UK Callsigns of the mid-1980s

[jonf45]

Great to see some of these callsigns again!
From these, can anyone remember if the TWU squadrons shared callsigns or did 79/234 and 63/151 have their own? (Eg, I'm pretty sure Hatchet was a 63sqn one etc)
Cheers
Jon

[Focal_Plane]

Great to see some of these callsigns again!
From these, can anyone remember if the TWU squadrons shared callsigns or did 79/234 and 63/151 have their own? (Eg, I'm pretty sure Hatchet was a 63sqn one etc)
Cheers
Jon

Hi Jon,

I can`t add much but 63 & 151 Squadron had individual callsigns, the primary ones being "Hatchet" for 63 Sqd (as you mention), and "Wizard" for 151 Sqd. I also have a record of 63 using "Gallant" and "Kelly" and of 151 Sqd using "Scarlet" and "Mogul". Looking through my log books I have C.H.R. and then C.H.Y. in use prefixes for aircraft assigned to 2 TWU at Chiv`.

Other than that i have records of the 4th FTS using c/s "Pheonix" as primary then "Copper" "Jester", "Snapper" and "Taboo", plus of course the familiar V.Y.T. prefix still in use today at Valley. For Brawdy I have "Eagle" and "Condor" for 79 Sqd and "Hawk" for 234 Squadron, plus B.D.Y. and later B.R.W. as prefixes.

I`m sure there were many others so hopefully somone can add to this.

John
PS: Enjoyed looking at your Chivenor page. Brings back a lot of happy memories.

[jonf45]

Great to see some of these callsigns again!
From these, can anyone remember if the TWU squadrons shared callsigns or did 79/234 and 63/151 have their own? (Eg, I'm pretty sure Hatchet was a 63sqn one etc)
Cheers
Jon

Hi Jon,

I can`t add much but 63 & 151 Squadron had individual callsigns, the primary ones being "Hatchet" for 63 Sqd (as you mention), and "Wizard" for 151 Sqd. I also have a record of 63 using "Gallant" and "Kelly" and of 151 Sqd using "Scarlet" and "Mogul". Looking through my log books I have C.H.R. and then C.H.Y. in use prefixes for aircraft assigned to 2 TWU at Chiv`.

Other than that i have records of the 4th FTS using c/s "Pheonix" as primary then "Copper" "Jester", "Snapper" and "Taboo", plus of course the familiar V.Y.T. prefix still in use today at Valley. For Brawdy I have "Eagle" and "Condor" for 79 Sqd and "Hawk" for 234 Squadron, plus B.D.Y. and later B.R.W. as prefixes.

I`m sure there were many others so hopefully somone can add to this.

John
PS: Enjoyed looking at your Chivenor page. Brings back a lot of happy memories.

Thank you for those John, i thought that was the case but i dont have much written down for Chivenor back then as it was "just the local stuff"!!! What id give for those boring Hawks now though!!
Cheers
jon

[phantom23]

would anyone know of the Phantom squadron call signs from the early eighties- Wattisham and Coningsby? - I'm aware that there were few scanners around in those days though

Thanks

[Focal_Plane]

would anyone know of the Phantom squadron call signs from the early eighties- Wattisham and Coningsby? - I'm aware that there were few scanners around in those days though

Thanks

I had no radio in the early eighties, but I seem to recall a bit later on that the Phantoms tended to use a lot of tri-graph type callsigns, like the Lightnings. However, I do remember 63 Sqd/228 OCU at Coningsby using "Scarab" in reference to their squadron emblem.

I don`t have anything for Wattisham during that era but later on 56 Squadron used "Firebird", then for 74 Sqd I have, "Stampede", "Stingray", "Thunder", "Tiger" and "Warlord".

[phantom23]

Thanks for the info, i had my first radio in 1984 and didn't record the formation call signs just a lot of tri-graphs as you say

[Hawk6]

Great knowledge all !! Thanks for sharing .

[jonf45]

Hi,
Does anyone remember what callsigns were used by the 55/57 Sqn Victor K2s at Marham? I seem to recall them using "Ascot" but had a feeling they used some more exotic ones too??!!
Cheers
Jon

[andrewn]

Hi,
Does anyone remember what callsigns were used by the 55/57 Sqn Victor K2s at Marham? I seem to recall them using "Ascot" but had a feeling they used some more exotic ones too??!!
Cheers
Jon

Typically Rafair 90xx and 91xx for overseas trails. Standard trigraphs, e.g. E9L20 or ADP53 for UK AAR and "Spartan" was used occasionally and for formation sorties. I'm sure there are more but those are the ones I remember from late 80's / early 90's.