I have been getting questions about Military Comms relating to the Super Bowl. Here's what I know so far about Super Bowl activity.
TFR's, (Temporary Flight Restrictions) starting well before they go into effect we can bet there are going to be aircraft flying CAP (Combat Air Patrol) missions over the NJ/NY area, you can bet the house on that!
This is right from the FAA, nothing secret about it, in fact the FAA wants ALL pilots to know this ahead of time. The 1st TFR goes into effect on 2/2/2014 at 17:00Z and lasts until 2/2/2014 at 21:59Z. This 1st TFR looks to be just right around the stadium, from the surface up to 5,000'. The minute that TFR expires a 2nd TFR will go into effect on 2/2/2014 at 22:00Z and lasts until 2/3/2014 at 04:59Z. This 2nd TFR looks to be about a 30 mile ring around the stadium from the surface up to 18,000'.
Any plane who wonders into the TFR will be warned on frequency 121.5 MHz to leave the area or be intercepted or shoot down. That message might also be transmitted on 243.0 MHz. These are the 2 aviation emergency frequencies. I strongly suggest you keep these programmed in your scanner!
I'm just guessing there probably will be an AWACS flying AICC overhead controlling CAP aircraft. If you have known AWACS freqs for your area, this will be a good start.
Most CAP missions are flown around 20,000' plus/minus. Also these fighters will need to be refueled, so again your known air-refuel freqs might have some activity. Most air-refuel missions are conducted no higher than 26,000' but higher than what CAP aircraft will be flying who are on mission.
At the altitude the CAP planes will be flying they will be in New York Center airspace. However I don't know if they'll need to communicate with ZNY controllers or not, AWACS might coordinate airspace issues with ZNY. However the ZNY UHF freqs for your area might be worth programming in:
http://milaircomms.com/artcc_zny.htmlI am sure there will be US Coast Guards assets in the area as well, 345.000 MHz is a common freq they use, but any known USCG freq could be used.
So far I do have reports of F-16's out of Andrews AFB have been flying training missions in the area, they have been on 143.600 MHz AM There have been some Customs Border Patrol (CBP) flying the area using 260.9000 (A well known NORAD frequency). I also had a report of 30 military aircraft were flying high-altitude circles around the Elmira NY area the other day, don't know if any connection to the Super Bowl.
A scanner during this time placed in search mode will be worth its weight in gold! Granted it will be hard to search the entire UHF MilAir band with 1 scanner, but 1 scanner in search is better than nothing. If you have 2 scanners, use 1 to search 225.000-302.500 and the second to search 302.500-380.000 there by splitting the workload. You will want to search in AM mode and use 25 KHz steps.
Searching is more important than anything! A few years ago I stopped scanning banks of freqs. I now use a minimum of 8 Uniden BC-780XLT scanners, each searching a different 20 MHz section of the UHF MilAir band. With this setup I can cover the entire 225-380 range in about 8 seconds! Here is an article I wrote on searching:
http://milaircomms.com/scanner_search_mode.htmlAnother important item you might not know unless you do a lot of MilAir scanning is if you hear a pilot say "PUSH TO" your ears should perk up! Listen for the numbers that come after the phrase "PUSH TO" that will be a frequency he will be changing to.
Back in 2005 the Super Bowl was held in Jacksonville FL, about 100 miles north of me (I am in the Daytona Beach, FL area). I posted to my website the audio I recorded from the CAP missions during the game. You can find them here:
http://milaircomms.com/audio_library.html scroll about half way down the page and you'll see "Super Bowl Combat Air Patrol Comms". You might want to take a listen so you'll know what you can expect to hear.
If you hear comms on the MilAir bands, please spot them on the MilAirComms Spotter Network (
http://milaircomms.com/mil_air_spotters_network.html) so that others can enjoy. Also monitor the Spotters Network for freqs other users spot. If everyone contributes a little it will add up to a lot of fun!
Wow, I started typing and was only going to say a few things, here I almost wrote an entire article...Oh well, I hope it helps in your Super Bowl Military Scanning Experience....
Thanks
George
www.MilAirComms.com