Military VHF
 

Hi,

I'm a Commercial Jet Pilot, but occasionally buzz about in a PA28 on days off. I am constantly amazed at how poor the signal quality of the military airfields' VHF is. Of course it is great that these guys are prepared to provide a LARS service and allow us GA lot through their MATZ's, I appreciate that they are also on UHF on the same frequency quite often, so perhaps this is why the VHF part of it is so poor. Couldn't they possibly spend a bit more of my tax, and invest in better R/T equipment? Yesterday, for example, I was IMC, and the controller at EG.. aerodrome was totally unreadable. The civil frequencies before and after him were 5/5 so no problem with the aeroplane's radios - We have two fairly new Comm boxes in our Arrow and never have a problem hearing any of the civilian R/T.

Perhaps the military radios are all pre-war? Which begs the question : War? Which war?

One might well ask...:ouch:

I'm sure they would love to spend money on new VHF radios. However, I would guess that the £3.99 they have left in the kitty is more necessary for secure UHF comms equipment that is sand/dust resilient. :{

PS. I think they are pre 1960s.

To give you an idea of the beancounters menality.....Long, long time away in a Galaxy very far away we asked for, and submitted the papers for a replacement UHF radio.

The aircraft was fitted with 1 UHF and 1 VHF.

The "standard" mil radio at that time was an integrated V / UHF box.

They paid good money to remove the VHF element as we hadn't asked for it!