Shanwick Radio

[13370khz]

Irish Aviation Authority recently promulgated three new "families" H,I,J of
HF frequencies for use by Shanwick Radio on a tactical basis. They comprise 35 new frequencies some of which are already being used.
What's happening?

[Self Loading Freight]

Keeping up with traffic growth, says the IAA (https://www.iaa.ie/nacs)

"Shanwick Radio keeps in contact with all flights in Oceanic Airspace mainly by means of High Frequency Radio (HF), but also uses VHF (Very High Frequency) and Satellite Phone (SATPHONE). HF can provide global coverage because of its ability to bounce off the ionosphere and can span the globe in a series of skips. VHF coverage, on the other hand, is limited to line-of-sight range. Shanwick Radio uses over 20 HF frequency channels and 2 VHF. At peak times it handles in excess of 1400 aircraft in a 24 hour period.

In 2011, the station handled in excess of 1 million messages from 403,534 aircraft. To cater for the growth in HF frequency activity, additional frequencies will be added in the near future."

[kcockayne]

This is a huge expansion in the number of frequencies compared to the old Families A-D & F. Has anyone any idea about how they are being used, & are they being shared with Gander, Iceland & Santa Maria (as in the case of the original frequencies) ?

[kcockayne]

Una Due Tfc

Thank you for your answer to my question. If only my HF radio wasn't broken, I'd listen in !