My first video upload. Hope it works.
Anon from (PB) asked for video upload of radio chatter regarding Van Nuys airport delaying departures on 3-18-20. This video is a grouping of chatter captured yesterday, of a number of L.A. region radio comms, heard via scanner radio. I had a video camera set up to capture anything significant. A number of things caught my attention.
The first significant event yesterday was a group of low flying military helicopters, traveling west above the 101 freeway, close enough to me to rattle windows and shake walls. A rare sighting in the city, but they do fly that route from time to time. Last time was last year, as written about in the link. Nothing written about yesterday's visitation, yet.
At the time of their passing, I was monitoring nearby Van Nuys airport ATC. Moments after the choppers passing by, ATC instructed all departing craft awaiting take-off that there would be an "indefinite" delay. That immediately caught my attention, and that's when I began recording. I didn't catch the initial detailed ATC delay announcement, but captured subsequent brief additional statements. ATC did not state over radio the reason for the delay, but directed pilots to call the tower for further info. I knew the reason for the delay - those passing military birds. Those brief statements can be heard within the last 20 seconds of the video.
The radio chatter heard in the rest of the video are sequences I edited together of some of the more interesting chatter that afternoon. The early sequences are from the LAFD ACS (Auxiliary Communications Service), a radio network throughout Los Angeles county staffed by pre-screened radio operators either working for, or retired from, the FD, or other first responder qualified people. Their job is to provide eyes on information during a time of emergency (fire, flood, earthquake, pandemic) as a way to bypass official bottlenecked comms, or if the primary comm system is compromised, or destroyed. A radio internet all emergency responders can listen to.
The LAFD ACS has been activated to highest level alert since the national emergency, and are conducting daily system checks, and to share reports of anything significant. Interesting that they avoid social media rumors. In another segment they discussed what social media sources to trust, and specifically avoid conspiracy theories. It's not their job to "go there," so they don't.
A notable (to me) report was by an individual within the Long Beach port, reporting that all operations are normal. I found that interesting because of all groups of people coming into contact with infectious cargo and crew from foreign countries (namely China), the port is reporting no issues.
Other clips I captured and included in the video are the usual FD emergency dispatches heard day in and day out.
https://laist.com/2019/02/26/those_were_apache_and_blackhawk_helicopters_flying_over_los_angeles_today_heres_why.php