I am on flight UA906 from ORD to MUC in a Boeing 767-300 and inquired with the cockpit crew if there was a possibility for me to operate /aeronautical mobile.
I had read about operating /aeronautical mobile on various blogs, but reports were for the most part not with a current date.
Both the pilot as well as co-pilot were very receptive to the idea, and informed that I could very well listen in to one of the cockpit radios from one of the cabin phones as they had the technical capability to do this, but informed me that they had no technical possibility of switching transmit control from the cockpit of a 767-300 to one of the cabin phones.
They did however encourage me to inquire with the cockpit crews of other airplane makes and models, as these may indeed have such technical capabilities.
I would appreciate feedback if any HAM were to identify such an airplane make & model.
I'm pretty sure FAA (or maybe FCC?) rules say that the radios used for non-flight business, such as ham radios, need to be separate from their primary radios. That might be why they cannot patch the radio through.
ReplyDeleteI've worked a few aeronautical mobile stations, but in every case it was a cockpit crew member. Since only personnel are allowed in the cockpit, I suspect the days of random hams making aero mobile contacts may be over. I've not heard of anyonce expect pilots doing it.
Yes, I too believe that the days of HAMs operating /AM from commercial carriers are over. As a plane designer I'd also see no reason to enable a patch to a cabin phone, only costs money and your thoughts will be right on too that regulations prevent the existence of such patches.
ReplyDeleteI had read a couple of times on various blogs that it was supposedly possible to operate /AM, but all of those posts were some years old - thus thought I'd update with my experience. 73 to Saint Louis!