"K" in VOR identifier

[Jack Cunniff]

I had a first today; flying VFR across New England on this clear winter
day, my route took me over Bradley, KBDL. I always tune VORs during my
flights, so tuned Bradley's VOR.

Identifying, though, was interesting. The morse identifier was FOUR
characters, the last three of which were B D L. I had to listen a few
times to believe my ears; there was a K before B D L.

I've overflown Bradley many times, but this was the first time it had a K
preceeding the rest of the identifier. If VORS are being phased out, why
would a change like this be made? Or was something else going on?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

-Jack

[Brad Z]

Any chance you were perhaps identifying I-BDL, the identifier for localizer
for runway 6?

Other than that, it makes no sense to me. According to the AFD, the
identifier for the VORTAC should be simply BDL. Perhaps an engineer
erroneously rentered the identifier with a 'K' after testing the navaid.



"Jack Cunniff" > wrote in message
...
> I had a first today; flying VFR across New England on this clear winter
> day, my route took me over Bradley, KBDL. I always tune VORs during my
> flights, so tuned Bradley's VOR.
>
> Identifying, though, was interesting. The morse identifier was FOUR
> characters, the last three of which were B D L. I had to listen a few
> times to believe my ears; there was a K before B D L.
>
> I've overflown Bradley many times, but this was the first time it had a K
> preceeding the rest of the identifier. If VORS are being phased out, why
> would a change like this be made? Or was something else going on?
>
> Inquiring minds would like to know.
>
> -Jack
>
>

[Jack Cunniff]

Nope. It was a "K". I also got appropriate navigational info (DME/bearing)
from it, and the frequency was from the sectional, so no chance it was a
mis-tuned localizer freq.

You're probably right, it has to be an engineering issue. It definitely
threw me.

-Jack

"Brad Z" > writes:

>Any chance you were perhaps identifying I-BDL, the identifier for localizer
>for runway 6?

>Other than that, it makes no sense to me. According to the AFD, the
>identifier for the VORTAC should be simply BDL. Perhaps an engineer
>erroneously rentered the identifier with a 'K' after testing the navaid.



>"Jack Cunniff" > wrote in message
...
>> I had a first today; flying VFR across New England on this clear winter
>> day, my route took me over Bradley, KBDL. I always tune VORs during my
>> flights, so tuned Bradley's VOR.
>>
>> Identifying, though, was interesting. The morse identifier was FOUR
>> characters, the last three of which were B D L. I had to listen a few
>> times to believe my ears; there was a K before B D L.
>>
>> I've overflown Bradley many times, but this was the first time it had a K
>> preceeding the rest of the identifier. If VORS are being phased out, why
>> would a change like this be made? Or was something else going on?
>>
>> Inquiring minds would like to know.
>>
>> -Jack
>>
>>

[Dave Butler]

I've had a similar experience. When the localizer at TTA (Sanford, NC) was new
the charts showed the ident as "I-TTA", but the ident heard was "TTA". I
reported it somewhere, don't remember where, and I don't know whether it's been
corrected. My point is only that there is precedent for this kind of error.

Dave
Remove SHIRT to reply directly.

Jack Cunniff wrote:
> Nope. It was a "K". I also got appropriate navigational info (DME/bearing)
> from it, and the frequency was from the sectional, so no chance it was a
> mis-tuned localizer freq.
>
> You're probably right, it has to be an engineering issue. It definitely
> threw me.
>
> -Jack
>
> "Brad Z" > writes:
>
>
>>Any chance you were perhaps identifying I-BDL, the identifier for localizer
>>for runway 6?
>
>
>>Other than that, it makes no sense to me. According to the AFD, the
>>identifier for the VORTAC should be simply BDL. Perhaps an engineer
>>erroneously rentered the identifier with a 'K' after testing the navaid.
>
>
>
>
>>"Jack Cunniff" > wrote in message
...
>>
>>>I had a first today; flying VFR across New England on this clear winter
>>>day, my route took me over Bradley, KBDL. I always tune VORs during my
>>>flights, so tuned Bradley's VOR.
>>>
>>>Identifying, though, was interesting. The morse identifier was FOUR
>>>characters, the last three of which were B D L. I had to listen a few
>>>times to believe my ears; there was a K before B D L.
>>>
>>>I've overflown Bradley many times, but this was the first time it had a K
>>>preceeding the rest of the identifier. If VORS are being phased out, why
>>>would a change like this be made? Or was something else going on?
>>>
>>>Inquiring minds would like to know.
>>>
>>>-Jack
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>


--
Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367