A request to To the self appointed 'Guard' (121.5) Police

[Diddley Dee]

Today at about 1500z London Centre (D&D) were simualtaneously dealing with a radio fail on 243 in class C , a hawk reporting an airpox again on 243 and on 121.5 Mhz a lost PPL solo student inside the London TMA.

I lost count how many times professional pilots piped up on 121.5 telling me as a controller I was on guard. Guys, the last thing we need when dealing with simualtaneous emergencies is being berated for doing our job and assisting pilots with difficulties, could we all please think before blindly transmitting " you're on guard" over & over again.

TVM

DD

[theloser1]

Hear Hear well done I cannot abide the sanctimonious " enforcers"

[fmgc]

Could it be that the "on guard" calls were coming from aircraft that were in range of DnD UK but were actually talking to and hearing 121.5 hijackers that were out of range of DnD UK?

I know, I know, its a long shot!

[BigEndBob]

And bearing in mind the wx conditions at moment over the UK the Tx's would probably travel a long way.

[ChristiaanJ]

Diddley Dee,

I lost count how many times professional pilots piped up on 121.5 telling me as a controller I was on guard.

I've already read another thread on this self-same subject, and it upset me.
Since you must have a D/F fix on most of these self-righteous twits, and hopefully a radar fix as well to identify them, isn't there a way to report them individually, and get something done about this plague?

[Avman]

You know Diddley, fmgc may well have a point. Those a/c, realising what was in progress, were probably telling others (who unbeknown to them were in fact out of your range) to get orff the air. Not such a long shot.

[tankermytanker]

Avman, regardless of whether you're right, it is pathetic the number who consider themselves to be the Guard police. It seems to be the only reason they listen in.

Tank

[AERO_STUDENT]

In my (very) humble opinion.....

If you need to say something on 121.5 for one of its intended uses, do so.

If you don't, then say nothing at all.


A guard policeman barking that ubiqutous 'You're on guard' blocks as much airtime and causes as much annoyance as any misplaced handling agent call, ride report, baseball score, local dialect conversation, burp, fart etc etc.....

T0ssers, the above, one and all.

[xetroV]

Great idea to sticky this thread! Guard police is becoming an increasing burden on the 121.5 - very annoying, although they probably think they are doing us all a favour.

I can't remember it being this bad 10 or even 5 years ago, but maybe I'm just getting old?

[green granite]

Does it not contravene the rules if you transmit without identifying yourself, which could lead to loss of your radio license? I've known of one person who had his VHF maritime license revoked for breaking the rules (mind you it was persistent and very abusive)

[ZeBedie]

Some people will persist with trying to call Servisair on guard until they're told that they're on guard!

[md80fanatic]

Post number 5 above states the most likely cause IMO. Unusual weather patterns this year are responsible for many rare VHF ducting events.
http://www.icao.int/anb/Panels/ACP/W...0/wgd10_07.pdf

[A4]

Correct Zebedie,

Over France this morning a guy calls the agent on guard. Someone says "you're on guard". Said guy then passes ETA, specials, fuel required and requests stand number "You're on guard" again comes out of the ether and lo he repeats his request ......

So I politely and deliberately slowly said "You are transmitting on guard".

Someone who presumably has read this thread then asks me if I'm the "Guard Police"

And another quips in with "but your transmitting on guard". I told them to grow up and it all went quite.

So I agree that it can be annoying when everyone jumps on someone who does transmit on guard - BUT when there is evidently a MUPPET who is not listening and proceeds to trot out his life history (twice) a gentle reminder is in order. What is unacceptable is for others who think they're some sort of comedian to then start piping up with inane comments.

Your supposed to be Professional pilots for christs sake! Start behaving like one.

A4

[bracebrace!]

Monitoring Guard last week I heard the following:

"Thomas Cook Boeing 757 Registration G-*** zis is ze French Airforce Mirage on ze port side, do you copy on 121.5?"

No comments from the Guard Police. Guess they were all waiting for the response from the TopJet crew...

[binbombayanback]

Was monitoring a similar intercept in Northern France last week but understood it to be Mirage trying to contact an 'N' reg. Quite a stressful time for the intercept A/C when 2 x easyjets popped in for a chat with each other on 121.5! Pxxs poor performance from some alleged professional pilots!

[xetroV]

I heard that Topjet exchange. I was somewhat surprised that the fighter apparantly did not know the 757's callsign, so it took a few tries before the Topjet crew realized that in fact they were that "757 aircraft on flight level XXX, position YYYY". I think the situation was professionally dealt with by both parties - goes to show the importance of the guard frequency.

"You're on guard" may sound clear and consise, but I have heard several instances where the guy transmitting on the wrong frequency in fact took it for "go ahead", and started an even longer erroneous transmission with ETA's and fuel and wheelchair passengers and what not.

People don't realize that "you're on guard" is actually aviation slang used mainly by native english speakers (and, for some strange reason, by grumpy Germans). Despite being a longer transmission, "<Callsign>, you are transmitting on 121 decimal 5" might be a lot more effective, if the need to play guard-police really gets the better of you.

[ZeBedie]

As a sergeant in the guard police, I've accepted the criticisms made here. In future the call to Servisair will get a "go ahead", followed by a "roger, company ops request you divert to XYZ". Well if they're really that stupid...

[SUNTURK 69]

haha that's a good one. I hope I will be there to hear that one developing

[4HolerPoler]

I've never so heard so much crap spoken on 121.5 as in the UK at the moment - I'm not past there often but have heard numerous weekend warriors bleating that they're "unsure of our position" - trollip! Learn to nav or buy a hundred buck GPS. 121.5 is for emergencies - keep it that way.

Regretfully there's so much chatter that I've taken to muting the volume on 21.5 in order not to have it interfere with the control frequency.

4HP

[737OPR]

I've done it myself accidentally, transmit on guard, no response, look down, Oeps, wrong frequency. In other words, guys will figure it out quick enough without the guard police. Now if a guy keeps repeating the occasional call to ops (like say 3 or 4 times), then, maybe a friendly reminder is in order. But the guard police immediate response is generally speaking just as annoying as the chit chat.