Is Aviation communications stuck in the past? It’s been AM – Amplitude Modulation – on VHF since the 1940s. There have been additions, including some text-based data comm and navigation aids, but primary voice communication is still used for almost everything, and it’s still AM.
Captain Steeeve is a recently retired airline pilot and former military pilot. He also produces a YouTube show where he analyzes aviation ‘incidents’ using tower recordings and news footage, adding his deep perspective.
He is often critical of current communications technology, and has blamed it in part for some fatal accidents. In this epside, we dig deep into AVcomm.
https://www.youtube.com/@CaptainSteeeve
Aviation Communications is a mix of old and new technology, but the primary communications – voice – is plain old AM radio. Just like it was in the 1940s.
There are arguments for that. You want the simplest, most reliable system for potentially urgent communications. And AM proponents have long noted that when two AM signals ‘double’ – transmit at the same time – the result in receivers is a heterodyne; the transmission may be garbled, but at least the receiver knows it happened.
Our guest in this episode, retired airline pilot and YouTuber Captain Steeve, has his own take, and we’ll get the details in this episode, but he will claim that the current AVcomm system has cost lives, and it didn’t have to.
The Youth Forum at the 2026 Santa Maria DXers & Contesters Convention, April 11, 2026, featuring Violetta Latham KN2P, moderated by Dick Norton N6AA, ARRL SW Division Director
HRN 557 Yuma Ham Fest ARRL Forum with Richard Norton N6AA
https://HamRadioNow.tv
The most important Amateur Radio program on the Internet
music theme:
Odd News by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
It’s been… well, just since yesterday that we released an episode of the show, but before that it was a minute. But this is vaguely an auspicious date. More or less 14 years since the first HamRadioNow hit the Internet.
Ya know that ‘MARS MOD’ you use to jeep your radio so you can talk on GMRS? Well, it’s really a thing. MARS, the Military Auxiliary Radio System, turned 100 last year. It’s changed some over that time, but it’s still all ham radio operators providing public service communications in affiliation with the Army and Air Force.
The ‘Army guy’, Paul English WD8DBY, and the ‘Air Force guy’, Dave Antry WD9HBA, were at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention®, and they talked to East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ about what MARS is today.
HRN 553: EmComm Display at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention®
When you walk in the main gate at the Hamvention, the first exhibit you encounter is a collection of vehicles outfitted to the gills with ham radio. The banner says ‘EmComm Vehicle Display’, and some of the vehicles are truely that, sponsored by organizations dedicated to emergency response. Others have diffeent purposes: contests, rovers, or just the ability to escape a poor home QTH and get to a better operating location, and they are personal projects.
In this episode we’ll meet some of the hams responsible for these impressive rolling ham shacks, and take a look at what they’ve built.
About this episode:
Last May, the HamRadioNow Mobile Production Unit (that’s Gary K4AAQ) shot some TOURS at the Hamvention, which the HRN Editorial Unit (also Gary K4AAQ) promptly edited and posted. The MPU also shot a bunch of interviews at the ‘fest, which have been languishing on the editor’s hard drive ever since, while life went on. Now, somehow, Gary found a few spare minutes to slap one of those segments together.
There are a bunch more. Apparently Gary could use some encouragement to spend time slaving over a hot editing computer. Perhaps you can make some comments. Or just tell him to burn the drives and forget the whole thing 😒
https://HamRadioNow.tv
The most important Amateur Radio program on the Internet
music theme:
Odd News by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/
Is there a GMRS ‘Travel Chnnel’ – one channel to monitor and fiund other GMRS operaors out there on the road? Something like 146.52 on ham radio?
Gary K4AAQ says ‘no’ in his QLOG essay, but he says ‘there could be’, and recommends Channel 20. Maybe you have a different idea?
We’re inviting viewers to join the discussion on Zoom. Follow the link and line up in the waiting room. Add your Name and ham or GMRS call sign to your ‘name’ option. We’ll invote several (being optomistic that there will even BE ‘several’ of you) from the waiting room to join us on the show. We’ll also keep an eye on the YouTube chat.
Here’s the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86124415559?pwd=aw0FbrWl5xyUmNIQllKPQzmpYfqdn4.1
Is there a national GMRS ‘Travel Channel’? If not, could there be?
Live discussion, Sunday November 2, 3 PM Eastern. Join via Zoom to be part of the discussion. Here’s the Zoom link. Of course, there will be a waiting room. It’ll help to put your GMRS and/or ham call sign along with your Name. We’ll ‘interview’ you in the waiting room, and bring a few people into the show. Log into the Zoom about a half hour early, about 2:30 pm Eastern to get in line.
Topic: GMRS Travel Channel? HamRadioNow
Time: Nov 2, 2025 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86124415559?pwd=aw0FbrWl5xyUmNIQllKPQzmpYfqdn4.1
