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| The radio room on board the museum ship USS Orleck (DD-886) in Jacksonville, FL |
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| Valiant Air Command's C-47, "Tico Belle" flying over Savannah while dropping paratroopers at Hunter Army Airfield on Wednesday, 30 July 2025 |
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| NAVY HV 555 (MH-60R, 166592, HSM-50) doing hover work at Jekyll Island Airport on 18 June 2025 |
For several years now, I've wanted to visit the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC, so for this year's Summer vacation I took a week-long road trip to Charleston. I didn't really plan it, but it turned out that a good bit of the History I took in on this trip centered on the African American and Gullah Geechee experience in the Lowcountry. In addition to the International African American Museum, I visited Patriot's Point (taking day and night tours), Charles Towne Landing, the South Carolina Aquarium, the Old Slave Mart Museum, the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon, McLeod Plantation, the North Charleston Fire Museum, Fort Johnson, and Fort Lamar. I also tried three of Charleston's BBQ restaurants; at one of them I had the best BBQ I've ever eaten. During the road trip, I was able to listen to the area's military and aviation communications, federal and USCG communications, public safety communications, and more. I did very little on amateur radio during this trip; I had just a couple of QSOs on the 146.7900- (PL 123.0) repeater on the USS Yorktown at Patriot's Point and checked into the "Scanner Junkies" net on TGIF DMR using DroidStar on Thursday night.
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| An F-4J Phantom II, Charleston Harbor, and the Ravenel Bridge as seen from the Bridge of the USS Yorktown (CV-10) at Patriots Point in Charleston, SC |
Earlier this month I took a road trip to Charleston and my car broke down on me when I tried to return home on 7 April. On the 11th, I had to go up and pay a deposit for the work to be done; Mama rode with me, so we made a couple of sightseeing stops on the way back to Savannah. The car was ready late on the 17th, so we went back up to Charleston and picked the car up the next morning with her following me back to Savannah in her car. On these two trips, I didn't have the mobile station (with the exception of returning back to Savannah on the 18th) and I didn't take all of the usual equipment, so what I heard was a bit more limited and this post can give you an idea of what you can hear in and around Charleston if you just take one radio.
Earlier this week, I took what was supposed to be taking a two day road trip to Charleston, SC, leaving Savannah on Sunday morning and returning on Tuesday morning. On Sunday, I visited the Botany Bay Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area on Edisto Island and the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in Charleston. On Monday, I spent much of the day at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston and also visited Drayton Hall just down the road to see what they've done since my visit there a few years ago. Tuesday morning, I left the hotel and had only gone several blocks down US-17 when my car's clutch failed. Luckily I was able to coast into a parking lot across from a repair shop, but it kept me in Charleston for one more day and is keeping the car in Charleston for several more days. I'll be having to go back to Charleston, probably on Friday, to pick the car up.
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| On Sunday, I stopped for a picnic lunch at the Botany Bay Heritage Preserve on Edisto Island and enjoyed this beautiful view while listening to F-35s aerial refueling offshore |
March 2025 was a fascinating military monitoring month. There were a lot of visitors and a lot going on so there was no shortage of something to listen to in Coastal Georgia, Lowcountry South Carolina, and the First Coast of Florida. A road trip to Americus and Plains also gave me an opportunity to do some listening in Central and West Georgia. There was a lot of training going on, with the biggest training operation being the Patriot 25 disaster response exercise, which took place at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP, Fort Stewart, and the Guardian Center in Perry, GA. One of the more interesting catches of the month was a VRM-40 CMV-22B; it was the first time I've caught one of the new carrier logistics mission Ospreys. Foreign air force visitors this month were from the Royal Canadian AF, the Italian AF, the Jordanian Government, the Norwegian AF, and the Royal Air Force (UK).
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| KING 17 (HC-130J, 12-5768, 71st RQS) doing an approach at Hunter AAF on 13 March 2025 |
Even though it's the shortest month of the year and a month during which I didn't have a lot of radio time, February turned out to be a terrific month for Military Monitoring in Coastal Georgia. There truly was no shortage of things to listen to; no fewer than six squadrons were on temporary duty in the Lowcountry South Carolina, Coastal Georgia, and Florida First Coast area! We even had some UK Royal Air Force fighter and support aircraft pass through the area on their way home from an exercise.
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| ASCOT 9534/9535 (Typhoon FGR4 ZK378/ZK360, 6 Sqn RAF) with ASCOT 9411 (Voyager KC3, ZZ332, 10/101 Sqn) in support going into Joint Base Charleston on 20 February 2025 |
Last week, I took what is becoming my annual Space Coast Road Trip. I left Savannah going south on Tuesday and returned on Saturday. On the way to Titusville on Tuesday, I stopped in Ponce Inlet and visited the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum and then continued on to visit the Merritt Island NWR before checking into the hotel. I spent Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex, catching a SpaceX launch while I was there. On Thursday, I spent the morning at the Merritt Island NWR and Canaveral National Seashore then visited the American Space Museum and Hall of Fame and the Valiant Air Command Museum in the afternoon. On Friday, I headed back up I-95 to St Augustine where I visited the St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum, Castillo de San Marco, Colonial Quarter, and the Fort Mose Historic Site. I overnighted in St Augustine Beach so I wouldn't have to drive through Jacksonville on a Friday afternoon/evening and drove back to Savannah on Saturday morning. Temperatures in Florida were below normal and winds were high throughout the trip, but with the exception of Saturday morning, there wasn't any rain to deal with. Some excellent meals were had along the way and it was also good to catch up with radio friends at several of them.
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| Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex. Atlantis holds a soft spot for me and I love to visit it at KSC because it was the shuttle I saw launch on its STS-125 mission on 11 April 2009 - the only Shuttle launch I got to see launch in person. |
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and has a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2025 ahead. Due to the Christmas holiday, December was a bit of a limited month MilCom-wise; most of the activity was in the first half of the month. A mid month road trip to Jacksonville provided the opportunity to hear a bit more than I would have otherwise. This month, I'll be taking a week-long road trip to Florida's Space Coast, so look for a post about it after I return from the trip. I'm looking forward to listening to space related communications for a week!
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| The remains of the JA Jones Construction shipyard slipways in Brunswick, GA, where Liberty Ships were built during World War II |
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| The fog during this road trip to Jacksonville was so thick that I could barely see the ships at NS Mayport from across the St Johns River at Huguenot Park |
I didn't have as much radio time during November as I would have liked, so the month's recap isn't quite as extensive as usual. Even with the reduced time around the radios, it was still an interesting month. At the end of the month, I took a nice road trip to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL that gave me the opportunity to listen to Mayport and Jacksonville area MilCom a bit more closely than usual.
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| PIONEER 21 (P-8A, 167956, VX-1) |
Over the weekend, I took a road trip down to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL. I left Savannah on Saturday morning and returned on Monday morning. It was a beautiful Autumn weekend for a road trip - cool in the mornings, but particularly on Sunday afternoon, warming up just into short sleeve weather. On Saturday, I enjoyed taking a boat tour around Amelia Island and Cumberland Island followed by a trolley tour of historic Fernandina Beach and a walk around the Fernandina Beach Historic District. On Sunday, I caught the sunrise on the beach, then visited Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park, Kingsley Plantation, and Huguenot Park.
I enjoyed some good radio listening during the trip. Even though it was a weekend, I still heard some MilCom (including a terrific catch at NS Mayport). I caught some FedCom from the US Coast Guard (Sectors Charleston and Jacksonville) and National Park Service. There was a good mix of conventional and trunked public safety communications. I heard Marine VHF/Port communications from Fernandina Beach down to Jacksonville and even though I could hear train horns throughout the weekend, I only heard a bit of railroad communications.
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| US Navy DDGs (Guided Missile Destroyers) moored in the basin at Naval Station Mayport, FL |
This past Saturday was Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Family Day, and a friend invited me along for a base tour; since it coincided with my weekend off, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I left Savannah on Friday and came back on Sunday. In addition to the Cape Canaveral SFS visit, I was able to visit the Merritt Island NWR and take in my first in person night launch when SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 on Saturday night. And as always, a trip to the Space Coast makes for interesting radio listening. It was a truly enjoyable road trip that in the end seemed all to short.
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| A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday night, 27April 2024. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) can be seen on the right, and LC-39B, lit up for work, can be seen to the left of the launch. |
Last week I took a road trip to Florida's Space Coast to take in nature and wildlife at the Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island NWR and the past, present, and future of space travel at the Kennedy Space Center. Throughout the week, I also enjoyed listening to the wide variety of communications in the Space Coast area - aviation and Military communications, NASA and federal communications, private space company communications, and more. I also took a boat tour of the Banana River and Port Canaveral while I was there and that yielded a wonderful surprise. The weather was somewhat uncooperative on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, but it still turned out to be a terrific trip. Some excellent meals were had at restaurants along the way, including a great meal with friends. Overall, it was a wonder, enjoyable trip - one that is becoming an annual thing.
The Monthly Military Monitoring Recap consists of frequencies and callsigns that I've heard in use in Coastal Georgia and during my travels (usually around South Carolina and Florida). Special Operations, Intelligence, and real-world Combat Air Patrol information will not be posted. Gulfstream (Savannah) and Boeing (Charleston) flight test frequencies and callsigns are also included as well as US Coast Guard, non-law enforcement FedCom, and civilian medevac callsigns, N-numbers, and frequencies.
Even though the holidays reduced the amount of MilCom activity and I simply didn't have as much radio time as I usually do, December still turned out to be an eventful radio month. Fort Stewart and Hunter AAF underwent a radio system upgrade (Fort Stewart Central's words) and the talkgroups have all changed; extensive listening will be needed to figure out what's what. What I have identified so far has been submitted to RadioReference. F-16s from Shaw AFB conducted an overnight exercise over and around coastal South Carolina on 14 December (I was lucky to hear it because I was staying up overnight to get back on my midnight shift sleeping schedule). It was also a pleasure to hear A-10s from Moody AFB using Townsend Range several times during the month. Finally, just before Christmas it sounded like Gulfstream attempted a record flight from Tokyo to Savannah. January should see some more extensive logs as I'll have more radio time, hopefully including some from a road trip I have planned to the Space Coast.
The Monthly Military Monitoring Recap consists of frequencies and callsigns that I've heard in use in Coastal Georgia and during my travels (usually around South Carolina and Florida). Special Operations, Intelligence, and real-world Combat Air Patrol information will not be posted. Gulfstream (Savannah) and Boeing (Charleston) flight test frequencies and callsigns are also included as well as US Coast Guard, non-law enforcement FedCom, and civilian medevac callsigns, N-numbers, and frequencies.
Even though military activity slowed down during the Thanksgiving holiday, November still turned out to be a great month for military monitoring in Coastal Georgia. ATAC was at MCAS Beaufort working with both VMFAT-501 and VMFA-312. Several good VHF/UHF band openings offered an opportunity to hear things a bit farther afield than I normally can hear and a road trip to Columbia, SC gave me the opportunity to monitor JNGB McEntire and Shaw AFB from a closer distance than usual. On the Saturday of the Ohio State v Michigan rivalry college football game, LEGEND 621, a VP-62 P-8A did the flyover and I caught it departing NAS Jacksonville on the way up. I even managed to catch a NASA aircraft transiting the Coastal Georgia area late in the month (NASA 8, which I hadn't heard in a year and a half).
I was saddened to learn of the passing of Larry Van Horn, N5FPW in early October. Larry was a fountain of knowledge on multiple aspects of the radio hobby, including Amateur Radio, MilCom monitoring, and FedCom monitoring. He wrote for Monitoring Times and The Spectrum Monitor as well as authoring a series of his own books, all of which were outstanding sources of information. Larry was one of my mentors in the MilCom hobby; it's not as easy to find information on as Public Safety monitoring, so without his help and the help of others like Al Stern and Jack Nesmith (both of whom have also passed away), I may have not stuck with MilCom monitoring. I also fondly remember several HF and DMR QSOs that I had with Larry over the years. He'll be missed by many in the radio hobby, but his memory will be carried on by those he helped along the way. My prayers continue to be with his family and friends.
The Monthly Military Monitoring Recap consists of frequencies and callsigns that I've heard in use in Coastal Georgia and during my travels (usually around South Carolina and Florida). Special Operations, Intelligence, and real-world Combat Air Patrol information will not be posted. Gulfstream (Savannah) and Boeing (Charleston) flight test frequencies and callsigns are also included as well as US Coast Guard, non-law enforcement FedCom, and civilian medevac callsigns, N-numbers, and frequencies.
October turned out to be a good military monitoring month even though my monitoring opportunities were somewhat limited. September's road trip (to Columbia) took place at the beginning of October and October's road trip was to Jacksonville (coinciding with the Jacksonville Beach Air Show), giving me the opportunity to listen in both cities. A-10s from Moody AFB were unusually active at Townsend Range and the Coastal MOAs during the month and CNATRA T-45Cs began conducting carrier qualifications with the USS George Washington (CVN-73) at the end of the month. With the arrival of Autumn, there were several good band openings that allowed me to hear VHF communications up into the Charleston, SC and Augusta, GA areas from home in Savannah. Other things worth noting for the month are:
On Sunday and Monday, I took an overnight road trip to Jacksonville to see the Jacksonville Zoo and Garden's Jaguar cub, Banks. This weekend was also the Jacksonville Beach Airshow; although I didn't make it to Jacksonville in time to go to the show on Sunday, I did hear some of it on my way down. On this trip, I stayed off I-295 and FL 105 in north Jacksonville near Blount Island and it turned out to be a good choice. I had a third-floor room and could hear aviation communications all throughout Jacksonville, public safety communications from Jacksonville, Baker County, Clay County, St Johns County, and Flagler County, Marine VHF communications from the port and the St Johns Bar Pilots, railroad traffic coming and going from CSX's Moncrief Yard. It was also a good spot for VHF/UHF amateur radio; while I didn't talk on any of the area repeaters, I could hear plenty of them from the hotel on an HT.