Squawk 1000 from Rhein Radar?

[epsum]

Hi,

Yesterday flying westbound, first Rhein Radar after Warsaw Control gave us squawk 1000. IFR. Strange thing about it was that also couple other a/c got same code (1000) under same control (1 Lufthansa, 1 LOT and 1 AF). Just wondering, why was this? No more codes available or some kind of new/special procedure?

Regards,

[DaveReidUK]

Yesterday flying westbound, first Rhein Radar after Warsaw Control gave us squawk 1000. IFR. Strange thing about it was that also couple other a/c got same code (1000) under same control (1 Lufthansa, 1 LOT and 1 AF). Just wondering, why was this? No more codes available or some kind of new/special procedure?

Both. 1000 is the Mode S Conspicuity Code.

If you are assigned that, it means that the ATC is using your Mode S Aircraft ID (i.e. flight number) to correlate your identity instead of needing a unique Mode A squawk.

The aim is to mitigate the acute shortage of squawk codes.

[poldek77]

More info here:

http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/484742-squawk-1000-a.html#post7176160

[BurglarsDog]

Already covered in another thread.

BD