As some of you may know, I haven’t had very much radio time over the last few weeks because my father was in the hospital and then in a rehabilitation hospital. Earlier this week, he was released, is back home, and is doing much better. During that time, amateur radio helped keep me sane and I was able to read a a good history book. Yesterday was the first time I’ve really had the chance to have any extended time on the radios and it gave me the opportunity to listen to some Agile Flag 22-2 action. I probably should have broken this down into three different posts, but all of them would have been rather short, so I’ve just lumped them all together.

Book Review

The time I spent at the hospital and rehabilitation hospital gave me the chance to finish up a really good book on Chinese History and I wanted to offer a brief review of it before I move on to radio stuff. The book I was reading was Michael Wood’s The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream. If you’ve seen Wood’s PBS series on the History of China, the book takes that and expands on it. Unsurprisingly for a country with a history like China’s, it’s a long book, but it never gets dry or boring. Wood’s writing style is for lack of a better term, conversational, and it’s almost like having him there with you talking you through China’s History. It was an absolutely fascinating read and I highly recommend it.

Amateur Radio

While I was traveling around town, between Brunswick and Savannah, and between home and hospitals, amateur radio provided a good outlet. I am thankful for QSOs with K4YGD, N4GSP, and KM4CTB among others over the Savannah DMR repeater and the 442.700+ repeater in Savannah. DMR was an awesome resource during the time, because I could carry my Anytone 878 with me and talk practically anywhere through the Savannah DMR repeater (except when I was deep in the bowels of Memorial Hospital). Without a doubt, it helped me take my mind off of things every now and then and helped keep my stress levels down. I did, however miss checking into the South Central Georgia ARES Net and the Georgia DMR Net; I hope to get back to checking into those regularly next week.

Agile Flag

Yesterday, exercise Agile Flag 22-2 began at the Savannah CRTC/ADC, with aircraft from various units and locations arriving. Today, they started flying missions in the afternoon and it continued past 2200 local. Aircraft departed Savannah and went to work at Townsend Range, the Bulldog MOA, the Moody MOA, and Avon Park Range down in Florida. Here are the callsigns and frequencies that I’ve heard over the last couple of days:

KING 31 (HC-130J, 12-5768, 71st RQS)
KING 32 (HC-130J, 13-5790, 71st RQS) 
ATTACK 0# (A-10C, 23rd Wing)
BANZAI 0# (A-10C, 75th FS)
SHARK 0# (A-10C, 75th FS)
BOAR ## (A-10C, 23rd FG)
GAMBLER 4# (F-16CM, 77th FS) 
AEGIS 7# (C-130J, 08-5675 & 08-5686, 317th AG)

253.200 - CRTC/ADC; "SHARK Ops"
138.625 - CRTC/ADC; "FALCON Ops"
225.750 - 165th AW Ops
225.450 - 71st RQS Ops
138.150 - 75th FS Air-to-Air
141.400 - 75th FS Air-to-Air
138.125 - 23rd FG Air-to-Air
138.575 - 23rd FG Air-to-Air
138.675 - 23rd FG Air-to-Air
143.600 - 23rd FG Air-to-Air
138.500 - 23rd FG Air-to-Air?
277.225 - 77th FS Air-to-Air
140.500 - CRTC/ADC; 77th FS Air-to-Air?

119.100/257.800 - Savannah-Hilton Head IAP Tower
120.400/353.775 - Savannah TRACON
125.300/371.875 - Savannah TRACON
118.400/307.225 - Savannah TRACON
282.200/124.675 - Jax Center Jekyll Low
323.300/133.700 - Jax Center Baxley Low
363.200/132.925 - Jax Center Allendale/Savannah Low
322.325/128.100 - Atlanta Center Augusta Low

279.625 - Marne Radio, Fort Stewart
228.400 - Townsend Range Control
343.750 - Bulldog MOA Discrete
310.825 - Moody MOA 2

Tomorrow, I go back to work and I don’t know how much of an opportunity I’ll have to listen to the rest of the exercise. Hopefully, this will give you a good starting point if you want to listen to the action.