SELCAL

In international aviation, SELCAL or SelCal is a selective-calling radio system that can alert an aircraft's crew that a ground radio station wishes to communicate with the aircraft. SELCAL uses a ground-based encoder and radio transmitter to broadcast an audio signal that is picked up by a decoder and radio receiver on an aircraft. The use of SELCAL allows an aircraft crew to be notified of incoming communications even when the aircraft's radio has been muted. Thus, crewmembers need not devote their attention to continuous radio listening. In international aviation, SELCAL or SelCal is a selective-calling radio system that can alert an aircraft's crew that a ground radio station wishes to communicate with the aircraft. SELCAL uses a ground-based encoder and radio transmitter to broadcast an audio signal that is picked up by a decoder and radio receiver on an aircraft. The use of SELCAL allows an aircraft crew to be notified of incoming communications even when the aircraft's radio has been muted. Thus, crewmembers need not devote their attention to continuous radio listening. SELCAL operates on the high frequency (HF) or very high frequency (VHF) radio frequency bands used for aircraft communications. HF radio often has extremely high levels of background noise and can be difficult or distracting to listen to for long periods of time. As a result, it is common practice for crews to keep the radio volume low unless the radio is immediately needed. A SELCAL notification activates a signal to the crew that they are about to receive a voice transmission, so that the crew has time to raise the volume. An individual aircraft has its own assigned SELCAL code. To initiate a SELCAL transmission, a ground station radio operator enters an aircraft's SELCAL code into a SELCAL encoder. The encoder converts the four-letter code into four designated audio tones. The radio operator's transmitter then broadcasts the audio tones on the aircraft's company radio frequency channel in sequence: the first pair of tones are transmitted simultaneously, lasting about one second; a silence of about 0.2 seconds; followed by the second pair of tones, lasting about one second.