Several people have asked me, why there are 3 different entries
- Shannon Aero, Shannon Volmet, and
Shanwick Aero? It's a quite philosophical
question... technically, all 3 stations mentioned are using the
same transmitter plant, Ballygirreen in the Republic of Ireland,
a few miles north of Shannon airport. The differentiation is the
purpose and the control over the 3 stations mentioned.
-
Shannon Aero is the station for the aeronautical
traffic controlled by Shannon airport, it was 'Shannon Aeradio'
for ground/air traffic (since 1966 conducted by Shanwick), and
'Shannon AFTN' for fixed radiolinks between Shannon on the one
and Iceland, Gander, New York, and Santa Maria on the other end.
All transmissions of Shannon Aero on shortwave have gone.
-
Shannon Volmet is still active, transmitting aviation
weather data of several european cities for aircraft on shortwave,
one of the most wellknown utility radio stations here. For the
actual transmission schedule look here, at the bottom of the page.
-
Shanwick Aero nowadays is the oceanic control centre
for all flights on the north atlantic tracks. They are very active,
because the number of flights across the atlantic is rising and
rising. While the transmitting station is, as said, in Ballygirreen,
Ireland, the control centre is physically located in Prestwick,
Scotland, Great Britain. The name 'Shanwick' is made up as a
combination of 'Shannon' and 'Prestwick'. For more
details, look here and here .
- - -
very chaotic traffic on 8879
kHz: both the North Atlantic and the Africa / Indian Ocean World
Major Air Route Area's (WMARA) booming in, revealing Gander,
Shanwick, and Iceland from the
one, and Beira, Lilongwe, and Antananarivo
from the other side (rb, 1985)
a QSL letter from 1983...
...and the frequency listings from 1983
a verification of a Concorde-flight (Michael Oexner, 1990)
Lars Lundström received them in 1995 on the 'search &
rescue' channel 5680 kHz
------------------------------------------------------------
Frequencies Voice:
2182
2872
2899
2962
2971
3016
3023
3476
4675
4715
5598
5616
5649
5680
5718
6622
8825
8831
8864
8879
8891
8906
8945
11279
11336
13291
13306
17946
Frequencies Radioteletype:
5028
5718
7716.6
8843
11384
Systems used:
HF-ACARS
MFSK