V is for VHF

The fire swept over the ridge with the speed and fury of an inferno, leaving nothing but blackened trees and ashy soil in its wake. The radio repeater that facilitated communication up and down Piston Peak National Park was now nothing but a warped pile of worthless metal. This was a heavy blow to Blade and his team because with as fast as this fire was moving, communication was critical. So as he eyed the fire, the Chief made a call of the radio.

"Cabbie. Get fuel and kitted up. You are going to be flying high bird until this mission is done."

"Understood." Cabbie's voice was business-like. With the smokejumpers already deployed in the field, the old plane clearly knew that flying high bird was going to be the thing that would best protect the members of the Air Attack Team. But at the same time, Cabbie also knew just how difficult this mission would be, as a high bird mission would have him flying near his operational ceiling for hours on end. Even with the added benefit of supplemental oxygen, the old bird would probably finish this mission exhausted and plagued by a massive headache.

Still, Cabbie turned his nose back to the Air Attack Base and Blade turned his attention to the scene at tire. It was going to take at least 30 minutes for communication to be fully up and running, so the Chief was going to have to do his very best to keep things under control until then. He circled, making sure that he could maintain line of sight with as many of his people as possible because if he could see his teammates, he knew that he could speak with them over the radio. When line of sight communication proved impossible, Blade moved positions to relay the critical messages.

"High Bird 51 will be in position in 5." Cabbie's voice broke Blade's stream of consciousness. He squinted upward, and sure enough, there was a pair of familiar tails climbing into the sky above them.

"Rodger that, High Bird 51." Blade replied relieved. "Let us know when you are ready to transfer the radio load."

"Ready to transfer." Cabbie replied a moment later, then the aircraft switched from the direct radio channel to the repeater on. "Chief, am I coming through."

"Loud and clear, High Bird 51." The helicopter couldn't help but grin in relief. "Loud and clear."

With that, Blade was able to turn his full attention back to the fire. After all, there was still retardant in his belly tanks and it was time to make it rain.

Term – VHF – VHF stands for Very High Frequency and refers to the radio frequency bands that aircraft use to communicate. The radio bands used by aircraft are known as line of sight frequencies, which means that they can easily be blocked by mountains or hills. This is rarely an issue for aircraft, unless they are taking off, landing, or performing search and rescue activities.