I really hope it’s ok to ask this here, I’ve all but given up searching online. I just started monitoring Indianapolis Center on my RTLSDR and have stumbled across a frequency… I can actually hear the Center, and not just the aircraft. It sounds like its so close to me and I’m dying to find out where it could be.
It’s the “MERWYN” KZID RCAG, on 134.700, “Ultra high altitude” I’ve combed through all the enroute charts I can find online… there is no “Merwyn” in the tristate area… I’m stumped. If anyone knows where this remote is, or where I can look, I’d appreciate it! Mods: if this is inappropriate for this forum, I’d understand if you deleted.
There was a site that had all of these, but I’m not sure if it is defunct or not. From the LiveATC forum:
I have a database of (what I think is all) the ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center) radar locations. I have put all the lat/long’s on this clickable and scaleable map.
If you turn on ‘Satellite’ view and zoom in on a location you can actually see the radar site.
Thanks… yeah, I found that thread and a couple others that had dead links. I don’t have an account on there, but might get on there and ask. As a ham radio operator, it drives me nuts not to know the origin of a fixed signal
There was a site that had all of these, but I’m not sure if it is defunct or not. From the LiveATC forum:
When I searched for Merwyn online, Google took me to Brown County Airport in Georgetown, OH. No idea why…but that seems to be the “Merwyn RCAG” area.
I’m not too up on my geography…but back in the day, the FAA had a Flight Service Station in Dayton, OH…and of course, there are major airports (DAY, CVG, etc.)
Most likely the FAA has the antennas co-located at FAA locations, like Dayton FSS back in the day, or a major airport, navigational aid, radar site, etc. The FAA’s radio network of Center and AFSS frequencies are probably all in the same old places. I’m surprised they are not listed on the charts…maybe someone with an older sectional chart might be able to find the info. Or, call Indy Center and ask…what the heck?
I just looked for a frequency box at Seligman, AZ, which has an FAA Radar and when I worked in AFSS through the mid-90’s we had a Flight Watch transmitter/receiver site there, along with some other center frequencies.
The other symbol on the charts you might look for are Remote Communications Outlets (RCO).
Haha, yeah, I also thought it was odd that the only hits I was getting was the Brown County Airport listing on Airnav, etc. I’ve scoured the field on google earth and don’t see anything out there.
One thing that’s interesting is that there are two NDBs north of KLUK, the local GA field, just a few miles apart. One is MDE, and is a the other is LUK. MDE is one of those round hub/spoke looking things (sorry I don’t know the actual name) but LUK is one of those setups with 4 towers in a rectangular configuration. I really wonder if the latter is the elusive MERWYN. I hear them very clearly, and I’m probably 5 miles away at best.
I think you have it…the LUK spot with the 4 antenna towers is probably your best bet. They have that classic FAA radio look, and the sheer number of antennas makes the case. There is enough there for Merwyn and Flight Service and probably approach control, too…
Thanks! I found myself over in that area, didn’t expect to be over there yesterday and didn’t have a radio on me. Might try go get over there today if these storms let up.
It gets weirder though. I noticed that if you scroll down to the bottom of this page you can see a little more detail on the RCAG sites. Here, they have it spelled Merwin. There is a “Merwin” on the map not far from me, but definitely not the LUK site. However each frequency is listed, with a sector and an area. The one in question (134.700) is listed as Batesville, IN, which is a good hour away. What I’m not sure of is if those different sectors are different transmitter locations, or different areas that the RCAG is intended to cover. Haha… this is interesting learning about for sure.
I found that same page, but searched it for “Merwyn”. I wonder if that is just bad spelling or a different place…
On that list, they apparently show you the Indy Center sector names: The sector using 134.7 would be known as “Sector 76” or “Batesville” when controllers are coordinating internally. It may not be connected with the map location of Batesville at all…but like I said yesterday, there is FAA infrastructure all over in what we might think are odd places, so it is worth a shot.
And, I don’t know if you know this: the sure indication of an FAA facility is that white rectangular sign that states “Warning…This Facility is Used in FAA Air Traffic Control, etc…” With Google Street view, I could see the white rectangle quite clearly at the LUK location yesterday.
And also - before the right site was located online, I took advantage of the nice day and rode the motorcycle out to the LUK site referenced above. It was pretty clear that 134.7 wasn’t coming off those antennas. I did however determine what IS there, found a booming signal on 124.9 that is listed as the local clearance delivery. I then rode out to the Merwin area and turned the radio on, and decided it couldn’t be close by, cause the signal seemed very low. I was about a mile and a half away from the site. Driven by it a hundred times probably, and never noticed it there.
Anyway here’s a pic from Radio Range Park, right next to the Lunken site.
