{"id":24357,"date":"2024-01-17T06:37:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T11:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=24357"},"modified":"2024-01-17T06:37:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T11:37:54","slug":"santa-maria-hf-unauthorised-transmissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/santa-maria-hf-unauthorised-transmissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Maria HF – Unauthorised Transmissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

An OPSGROUP member recently reported they experienced extended interference<\/strong> on Santa Maria Radio (HF frequency 11309). They were unable to use it for nearly ten minutes due to a continuous broadcast in a foreign language.<\/p>\n

This was reported directly to Nav Portugal, and the member was kind enough to share their response with the group. Here is what they had to say.<\/p>\n

Unknown Broadcasts<\/h4>\n

The Radio Supervisor did report significant voice interference<\/strong> on the same day for a period of nearly twenty minutes. It didn\u2019t coincide with the time the member\u2019s aircraft was inside the Santa Maria FIR, but they were quick to point out this may mean it hadn\u2019t been reported yet.<\/p>\n

In other words, this is likely not an isolated issue.<\/p>\n

Nav Portugal advised that in the past twenty-four months, they\u2019ve observed increasing levels of interference<\/strong> on the HF frequencies assigned by Santa Maria. These are often caused by voice transmissions, but have also included radar signals \u2013 essentially \u2018pinging.\u2019<\/p>\n

These have been confirmed to originate from Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence the broadcasts are malicious<\/h4>\n

While they seem to emanate from regions of high political tension, there are no indications the broadcasts are an attempt to impede the communication of air traffic.<\/p>\n

They are simply an inconvenience.<\/strong> Nevertheless, they are occurring in one of the largest FIRs on the planet serving hundreds of flights per day, a number of NAT tracks, and traffic in and out of the Azores.<\/p>\n

So, it is important to know what to do if you encounter this on your next crossing.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care, I have CPDLC<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s true that CPDLC services are available to all FANS 1\/A equipped aircraft in the Santa Maria FIR (logon LPPO).<\/p>\n

But look out for this chestnut<\/a>, from Santa Maria themselves…<\/p>\n

…attention is called to flight crew that the use of data link services do not exempt the requirement of establishing voice communications with Santa Maria Radio at or before the FIR Boundary, whether on HF or VHF, even if a CPDLC connection is established<\/em>…<\/p>\n

So HF interference begins to matter for everyone, when outside of VHF coverage.<\/p>\n

Try the other line<\/h4>\n

Your next option is the ol\u2019 sat phone.<\/p>\n

Santa Maria\u2019s contact information is listed in NAT Doc 003, but to save you some time, their Inmarsat short code is 426305<\/strong>, and the direct dial for the supervisor is +351 296 820 401<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are also alternative HF frequencies listed in the attached document. As a general rule, lower frequencies work better at night, and higher during the day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If ionospheric propagation floats your boat, we\u2019re not here to judge. You can read more about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Phone a Friend<\/h4>\n

If you\u2019re not satvoice equipped, and you can\u2019t reach Santa Maria Radio directly \u2013 what then?<\/p>\n

In the first instance, attempt to raise a nearby aircraft on 121.5 or 123.45<\/strong> who can relay your position report for you.<\/p>\n

Or you can try and contact adjacent ATC oceanic sectors \u2013 namely Shanwick, Gander, New York Oceanic or Piarco. Nearby radar units may also be able to assist too \u2013 Lisboa, Canarias, Sal or Madrid Controls.<\/p>\n

Failing that, you\u2019re into the lost comms procedure.<\/strong> You can find that here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quick sheet the team previously put together…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

OPSGROUP members: click to download PDF.<\/p><\/div>\n

Keep Reporting<\/h4>\n

If you encounter HF frequency interference, it is important that you report it.<\/strong> The more detail the better \u2013 including the UTC time, position, altitude, duration and any other identifying details. It\u2019s likely you\u2019re not the only one who will encounter the problem.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d also love to hear from you too \u2013 you can reach us on team@ops.group<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An OPSGROUP member recently reported they experienced extended interference on Santa Maria Radio (HF frequency…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":24366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[587,21,196],"class_list":{"0":"post-24357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-hf","9":"tag-nat","10":"tag-santa-maria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24357"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24376,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24357\/revisions\/24376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}