What Frequency is Guard?
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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What Frequency is Guard?
Heard today in the vicinity of Tennant Creek:
The chap I was with thought TJI is a QF737.... (but I dont know for sure)
Bris Ctr: "TJI we are experiencing communication difficulties, if you cannot contact us directly try Cathay 105 on Guard"
TJI: : "Roger we can try Cathay" - short pause - "Centre, err what frequency is Guard again?"
GO YOU GOOD THING!!!
Edited for dyslexia! (TJI not TIJ)
The chap I was with thought TJI is a QF737.... (but I dont know for sure)
Bris Ctr: "TJI we are experiencing communication difficulties, if you cannot contact us directly try Cathay 105 on Guard"
TJI: : "Roger we can try Cathay" - short pause - "Centre, err what frequency is Guard again?"
GO YOU GOOD THING!!!
Edited for dyslexia! (TJI not TIJ)
Last edited by Felix Lighter; 11th Nov 2003 at 15:38.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
TIJ
is most certainly a C210.
It used to have one of those old ADF's in it with the rotary dials. Used to pick up the DN NDB on the ground at Jabiru!
And it's left fuel gauge used to read zero when it felt like it! Would work fine on the ground and for every engineering inspection!
but back to the thread...bwahahahaha!
But I did like the Singapore Airlines Skipper the other day contacting centre to ask for the Allblacks vs Springboks rugby results!
CS
It used to have one of those old ADF's in it with the rotary dials. Used to pick up the DN NDB on the ground at Jabiru!
And it's left fuel gauge used to read zero when it felt like it! Would work fine on the ground and for every engineering inspection!
but back to the thread...bwahahahaha!
But I did like the Singapore Airlines Skipper the other day contacting centre to ask for the Allblacks vs Springboks rugby results!
CS
Felix Lighter
Somehow I doubt very much that a QF crew didn’t know what frequency guard was. If it was a VFR guy buzzing around below A100 then maybe this story sounds more plausible to me.
Somehow I doubt very much that a QF crew didn’t know what frequency guard was. If it was a VFR guy buzzing around below A100 then maybe this story sounds more plausible to me.
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404 Titan my man, given that some of the tykes I see wandering through the terminal with four bars on, look about the same age as my son, it is possible. 
My son can make a computer sing dixie, but still doesn't know how to change the tyre on his vehicle.
It doesn't mean that they aren't competent in their chosen profession, because they are frighteningly so, just that they come from a parallel universe.
My son can make a computer sing dixie, but still doesn't know how to change the tyre on his vehicle.
It doesn't mean that they aren't competent in their chosen profession, because they are frighteningly so, just that they come from a parallel universe.
All these old hands about and still the question unanswered.... TW, no it isn't. Guard is "121.5" (the same frequency as the early boat epirbs and many aircraft ones).
123.45 is usually known locally as "the numbers", and despite what many might say it is actually listed in our Aussie AIP as a bona fide air to air frq for use to tx operational information in between to airbourne aircraft.
Regards,
Ops.
123.45 is usually known locally as "the numbers", and despite what many might say it is actually listed in our Aussie AIP as a bona fide air to air frq for use to tx operational information in between to airbourne aircraft.
Regards,
Ops.
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But do you know why 121.5 is used????
Well I'm glad you asked.
Because Civil aviation use VHF and Military use UHF, any distress messages transmitted on VHF 121.5 can also be heard on the military distress frequency UHF 243.0 and vice versa.
Well I'm glad you asked.
Because Civil aviation use VHF and Military use UHF, any distress messages transmitted on VHF 121.5 can also be heard on the military distress frequency UHF 243.0 and vice versa.
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Pullock, perhaps having a radio covering a band of around 240-340 MHz, they don't care to call it a "composite high-band VHF/UHF radio". Maybe "UHF" is easier.
Or maybe they just reckon it's a trivial distinction that only boring radio pedants can be bothered with.
Or maybe they just reckon it's a trivial distinction that only boring radio pedants can be bothered with.
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'Guard' Yes another idiosyncrasy from Australia I suspect. Never heard of it outside of that country.
Why do they have to complicate things??? Keep it simple keep it safe, I say.
Why dont they just say the emergency frequency or 121.5 and leave it at that? Cut out the BS.
Why do they have to complicate things??? Keep it simple keep it safe, I say.
Why dont they just say the emergency frequency or 121.5 and leave it at that? Cut out the BS.
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CS,
Indonesia 72 something-or-other asked for the AFL Grand Final score before anyone else last month. Laughed my head off cause there were about 4 QF flights around and I had been trying different broadcast stations for about half an hour trying to find the answer.
Indonesia 72 something-or-other asked for the AFL Grand Final score before anyone else last month. Laughed my head off cause there were about 4 QF flights around and I had been trying different broadcast stations for about half an hour trying to find the answer.
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loc out
errrrr...gee loc-out....
I really think you should get out more!
Given that your curent place of abode is the UAE, I should have thought that you would have heard our military cousins using it a lot...not to mention all the other aircraft flying thru the airspace.
I always thought that's where it got it's name from..the military, not the civvie Australians, but I could be wrong!
I really think you should get out more!
Given that your curent place of abode is the UAE, I should have thought that you would have heard our military cousins using it a lot...not to mention all the other aircraft flying thru the airspace.
I always thought that's where it got it's name from..the military, not the civvie Australians, but I could be wrong!
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As far as my understanding of the term guard goes - and this is only from radios that I have worked with that have GUARD RECEIVERS in them (these radios are all incidentally military ones )
The guard channel is one that is programmed to a second (and independent) receiver within the radio which receives on the (chosen) guard frequency at all times regardless of the frequency in use by the operator. It may be described as a priority monitoring channel.
The guard receiver could therefore be used to monitor either a calling frequency or company frequency or distress frequency so that calls would never be missed.
I have only ever seen the distress frequencies programmed to guard receivers in civilian applications of these radios, and suspect that it is often the case in many military applications as well.
I therefore believe this to be the origin of the colloquialism "guard" when it is used to refer to distress frequencies.
"guard" is not used so much in GA to refer to the distress frequencies owing to its military origins, and the fact that many GA aircraft have higher priority frequencies to monitor with their limited equipment. Monitoring 121.5 is rare as a SOP in GA operations from what I have experienced.
Guard receiver technology was used in the first transistorised radios, and I haven’t seen it used in modern equipment. Much of this antiquainted equipment remains common in Australian military use today partly because of it's replaement expense, but also for the sake of cominality.
If my account of the origin of the term is correct then I hardly think it is fair to bag somebody out just because they asked a reasonable question because they haven’t had to use old fashioned military radios or haven’t flown with people who have!!
The term guard is a colloquialism just like calling a vacuum cleaner a hoover, a sailboard a windsurfer, a cable tie a panduit, a small aircraft a cessna........the list goes on. Having said that I am still to hear a better common name for it - perhaps we should call the ACC (acronym control committee)
(edited for my p iss poor spelling - ironic that I am contemplating the origins of words yet can't spell for s hit !!)
The guard channel is one that is programmed to a second (and independent) receiver within the radio which receives on the (chosen) guard frequency at all times regardless of the frequency in use by the operator. It may be described as a priority monitoring channel.
The guard receiver could therefore be used to monitor either a calling frequency or company frequency or distress frequency so that calls would never be missed.
I have only ever seen the distress frequencies programmed to guard receivers in civilian applications of these radios, and suspect that it is often the case in many military applications as well.
I therefore believe this to be the origin of the colloquialism "guard" when it is used to refer to distress frequencies.
"guard" is not used so much in GA to refer to the distress frequencies owing to its military origins, and the fact that many GA aircraft have higher priority frequencies to monitor with their limited equipment. Monitoring 121.5 is rare as a SOP in GA operations from what I have experienced.
Guard receiver technology was used in the first transistorised radios, and I haven’t seen it used in modern equipment. Much of this antiquainted equipment remains common in Australian military use today partly because of it's replaement expense, but also for the sake of cominality.
If my account of the origin of the term is correct then I hardly think it is fair to bag somebody out just because they asked a reasonable question because they haven’t had to use old fashioned military radios or haven’t flown with people who have!!
The term guard is a colloquialism just like calling a vacuum cleaner a hoover, a sailboard a windsurfer, a cable tie a panduit, a small aircraft a cessna........the list goes on. Having said that I am still to hear a better common name for it - perhaps we should call the ACC (acronym control committee)
(edited for my p iss poor spelling - ironic that I am contemplating the origins of words yet can't spell for s hit !!)
Last edited by pullock; 12th Nov 2003 at 22:38.