Can anyone please confirm that when departing or flying in the greater Kansas City (KMCI, KMKC, KOJC,KLXT) area and tuned to 122.800 (Unicom) you actually end up receiving the ATIS (AWOS) for an small airport in the area (can’t remember identifier)?
It only starts after takeoff and will continue until many miles away from KC. Makes flying on VATSIM in and around KMCI problematic at best.
Anyway, I want to officially report it but also want to make sure it is not something on my end. It has been there for several updates.
It’s Garnett (K68), but you only hear it if you have “ATC Voices” turned on in Assistance Options - User Experience. You want that off when you’re using Vatsim.
Looked it up, and apparently K68 really does broadcast its AWOS on 122.8, which makes absolutely no sense to me.
This airport likely has an “Automated Unicom”, which was marketed under the brand “SuperAWOS”. It requires 3 clicks of the microphone and it will broadcast the AWOS information on the unicom frequency (similar to how pilot controlled lighting works).
There was an initiative to note on the charts if an airport had an automated unicom, however the system proved to be unreliable and was de-certified, leading the FAA to remove it as a source of weather. As a result, if you check the NOTAMS for K68 it says “AUTOMATED WX BCST SYSTEM U/S (Unserviceable)”.
