Cockpit speaker recording of "Guangzhou Control" on 121.5 MHz (male voice) calling an unidentified recon flight (we think USAF), advising it to not turn into civil traffic on an airway along Chinese coastline.   The female voice was ATC on another radio, making routine calls.

This recording is unusual because reconnaissance flights usually are far offshore and away from civil airways.  Hong Kong often deals with recon flights as high as 70,000 ft and 130 miles southeast.  This one was closer and lower.

Other voices are the pilots on the plane where the recording was made, taking a handoff and checking in with the next controller.

Guangzhou ATC calling US Recon Flight

This is a cockpit speaker recording of another ELT running for hours in China on 121.5 MHz, the aeronautical emergency frequency.  I complained to ATC about it, saying it was "running constantly, like the one the day before - and the day before that - and the day before that."  The controller replied with a terse "Roger. "

These transmissions, along with comm checks and chatter are believed to be PLA training activity.

2015-10-23 ELT / EPIRB near Dalian, China (Military Training Exercise)

Hong Kong ATC calling an unidentified aircraft over the South China Sea, 24500 ft, asking for an IDENT to verify its altitude.  The aircraft follows typical US recon behavior, squawking code 1400 and flying at high altitudes / 500 foot intervals.

A Singapore Airlines flight is heard calling an aircraft at 40,000 ft that does not respond.  Apologies for the clipped audio due to levels too high for the recorder...

2016-01-02_04z Hong Kong ATC and Unid Recon Aircraft

An audio clip of VHF aeronautical comms in southeastern China, not far from Hong Kong.  There is prominent noise from the Chinese anti-stealth radars.

These radars seem to operate in different modes and is some kind of swept frequency, frequency modulated system.  The sound, heard by pilots on air traffic control frequencies, is either a low rumbling sound or a higher pitched signal sweeping across the channel.  VHF air band comms are AM signals, but the FM on these radars is detectable when the signal is on the edge of the receiver passband.  Note the strong signals at 0:05 and 1:36 in the recording.  "Slope detection of FM" is the tech term.  On some comm transmissions, you can hear the beat note as the radar sweeps by below the voice signal.  It sounds like a tweek or chirp sound, as at 01:20.  At about 3:30 on the recording, the radar is loud enough to interrupt a handoff, causing ATC to repeat the call.

These radars have been heard around Vietnam, Malaysia, Thsiland, and elsewhere.  It is possiible that they are Russian systems purchased by states concerned about attacks by steath aircraft.

2016-01-02 Chinese Anti Stealth Radar on VHF Airband

United States Navy operating over the South China Sea in international airspace, making a FONOPS / Freedom of Navigation announcement on 121.5 MHz.

This is one of three announcements heard; another unidentified station was also involved, but too weak to receive from my position.

2016-03-13_01-23-52z US Navy Freedom of Navigation Announcement

Hong Hong air traffic control on 121.5 MHz, calling an unidentified aircraft 150 NM southeast at flight level 600.  It is possibly a reconnaisance flight up at altitudes where the U-2 and Globalhawk are known to operate.  Hong Kong asks the aircraft to squawk ident if it intends to remain at FL600.

This is an electrically coupled recording, and pretty clean despite the weak signal from Hong Kong.  Incidentally, there was a rather terse announcement on the frequency in Chinese, which motivated me to start recording.

There was also a strange event at 0429 UTC in which "Bauhinia 611" (Hong Kong Airlines) took evasive action due to encroaching traffic their altitude.  Hong Kong called traffic within 3 NM and instructed Bauhinia 611 to immediately turn south.  Bauhinia replied that they got a TCAS resolution advisory and also had the traffic in sight.  Not a word was said about what the traffic was.  Interceptors?  Bauhinia wad southeast of Hong Kong and at FL320, according to Flightaware's ADS-B data (far from the recon plane but near the coastline of Guangdong province).

2016-09-05_04-25-22_UTC Hong Kong ATC Calling Unid Aircraft FL600

Bedlam on 121.5 MHz, 10/16/2016.  The Japanese Self Defense Force was active on the frequency, warning unidentified traffic, squawking 6734, that it was approaching Japanese airspace.  There was also an ELT transmitting on the frequency, along with numerous unidentified stations making comments or delibetately interfering with dead carriers.

This audio was recorded from my cockpit loudspeaker from a position over the east coast of China, near Hangzhou.  Traffic seems associated with one of the many confrontational calls going out each day in the contested area near the Senkaku Islands.  I have heard both Chinese and Japanese transmitting these warnings over recent months as well as the ELT running for hours on 121.5 MHz, trashing what would be a quiet frequency anywhere else in the world.

2016-10-16_00-35-17UTC Japan Self Defense Force

Recording of PLA Navy calling what they believe is a US Navy P-8A recon aircraft.  It was heard on 121.5 MHz, over the South China Sea, January 2, 2017.  The PLA radio operator spoke badly mangled English, requesting the observer to maintain "a safety distance" from Chinese military operations.  He reported the recon plane's altitude as "30 kilometers" - way too high for a P-8, so perhaps it was a U-2 or Globalhawk.  Or perhaps the radio op didn't know how to say "flight level three zero zero."

Could this aircraft be asdociated with MAGMA02 and MAGMA03, heard operating to the south, working Singapore ATC?  Possibly.  MAGMA flights go out over waters near Malaysia and leave the air traffic system for a while, then return hours later.

2017-01-02_03-05-55UTC_PLAN

This is an Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) broadcast for pilots artiving and departing the airport at Xiamen, China.  It is a computerized service alternating both English and Chinese languages, male and female voices.

I am amused at the accent, particularly for phonetics ZOO-LOO and ECK-OH.

2016-09-23 ATIS For Xiamen China

This is another Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) broadcast for pilots artiving and departing the airport at Xiamen, China.  It is a computerized service alternating both English and Chinese languages, male and female voices.

I am amused at the accent, particularly for phonetics ZOO-LOO and ECK-OH.

2017-01-16 ATIS For Xiamen China

Two clips from military ops in the South China Sea, morning of March 3, 2017, frequency 121.5 MHz.  The recording was made from a position near the Paracel Islands, up at FL360.  An American voice came up in English advising an unid aircraft that it was nearing a coalition warship, followed by transmissions in Chinese that a craft was violating Chinese airspace.  The Chinese station warned of "consequences" for busting their airspace.

I barely had time to start the recorder when the US side came up, and got only a snippet from the cockpit loudspeaker.  After getting the recorder plugged into the comm system, the Chinese were on with their calls.  Judging from the weak signals, I suspect that the Carl Vinson and other players were NOT near the Paracels, but were to the south or east - Spratly Islands or elsewhere.

2017-03-03_03-57utc Carl Vinson FONOPS

Radio transmissions made by Japanese Self Defense Force and the Chinese PLA near the disputed islands.  The frequency is 121.5 MHz, which comnercial aircraft must monitor and these militaties use for alerts and intercepts.  My aircraft was near Shanghai, at a moderately high altitude and able to receive the signals.

Earlier, the two militaries called each other, using English,  for violating each other's airspace around the islands.  I was too busy flying to record those exchanges, but it sounded a bit like the Monty Python Black Knigjt routine. 

The traffic in this recording is a compilation of two instances of canned announcements warning of airspace violations.  Note the many instances of jamming carrier signals.  These are mostly Chinese pilots jamming and catcalling the Japanese signal.  There is also audio from the ATC frequency my flight was using, with routine comms.  Note the distracted UAL flight that was hearing the same noises on the guard frequency and missed a handoff.  Really, that racket on 121.5 is annoying!  CN, JP:  make a deal, fight, or get that dispute otherwise resolved!

2017-07-07-0525z China vs Japan on 121.5 Disputed Islands

February 7, 2020, 10:30 a.m.
Chinese propaganda loudspeakers have been used to deliver coronavirus bulletins.  Three times per day, this sound echoes across the city.  The bulletin covers nine points, ranging from instructions to wear masks in public to advising people arriving from Wuhan to register themselves with authorities.  There is a risk of involuntary quarantine for people found to have a fever or suspected of exposure to the coronavirus.

Chinese Loudspeaker Newtork Delivers Coronavirus Bulletin 2020-02-07

February 8, 2020, 10:30 a.m.
Chinese propaganda loudspeakers have been used to deliver coronavirus bulletins.  Three times per day, this sound echoes across the city.  The bulletin covers nine points, ranging from instructions to wear masks in public to advising people arriving from Wuhan to register themselves with authorities.  There is a risk of involuntary quarantine for people found to have a fever or suspected of exposure to the coronavirus.

Chinese Loudspeaker Network Delivers Coronavirus Bulletin 2020-02-08

February 21, 2020, 3:00 p.m.

Chinese propaganda loudspeakers have been used to deliver coronavirus bulletins. Three times per day, this sound echoes across the city. The bulletin covers nine points, ranging from instructions to wear masks in public to advising people arriving from Wuhan to register themselves with authorities. There is a risk of involuntary quarantine for people found to have a fever or suspected of exposure to the coronavirus.

Chinese Loudspeaker Network Delivers Coronavirus Bulletin 2020-02-21

I took myself out of the big city, but cannot get the big city out of me...
I make recordings, write code, make jet noise, and burn jet fuel.
Sometimes I write essays, books, and slogans.
Advise you that there is no such thing as a "moderate." 
Nobody is in for the penny; weez all in for the pound.
If I am not busy here, I am busy on YouTube, and f*ck them.

Mach 7 Radio Intercepts

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