Question for flight crew.....loss of comms HF arora.

[magpienja]

Hi I am a UK radio ham....big user of HF radio.....at times I like to listen to long range HF aero bands more so pre data link days....Last friday saturday the HF bands collapsed due the suns activity.....I did wonder how it would effect aircraft mid flight say crossing the atlantic.....would it cause problems.

Saying that I know you long range guy now use data links with ocean crossing....but are they sent via HF radio....somehow I suspect satellite links.

Next question....are data links world wide.....so is HF comms more a thing of the past.....

Nick 2E0LPL

[Private jet]

Satcom's use UHF or SHF afaik.

[DIBO]

I did wonder how it would effect aircraft mid flight say crossing the atlantic.....would it cause problems.in case you missed this topic: https://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/659203-hf-radio-issues-last-couple-days.html

[magpienja]

Thank you DIBO...interesting.

[wiggy]

Datalink overwater is usually via satcom which as Private Jet says uses UHF or higher freq.

Crossing somewhere like the Atlantic you usually (certainly used to ) back that up by monitoring a nominated HF err..frequency but it’s not usually the prime means of comm these days for most commercial operators doing scheduled across the pond.

I’m no longer current but when I left the job a handful of years back, the use of datalink was becoming more common even overland, even if just an adjunct to voice on VHF. Maastricht/Eurocontrol were big fans of it’s use over a chunk of Europe.