Use of FH Radio for Position Reports
The following is an excerpt from Ben's Atlantic Crossing
"I had purchased an amateur radio which had been converted to operate on the frequencies used for airtraffic control. Although we were not certain of the legal details of this affair, the use of converted ham radios is accepted practice. These little rigs are technically very advanced and we feel they do add a significant safety margin because they enable you to communicate continuously with amateur stations during the crossing. For an antenna we used a wire which went through the stormwindow at the pilots side, to the vertical fin and back to the left wingtip. It was hooked up to an antenna tuner and the whole combination worked like a charm. To try the radio we talked to a number of ham operators in Holland and Canada.
One of the regulations of transatlantic flying requires a position report about every hour. The first and last reports were within VHF coverage, but we had to use HF communication for the reports in between. The characteristics of HF radio are quite different from VHF and different frequencies usually give different results. Communication went something like this:
Gander, Gander, Gander, N1927H position.
N1927H this is Gander reading you 2, go ahead.
N1927H position 50° 30'N 30° W at 03 47, flight level 100, estimating 50° 30'N 25° W at 05 03, 51° N 20° W next, over.
N1927H, Gander copies your position
50° 30'N 30° W at 03 47, say again your estimate for 25° W,
N1927H estimates 25° W at 05 03, over.
N1927H roger, I got you this time. Contact Shanwick at 25° W. Goodnight.
In most cases we could get the message across in a couple of minutes, but sometimes we had to try different frequencies to get it all done. And the big boys were going through the same thing, we heard KLM, Lufthansa, British Airways and many more, and we saw a few of them pass high overhead. "
If you want to listen to some of these contacts and have a HF radio here is a list of HF Aviation Frequencies from n4ujw at hamuniverse.com