This is truly one of my favorite aviation stories of all time and reread it anytime it gets linked here.

Not sure why you are downvoted, it's the most relevant and humorous explanation of the calm, professional ATC "Houston Center" voice out there.

I haven't downvoted it personally, because I would really really really love it to be true - but it's been "debunked"(if you can call it that). I suspect some of it is true - but not exactly as told.

https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8x5ndw/til_wh...

> I used to be a controller at Los Angeles Center in the 90's, and worked Aspen SR-71's (and later under the NASA callsign when they flew them out of Edwards AFB). They could hear ATC but not other aircraft, because civilian aircraft are on VHF frequencies, military on UHF, and anybody above 60,000 feet (like the SR-71's) were on a separate, center-wide UHF frequency so they wouldn't have to switch frequencies constantly. So the SR-71 and F-18 pilots couldn't have heard those other aircraft requesting groundspeed, or heard each other for that matter.

Wait...military planes only have a single radio receiver? Military spy planes only have a single radio receiver?

I imagine they have multiple receivers and can listen to any number of frequencies at once, but as a pilot you won't be listening to civilian frequencies....because why would you? It's just noise that's getting in the way of the mission.

That's covered in the original story. This was a training mission, to get the crew up to the number of hours needed to be cleared to go on real missions. The reconnaissance systems officer (RSO) was the one listening to all the radios, not the pilot.

This seems a perfectly sensible thing for the RSO to do on a training mission, since on a real mission he might need to monitor multiple frequencies:

> I was beginning to feel a bit sorry for Walter in the back seat. There he was, with no really good view of the incredible sights before us, tasked with monitoring four different radios. This was good practice for him for when we began flying real missions, when a priority transmission from headquarters could be vital

At this point, they have passed their hours threshold and are heading back home. The pilot says:

> Just to get a sense of what Walt had to contend with, I pulled the radio toggle switches and monitored the frequencies along with him.

Maybe, if they're that bored. But their transmissions won't be heard by the bug smashers down below.

They will if the pilot presses the appropriate TX selector button.

Technically true but that's bad protocol. If he did, it makes sense that he's the only pilot to be bounced out of the program.

Few aircraft have "receive only" radios, most have full Transceivers.

For redundancy they have multiple Transceivers, and most military radios cover both VHF and UHF.

For safety and redundancy the pilots can receive and transmit on any of their multiple radios just by (selecting the appropriate frequency) and pressing the appropriate Receive/Transmit selector buttons.

Many military aircraft also have secure (spread-spectrum) transceivers as separate units.

Many aircraft that fly over water also have VHF Marine radios fitted.

This is one of those cases where I try not to let the facts get in the way of a good story...

See also the lighthouse vs aircraft carrier story (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_and_naval_vessel_ur...)