Brisbane HF

[Michael Mak]

I got a question with Brisbane HF - I heard on Melbourne Centre tonight that QF653 (MEL-PER) was transferred from Melbourne Centre to Brisbane HF. I thought only flights that fly over the ocean (across the Tasman or the Pacific) would go through HF while the trans-continental flights would be with VHF during cruise, albeit no radar service.

EDIT: The controller has just advised QF653 that the next VHF would be Melbourne Centre 123.95

Would someone be able the shed some light on this? Thanks.

[Owen H]

Michael,

The answer is in the air routes over to Perth.

While some stay within VHF range, some of the air routes go a long way south, and end up well outside VHF range.

Hope that answers it for you!

Edited to add - altitude also plays a role. Not all of continental Aus is within VHF range either... and you can be over land and still using the HF radios, although this is less common for jet aircraft at high altitude compared to aircraft a bit lower down which have a lower range.

[Mick F]

HF is used all over Australia. Not every airport has VHF coverage (a very very small percentage do), so therefore the use of HF is required.

If you get a chance to listen to some HF frequencies, try one's like 3452, 6610, 8831, 8843, 6541 and you'll hear a wide range of aircraft, from QLink to the Flying Doctors, to all manner of GA aircraft. Mainly for cancelling SARWatch/Times and giving taxi calls, however can be used for anything.

I would use HF almost on a daily basis just flying around Queensland.

Mick

[Michael Mak]

Thanks for the replies. I flew to PER on DJ 332 earlier this year and I asked the pilots if HF was used when crossing the Bight but they told me VHF was used the entire flight. However we weren't that far off the coast during the crossing.

Does Melbourne FIR have HF too or is it only coming from Brisbane? I would have thought the the south coast of SA and WA would be under Melbourne FIR. Would flights across the Indian Ocean use Melbourne HF or Brisbane HF?

Thanks.

[Adam P.]

The HF operators are all physically located in Brisbane, though the transmitters may be elsewhere.
HF is simply a relay between the controller and the aircraft, used when the aircraft is out of range of the controller's own VHF frequencies. So when the controller wants to communicate with the aircraft, they call the HF operator on a landline and pass their message, and the HF operator then calls the aircraft. Or when the aircraft wants to talk to ATC, they call on HF and the HF operator answers, takes the message and then calls the controller on the landline to pass it on.
So the aircraft might be under the jurisdiction of a Melbourne Centre controller, but they still talk to 'Brisbane International'.

That make any sense?

Adam

[Michael Mak]

Thanks Adam, that makes sense

[Maikha Ly]

Thanks for posing the question Michael M, and everyone else's response. This too had my curiousity as well.

What would be a suitable device to listen to the HF frequencies? A Shortwave receiver?