Croughton

[Carnaby]

There was also the Cemetery Net and AT2J on HF around then...

Tell us more, please. Where were these transmissions? Around 6MHz (plus and minus a hell of a lot) perhaps?

[kebecker]

if any one has the time rigth now I noticed 2 additional images of Croughton taken at the same time as the one on the previous page, the page is quiet slow. I may get to this at the weekend.

http://www.defenseimagery.mil/imager...chk=6cfe0&n=60

From the DoD site: change of command parade 2003



and from 1989

[REF]

Some of my notes about Croughton;

RAF Croughton began life in 1940 as Brackley Landing Ground, it was renamed in July 1941. The first aircraft here were Whitleys of 78 Squadron on deployment from their home base at Linton-on-Ouse. From june 1940 until July 1942 the airfield was used by 16 OTU operating Hampden, Anson and later Wellington aircraft.

The airfield remained a training airfield and No.1 Glider Training School moved in from Thame in August 1942, they were equipped with Hector and Hotspur gliders. Tugs were based there in the form of Miles Masters. Tiger Moths and Oxfords were used for training at the same time. No.1 GTS remained here until March 1943.

From March 1943 until October 1944 the airfield was allocated to 20 Pilots Advanaced Flying Unit that were based at Kidlington. They were a twin-engined training school and used Airspeed Oxfords. At the units' peak they had around 200 aircraft and Croughton was a very busy place.

In November 1944 No.1 GTS reformed here and remained until June 1946. the next unit to use the airfield was 267 Maintenance Unit. After a period of Care & Maintenance in July 1948 the airfield was in use again, this time by No.3 MU who remained until July 1951.

Now used by the United States Air Forces' 422nd Air Base Group, the airfield is a large communications centre and one of the largest military switchboards in Europe.

The airfield is now covered in an array of aerials, radar and antenna but the same layout has remained, the grass surface can clearly be seen and there are a number of original WW2 structures still on the airfield including the Control Tower and some immaculatly preserved fighter pens.

[Rerun57]

Croughton airways was on (is on??) 6751kHz, if I remember rightly, in the 1970s. It also had many other freqs in the other usual HF air segments of the radio spectrum. The "67" freq was the one I used to hear most traffic on, especially in the day time. You also used to get Lajes, Incirlik, McDill, Loring and others which I now forget. I never heard a "Moonshine" call, but "Sky King" messages were very common and seemed to be broadcast at a given number if minutes past the hour, varying with station. MKL was on a similar freq in the 6 MHz band, as well as other HF freqs. This was (is) RAF and NATO maritime patrol net, sending ops status info and coded traffic by both speech, Morse and RTTY to and from Northwood(??). I used to hear the Cemetary net after dark, but rarely heard anything of interest-normally just radio checks, although once there was mention of an F-4 crash in Germany. My favourite HF net was that of the 10 TRW and 20 TRW, which was often busy with RF-4Cs and F-111Es carrying out sorties over UK and Western Europe. Sadly, when moving many years ago I binned all my notes from these nets. Stupid or what? Anyone else have other info about these?

[tigger]

My own memories of the Cemetery net are of an assortment of callsigns, usually numerical (eg CEMETERY 51 was Kleine Brogel, CEMETERY 83 was Sigonella), though sometimes they used others such as RINGSIDE (also Kleine Brogel). Messages were hourly, on the security status of all USArmy/USAF nuclear sites in Europe. Another callsign often heard was BOLD JUSTICE - some kind of airborne asset. I think the net was divided into subnets as the callsigns always seemed to transmit in the same smaller groupings of around ten stations.

SKYKING messages were always very short and other transmissions were often interupted so they could be passed. I don't recall them being at a specific time, nor are they now.

Trawling my brain for MOONSHINE but don't remember the format....I was only about five or six years old but fascinated by HF listening (the shipping forecast is poetry even now!).

I thought all my notebooks (I used the scrapbooks that most kids probably put cuttings etc in then swapped to using my school exercise books later) were at my mums house but with a few moves between then and now she says not.

Probably better in a different thread but if anyone else has memories of these nets from the 60s and 70's I'd also love to hear them.

[juddy]

Do they have a helicopter pad here?

[tigger]

Do they have a helicopter pad here?

Not seen one....they could use the running track if it was necessary to land a helicopter?

[Rerun57]

I have started posting on the HF Comms Nets here:

http://www.airfieldinformationexchan...l=1#post120255

All very welcome to join in!

[Terenceskipp]

In my planespotting days of the late 1950's 60's we used to listen in on the short wave band of my parents, with transmissions fading in & out. Callsigns Skyking & " all viaduct aircraft" come to mind, with lots of numbers after