Origin of Squawk 1200?

Depends on the country too. In Canada 1200 is VFR code but only up to 12,499ft. Above that and VFR you select code 1400.
 
It comes from early fighter planes with Transponders with IFF (Identify Friend of Foe) capabilities.

They would use the 1200 code during mock combat engagements when they would be engaging visually without information from ground-based radar stations.

The 1200 code was chosen as a reference to "high noon", as in two gunfighters facing off, with only eyesight and reflexes determining the better of the two.

This practice later fell into disuse when civilian transponders became commonplace.

Radio calls taunting USAF jets with phrases such as "you turds wanna play cowboys 'n Indians??" caused the early USAF to switch to a different encoding system. The 1200 code was then kept by early regulatory agencies as it was widely known and used as a placeholder if a specific squawk code had not been issued.
 
It comes from early fighter planes with Transponders with IFF (Identify Friend of Foe) capabilities.

They would use the 1200 code during mock combat engagements when they would be engaging visually without information from ground-based radar stations.

The 1200 code was chosen as a reference to "high noon", as in two gunfighters facing off, with only eyesight and reflexes determining the better of the two.

This practice later fell into disuse when civilian transponders became commonplace.

Radio calls taunting USAF jets with phrases such as "you turds wanna play cowboys 'n Indians??" caused the early USAF to switch to a different encoding system. The 1200 code was then kept by early regulatory agencies as it was widely known and used as a placeholder if a specific squawk code had not been issued.
While I think it is totally cool that you know it and shared that information with us....how do you know?
 
Nice one.

I would guess "1200" dates back to the days of Mode 1 IFF transponders, which transmitted only a 5-bit identifier (octal "00" to "37").

Rather than each aircraft having a unique identifier, aircraft transmitted a mission code (no idea what the convention was, but "12" was probably the military equivalent to VFR).

Mode 2 and Mode 3 can accommodate four octal digits ("0000" to "7777"). Some of the mission codes probably hung around and the convention of "1200" was born.
 
Nice one.

I would guess "1200" dates back to the days of Mode 1 IFF transponders, which transmitted only a 5-bit identifier (octal "00" to "37").

Rather than each aircraft having a unique identifier, aircraft transmitted a mission code (no idea what the convention was, but "12" was probably the military equivalent to VFR).

Mode 2 and Mode 3 can accommodate four octal digits ("0000" to "7777"). Some of the mission codes probably hung around and the convention of "1200" was born.


This seems as likely as any. Like the 'term' roger just being a carry-over from the old phonetic alphabet and telegraph communications, etc.
 
It comes from early fighter planes with Transponders with IFF (Identify Friend of Foe) capabilities.

They would use the 1200 code during mock combat engagements when they would be engaging visually without information from ground-based radar stations.

The 1200 code was chosen as a reference to "high noon", as in two gunfighters facing off, with only eyesight and reflexes determining the better of the two.

This practice later fell into disuse when civilian transponders became commonplace.

Radio calls taunting USAF jets with phrases such as "you turds wanna play cowboys 'n Indians??" caused the early USAF to switch to a different encoding system. The 1200 code was then kept by early regulatory agencies as it was widely known and used as a placeholder if a specific squawk code had not been issued.

Shame on you :(






I believed it lol
 
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