Admiral Kuznetsov to France and Spain

[T_J]

Russian Navy vessel callsign RAL46 Morse communcations on 12464 Khz at 1257 GMT

RMP
RIT
RIW DE RAL46 BT 641 18 23 1635 641 BT FM RAL46 RAL65 FOR RJH74 RJH45 BT

23121 99358 70015 41598 62306 10160 40260 53010 70111 8662/ 22200 32/// 40501 21013 AR BT RAL46 K

Lat long from the second and third groups.

35.8N 01.5W (Off the Algerian Coast)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=3 ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RichC]

Would be a good idea to keep an ear on the ROCKBOTTOM nets in the coming day or two. There will definitely be some MARPAT out of Sigonella and Rota.
Italian IDR ARCN Nets will also be active.

[T_J]

Thanks Rich. I only monitor CW frequencies now and again. Good tip off for other enthusiasts though!

It might be a quiet period on the Morse frequencies?

Info from a Russian forum. They think that the Task Force is anchored near the Algerian naval base of Mers el Kebir for the next couple of days. They are expecting them to eventually transit to Maltese waters for the New Year celebrations.

The Seawaves website has the following vessels visiting Valletta, Malta.

26 Dec 11 RFS Sergei Osipov
27 Dec 11 RFS Ladnyy

http://www.seawaves.com/portvisits.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RichC]

I am surprised they are anchored and not exercising as Christmas is a busy period for Russian forces, especially the Nuclear forces (Air Force and Navy).
As they do not celebrate Christmas until Jan.7th they usually send over bombers to wake up our QRA over the holiday and usually always send down some Navy assets (such as the Carrier) to make sure someone in NATO is flying up and down in a MARPAT aircraft!

Hence why i thought perhaps Rockbottom would be active over this period. But if they are anchoring up then possibly not.

[T_J]

I am surprised they are anchored and not exercising as Christmas is a busy period for Russian forces, especially the Nuclear forces (Air Force and Navy).
As they do not celebrate Christmas until Jan.7th they usually send over bombers to wake up our QRA over the holiday and usually always send down some Navy assets (such as the Carrier) to make sure someone in NATO is flying up and down in a MARPAT aircraft!

Hence why i thought perhaps Rockbottom would be active over this period. But if they are anchoring up then possibly not.

Hi Rich,

That is normally the case with the Russians. It appears just to be a guess from the poster on the Russian forum that they are anchored up.

Ship RKO81 was active at 1801 GMT on 8345 Khz

As per usual the signal from ship RKO81 fades out at the lat and long portion! Not all is lost as it indicates 1 West. The last report yesterday was 2.2W. Perhaps someone has the signal recorded or decoded at better quality?

1801 GMT

8345.0 RKO81 BT 966 2. 24 2200 966 BT SML FOR RJD38 BT

..... 99..9 7001. ..... .....

RFH77 continues to set up secure links with HQ Sevastopol

1813 GMT

8345.0 RCV DE RFH77 QYT 4 QSX 8684 / 13044 K

[T_J]

I had a quick listen in for any transmissions in the 12 GMT hour.

Ship RKO81 called up RMP (Baltic Fleet HQ) at 1211. Quite a good signal.

12464 RMP DE RKO81 QSA IMI QTC K

He then switched to 8345 Khz and established comms with RMP. Nightmare freq!

8345 RMP DE RKO81 QSA IMI QTC K

As per usual the lat and long portion was unreadable due to fading.

The good news is that a commercial Pilot has sighted the Kuznetsov around 10 miles off the coast of Algeria. Located off the coast near to the navy base at Mers-el-Kébir.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&cp= ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Good day Ayup-han9 on the Russian forum. The poster appears to be retired Russian Navy with an obvious mentality still stuck in Cold War Soviet times! He has posted naval diaries from the 1980s.

For FC members I won't provide a link back to the Russian forum as it is riddled with malware. Ayup-han9 has posted this FC thread link over on the Russian forum.

Ayup actually believes that NATO (Gibraltar and Rota) missed the transit of the Russian Task Force into the Mediterranean! Seriously Ayup?

At least two of Task Force vessels are assigned oceonographic duties and regularly pass the information that contains their lat and long. They have been doing so in the Atlantic and continue into the transit. Do you seriously believe that all electronic emissions are not routinely monitored from the Task Force by NATO forces? Even the basic navigational radars of the Task Force will be tagged and monitored. Think of all the national technical methods that these can be monitored by?

You appear to think that just because a maritime patrol aircraft unit doesn't bother to check out the Task Force and splash the images on national press that 'Gibraltar and Rota missed the pass'.

The Task Force vessels are on a routine planned goodwill visit to several ports and obviously not exercising any form of electronic denial. If they were then those oceonographic assigned ships would fully encode the weather and sea state traffic and use daily changing tactical callsigns. They would also not be constantly transmitting and establishing other links via open HF Morse communications. The Direction Finding and intercept units of several nations in the area must be having a field day exercise with the amount of communication activity from the Task Force!

Yes by all means be proud of your Navy and your past service, but this is certainly not a combat deployment in any way shape or form. Those old Soviet times that you experienced are long over. The conspiracy buffoons have been preaching for months now that this Task Force is going to protect Syria from the evil NATO and New World Order.

[T_J]

1801 GMT on Frequency 8345 Khz - Ship RKO81

8345 RMP DE RKO81 QSA IMI QTC K

The nightmare frequency strikes again. I need a global tuner in Spain/France or Italy!
The only thing salvagable from the message was the longitude.

01.5W

[T_J]

8345 RMP DE RKO81 @0602
RKO81 461 20 26 1000 461 BT SML FOR RJD38 BT
26061 99357 70017 41698 10911 10150 40306 57001 70110 81/// 22212 .020. 2.... 3000/ 4//// 88000 80000 26117 BT AR RKO81 K
RKO81 OK QRU K

Lat and long from the last three figures of the second and third groups 99357 70017

35.7N 01.7W (Off Algerian coast)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&cp= ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RFH77 continues to set up secure links

8345 RCV DE RFH77 QSA ? @0600
RCV DE RFH77 OK QYT 4 QWH 6308 / 10492 K @0608

[T_J]

Two new callsigns appeared on 12464 Khz

12464 RCV DE RHY47 QSA ? K @ 1223

12464 RCV DE RHY73 QSA ? K @ 1325

These stations continue to call HQ Sevastopol with apparent no answer.

Ship RKO81 calls up RCV and asks for signal strength and offers traffic. He had previously attempted contact with RMP (Kaliningrad) and RIW (Moscow).

12464 RCV DE RKO81 QSA ? QTC @ 1335
RKO81 BT 731 20 26 1600 731 BT SML FOR RJD38 BT
26121 99357 70017 41698 10911 10150 40306 57001 70110 81/// 23262 01170 299// 309// 4//// 88000 80000 26017 BT AR RKO81 K

Lat and long from the last three figures of the second and third groups 99357 70017

Same position as the 0600 transmission.

35.7N 01.7W (Off Algerian coast)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&cp= ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Northern Fleet (NF) aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov on Dec 23 passed Gibraltar Strait and entered the Mediterranean Sea.

Other ships of the carrier strike group passed the strait few hours earlier.

In accordance with further plans, the Russian Navy's task force consisting of NF large ASW ship Admiral Chabanenko, Baltic Fleet (BF) frigate Yaroslav Mudry, and NF tanker Sergei Osipov will pay a formal visit to Spanish port Ceuta.

Aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and other supply vessels in the nearest time will head for anchorage site in western part of the Mediterranean Sea in order to replenish the carrier's supplies.

Black Sea Fleet (BSF) frigate Ladny joined the carrier group on Friday, Dec 23.

From

http://rusnavy.com/news/navy/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=13960" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[andyxh558]

Saw the Ladnyy in grand harbour on the 10th of december and it looked quite amazing. The FS Dupey to lome came in at about 2 pm on the same day, it is an intelligence ship.

[T_J]

Saw the Ladnyy in grand harbour on the 10th of december and it looked quite amazing. The FS Dupey to lome came in at about 2 pm on the same day, it is an intelligence ship.

Thanks Andy. She does look nice!

Ladny in France on December 15th.

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... comments=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ladny in Malta on December 11th.

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1453870" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1453625" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1453607" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/pho ... id=1453628" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Revised dates for Malta visit.

29 Dec 11 RFS Ladnyy 801 Valletta

29 Dec 11 RFS Sergei Osipov Valletta

From

http://www.seawaves.com/portvisits.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Image links from port visit in Cueta, Spain.

RFS Admiral Chabanenko

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/7117/cimg2463v.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RFS Yaroslav Mudry

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2050/cimg2466.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Hello Ayup-han9 and other visitors from the Russian forums!

You chaps on the Russian forum really need to get out of the old adversary habit!

You actually think or even hint at the these radio intercepts coming from official sources? You wrote

'It is likely that the Europeans with some of the Joint Staff of NATO involved in radio at sea ..."

"When will analyze all the information on the interception, it will be possible to draw conclusions and assumptions about authorship ... I think now it is too early ..."

What assumption will you come to?

These Morse Code transmission from elements of the Russian Task Force are currently being monitored by amateur radio enthusiasts and have been for years. There are Yahoo forums dedicated to logging the Morse Code transmission from all of the Russian Fleets. If you transmit using international callsigns and send transmission un-encyrpted then these are going to be exploited by both amateur and professional alike. Anyone with an HF receiver can intercept and decode these weather transmissions.

http://www.vos.noaa.gov/ObsHB-508/Obser ... pliant.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Did you even read the links that I posted?

http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl072/nsnl72mil.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.astrosol.ch/networksofthecis ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.astrosol.ch/networksofthecis ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It doesn't take much to realise that the weather reports contain positional information. Any amateur radio enthusiast can work that one out. The Russians have been sending this type of traffic for years.

Logs from 2008 and 2009.

08345 RAL48: Russian Navy Vessel 0020 CW dx wkg RIT (Northern Fleet HQ)
w/QTC "RAL48 733 20 24 0305 733 = FOR RJH45 RJH74 = 24001 99357
40015 41598 10607 10136 40154 52002 70100 81100 22200 00090
20101 3//// 4//// 5//// 6//// 24017 = + RAL48 K", "RAL48 OK
QRU K", s/off; PBL 0=0, msg T=0. 24Dec08

08345 RJQ84: Russian Navy Vessel 0035 CW dx wkg unid w/QTC "647 15 6
0307 647 = FOR RJH74 RJH45 = 06001 99435 70210 41597 49904 10150
40225 54005 70211 84/// 22213 299// 06012 = + RJQ84 K" & OP-chat.
RJQ84 OK QRU K", s/off; T=0. 6Jan09

08345 RKB91: Russian Navy Vessel 0040 CW dx wkg RIW w/QTC "179 15 6 0300
179 = SML FOR RJH45 RJD38 = 06001 99363 70010 41597 40000 10130
40280 58020 70700 8//// 22222 06011 = + RKB91 K", OP-Chat; T=0.
6Jan09 (ALF)

08345 RCJG: Russian Navy Vessel 0045 CW dx wkg RIW w/QTC "952 18 6 0305
952 = SML FOR RJH45 RJH74 = 06001 19935 27022 16415 98413 02101
07040 251S4 00070 21184 ... 00190 20305 88000 06014 = + RCJG K",
OP-Chat; T=0. 6Jan09

You (Ayup-han9) wrote

Somewhere in the UK area of ??responsibility of a visual check was lost. That is why the parking bay in the Moray Firth was a surprise to the British and had to send from Plymouth "New York" for 800 miles.

Again you are jumping to incorrect conclusions. The Russian Task Force was as busy in Morse and other communications the same as the current deployment in the Mediterranean. Nothing was a surprise. HMS York was detached to intercept the Kuznetsov Group in a timely fashion. You made the same incorrect analysis that the Task Group sneaked through the Gibraltar Strait under the noses of NATO.

http://www.navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/3121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

York was alerted as the Fleet Ready Escort – the on-call frigate or destroyer which responds to events at short notice – earlier this month and greeted the Kuznetsov task group, northeast of the Orkneys, on December 12.

Ayup-han9,

If you want access to the full logs then join Fighter Control and you will have access to the logs section.

To keep you up to date. (Don't expect daily logs to be posted here)

Update for 4th January

I copied this Morse Code transmission in the 12 GMT hour on 12464 Khz.

12464 RIW DE RAL65 QSA ? QTC K @ 1207
RAL65 341 16 4 1601 341 BT FOR RJH45 RJH74 BT
04121 99470 70070 41498 82811 10140 40410 51010 70322 883// 22272 00110 20707 04013 BT AR RAL65 K

RAL65 (RFS Admiral Chabenenko or support vessel?)

47.0N 07.0W

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&cp= ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4th January 06 GMT

RKO81 (RFS Yaroslav Mudry or RFS Lena)

34.6N 25.8E

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&cp= ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4th January 00 GMT

RKO81

34.6N 24.7E

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?pq=34.6n+ ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4th January 00 GMT

RAL46 (RFS Sergei Osipov)

34.6N 26.2E

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=3 ... a=N&tab=wl" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[T_J]

Ayup-han9 wrote on the Russian forum

No new information in the Western media do not have ... Under the plan the ships already have to start moving towards Gibraltar ...

Ayup-han9,

You have been informed of this before. Join this forum (Fighter Control) and you will have access to timely movements of the following vessels currently in the Mediterranean. It really is that simple!
No use complaining about the Western media.

The following vessels are still transmitting Morse Code weather and oceanographic messages that include a latitute and longitude. RKO81 is currently the nearest vessel to Gibraltar. It will pass the Greenwich Meridian within the next few hours.

RCJG - Ivan Bubnov
RKO81
RAL46
RIR98

You will have to register to gain access. It couldn't be any simpler!

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=48315" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wokka]

Just out of interest T_J does he mention you on the Russian forum? I also think its a shame that he has not registered as it would be great to have a Russian posting his views here and who knows, even putting the odd photo up!

[T_J]

Just out of interest T_J does he mention you on the Russian forum? I also think its a shame that he has not registered as it would be great to have a Russian posting his views here and who knows, even putting the odd photo up!

Hi Wokka. Thanks for the reply. I agree it would be interesting, but I think that he still regards the West as an 'adversary'. I think too much Soviet propaganda when he served? He thought that the HF Russian Task Force logs were officially being put on the internet by NATO!

Yes he does mention me on the Russian forums. I stumbled across the Russian forums and his posts purely by accident as I was searching for internet history on one of the callsigns. The search linked me to the Black Sea Sevastopol forum where some of the initial logs on this thread were being re-posted and also to a Russian blog.

[wokka]

So presumably he can read your points to him perfectly well but then quotes them on that forum as Western propaganda! You and he are performing your own 2012 cold war!

Please keep the posts coming, I always read this thread with interest! As I'm sure does your Russian counterpart!