Join the Wattisham
listserver. Established Feb. 1999.
All frequencies have been found by myself,
friends and listserver members while listening over the last few years.
They are current
as of the date at the bottom of this page.
STUD frequencies
other then ATC ones may vary.
AAC
Wattisham is one of the 16th
Air Assult Brigades Army Air Corps bases in the UK. Wattisham
has a Designated User Area (DUA) in Suffolk for it's own use. This is
part of the
UK Low Fly Area LFA10. This army airfield is quite special in having a
tarmac runway
and has facilities for heavy lift fixed wing aircraft (a throw back to
when it was an RAF station during the Cold War). Helicopters form most
of the air traffic in and out of the airfield but anything can call in
or fly over. Military air traffic using Wattisham Airfield (EGUW) will
talk to the ground on UHF mostly. Army helicopter traffic can
sometimes be heard using the VHF especially when their UHF radio is
being used for air-air.
RAF
RAF Search and Rescue 22(B)Sqn
is based at the airfield. They fly two Sea King helicopters. Callsigns
are SRG125 to 127 or RESCUE 125 to 127.
The Sea King is equipped with VHF, FM, UHF and shortwave radios. During
an operation they will adopt the full RESCUE callsign otherwise it's
"SRG" or occasionally SAREX. The Seaking helicopters use STUD capable
radios and
will be heard switching to their presets (listed below). They will
check
in with the Coastguard on 156.000 FM (Ch.0) and 5680kHz to Kinloss RCC
both before and after a training
exercise. It's also possible to hear the Sea Kings on other marine and
HF freqs. 156.000 is used by their ops at Wattisham and between
the winch man and cockpit.
Police
Suffolk Police operate their Eurocopter
EC-135 from a purpose built building, the Air Support Unit
(ASU) on the airfield. callsign is POLICE35 or
A99/QH99 on police and marine channels.
Visitors
Wattisham is seen as a convenient fuel
stop for Military helicopter traffic. So anything from RAF Chinooks to
Navy Sea Kings will visit.
It's also worth listening out for exercise aircraft using Wattisham.
The old RAF Woodbridge (Rock Barracks) and Bentwaters bases
are used as target airfields as well as for Army training and exercises.
Since the formation of the 16th
Air Assault Brigade and the movement of Paras to Colchester
and Pathfinders to Wattisham there are many more RAF Hercules and even
C-17 visits. The First RAF C-17 landing took place in August 2002.
Based
helicopter callsigns.
Unit/Regiment Aircraft Callsign
Suffolk Police ASU EC-135 Police35
RAF 22Sqn(B)flight 2 HAR3 Sea Kings SRG("Sierra") or Rescue 125 to 127
3 Regt 653Sqn Lynx AH.9 AAC### Dragon, Prowler, Slayer, Bomboo
662 Lynx AH.1/7, Gazelle AH.1 AAC### Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Freeze
663 Lynx AH.1/7, Gazelle AH.1 AAC### Leopard, Sherman, Stalker, Tracker
4 Regt.654 Lynx AH.1/7, Gazelle AH.1 AAC### *(Pilot assigned see below)
669 Lynx AH.1/7, Gazelle AH.1 AAC### *(Pilot assigned see below)
659 Lynx AH.9 AAC### *(Pilot assigned see below)
* Trabbi, Sumo, Nightmare, Tojan, Turtle, Bomber, Nighthawk, Trapper,
* Wyley, Basher, Bottle, Ramrod, Speedy, Statto, Dumper, Shadow.
Others (first heard):
Hydro(29/03/04), Hemlock(17/01/05), Ogre(17/01/05), Scarlet(15/02/05),
Gangster(11/03/05), Dancer(05/12/05), Asphalt(21/01/06),
Ballpoint(21/01/06), Ransack(28/06/06), Gunship(20/06/06),
Outlaw(20/06/06), Sumo(20/06/06), Fireblade(28/06/06)
Wattisham Airfield Frequency Guide
