason for the road trip. While in the area, I learned that Middleton Place has a 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution exhibit, so I decided to drop in and see it since Middleton Place was right down the road. I thoroughly enjoyed both the behind-the-scenes tour at Drayton Hall and the 250th Exhibit at Middleton Place. The trip was productive radio-wise as well; there were changes to Charleston area communications on the Palmetto 800 system since my last visit and I was able to better ID some Joint Base Charleston traffic on the USAF 57 system. Saturday also provided the opportunity to listen to a sizeable industrial fire in Berkeley County. I tried a POTA attempt from Colonial Dorchester on Friday, but all didn't go according to plan. Food-wise, I had excellent meals on Friday and Saturday evenings.
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| Drayton Hall in Charleston, SC - built in the Late 1740s |
Today I spent much of the first half of the day on the road. I had to go up to Brooklet (near Statesboro in Bulloch County) to pick up a part to fix a couch and then I took Mama by the Veterans Cemetery in Glenville to visit my Father's gravesite. On the way home, I drove through Fort Stewart to see what I could see and hear. This trip took me through Nevils to Daisy on the drive from Brooklet to Glenville on Brooklet-Denmark Rd, Nevils-Denmark Rd, and Nevils-Daisy Rd; it was the first time I've been through Nevils and I ended up learning a piece of southeast Georgia History during the drive.
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| Candler Peanut - Nevils at the intersection of Nevils-Groveland Rd and Nevils-Denmark Rd in Nevils, GA. If I hadn't known I was in Nevils, I might have thought I was in Plains, GA. |
When I first planned this road trip, I didn't realize that it was going to start on Easter Sunday... I left Savannah on Sunday morning and drove down to Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park for an Amateur Radio Parks on the Air (POTA) activation. Instead of taking I-95 down to I-10, I jumped off I-95 in Brunswick and took the scenic route via US-301/GA-23 through Folkston down to Macclenny, then over to the park in Sanderson. It took a bit longer than the interstates would have, but there was a lot less holiday traffic to deal with. I stayed overnight near Jacksonville IAP and visited Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens on Monday morning to see the new entrance and manatee habitat before heading back to Savannah. Sunday being Easter, there wasn't much MilCom (military communications) to to listen to due to the holiday, but public safety and railroad communications (CSX rail lines paralleled much of my route of travel from Folkston south and along US-90 and I-10) made up for it. Monday wasn't very active MilCom-wise either, probably a result of the overcast conditions that turned to rain later in the day.
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| Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens' male Lion greeting visitors with a roar |
Earlier today, I took my Mother across the Savannah River to visit the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive. It was a great day to visit; the sky was sunny and temperatures were warming after a couple of overcast chilly days. Alligators and turtles were out enjoying the sun and although Autumn and Winter's migratory waterfowl have moved on, there were plenty of other birds to see. We counted 52 alligators, and that was just from the car; I didn't get out and walk any of the trails today. Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive also happens to be just across the Savannah River from Georgia Ports, so there is plenty of Marine VHF and Railroad activity to monitor from the Port (there is also a lot of traffic on the GPA DMR trunking system, but I didn't scan it today).
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| The Lesser (left) and Great (center) Temple Mounds at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park in Macon, GA |
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| ADS-B Exchange tracks of two of the KC-135s and some of the T-38s supporting the Sentry South exercise in Savannah |
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| The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and Launch Control Center (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center. This year's Space Coast Road Trip took place just before Artemis II left the VAB for Launch Complex 39B; while I wasn't in the area for the rollout, the timing did give me the opportunity to listen to preparation and support of the rollout. |
On Saturday morning, I made a last minute decision to take an overnight road trip from Savannah up to Beaufort to visit the Beaufort History Museum and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park. It was another practically tropical December day in Coastal Georgia and Lowcountry South Carolina, so it was a great day for a road trip. It turned out that the History Museum was closed for the morning due to a staffing issue, but it turned out to be an interesting trip anyway (and it gives me another reason to come back another day...). I also fit in visits to the Fort Fremont History Preserve, the St Helena Island Chapel of Ease, and the Fort Frederick History Preserve. Radio-wise, I didn't expect a lot of military aviation activity due to it being a holiday weekend, but there was one nice surprise. There was quite a bit of fire department traffic on the area Palmetto 800 sites to listen to, however. The radio in KF4LMT Mobile didn't stay silent much throughout the day. On the amateur radio side of things, there was decent activity on area 2 Meter analog repeaters and I squeezed in a short POTA (Parks on the Air) activation.
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| The Beaufort History Museum in the Beaufort Arsenal (built in 1798), unfortunately it was closed the morning of my visit |
This afternoon, I combined my love of nature, wildlife, and radio with a visit to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive just across the Savannah River in South Carolina. It was a beautiful day for a visit, it got up into the mid-50s instead of the 30s that we had yesterday and it wasn't nearly as windy as it was yesterday, so it was a terrific day for watching birds. I saw a lot of Teal and Northern Shovelers, but unfortunately none were close enough to get photos of. I got some photos of American Coots and Common Grebes along with year-around residents Anhingas, Great Blue Herons, and White Ibis. I also saw what I think was an immature Cooper's Hawk. The cold snap wasn't so good for watching alligators and turtles, I only saw one alligator during the visit and it wasn't where I could get a good photo.
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| I set up my portable HF station out of the back of my car at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge's Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive for a Parks on the Air activation |
I'm not taking a road trip in December as I prepare for a Space Coast Road Trip in January but over the weekend, I did travel around southeast and coastal Georgia visiting the Georgia Veterans Cemetery in Glennville, Fort Pulaski in Savannah, and Fort King George in Darien. I don't post a lot about local Fire/Rescue communications in the Savannah area, so I thought I'd do a blog post about the weekend's travels and what I heard during them. Perhaps it will be helpful for anyone who may be thinking about visiting the Savannah area.
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| Candlelit Christmas decoration at Fort Pulaski National Monument's Candle Lantern Tour |
I took an overnight road trip to Midlands South Carolina on Sunday, 9 November and Monday, 10 November 2025 to visit Poinsett State Park in Wedgefield and Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia. The trip up was via I-95 and the trip back to Savannah was on US-321, providing two different levels of activity on amateur radio and scanning. Both days were beautiful and especially on Monday, I enjoyed the colors of the Autumn foliage; we don't get quite as much color at home on the coast. Due to the Federal holiday on Tuesday, there was very little military communications to monitor, public safety in the Columbia area was busy as always, and the railroads around Columbia were active as well. There wasn't much Federal communications activity either, although I was surprised to hear the Fort Sumter NHS talkgroup on the Palmetto 800 system active during the Federal Government shutdown. While visiting the Zoo, I enjoyed listening to their radio system. On amateur radio, I had fun doing a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at Poinsett State Park and listening to 2 Meter/70 cm repeaters along my route of travel.
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| Autumn foliage at Poinsett State Park |