Showing posts with label TASCOMM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TASCOMM. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Warplanes spotted in Cyprus as tensions rise in Damascus




The UK Guardian is reporting signs of advanced readiness at likely hub of air campaign as UN inspection team comes under fire near site of alleged chemical attack.

Warplanes and military transporters have begun arriving at Britain's Akrotiri airbase on Cyprus, less than 100 miles from the Syrian coast, in a sign of increasing preparations for a military strike against the Assad regime in Syria.

Two commercial pilots who regularly fly from Larnaca on Monday told the Guardian that they had seen C-130 transport planes from their cockpit windows as well as small formations of fighter jets on their radar screens, which they believe had flown from Europe.

Residents near the British airfield, a sovereign base since 1960, also say activity there has been much higher than normal over the past 48 hours.

If an order to attack targets in Syria is given, Cyprus is likely to be a hub of the air campaign. The arrival of warplanes suggests that advanced readiness – at the very least – has been ordered by Whitehall as David Cameron, Barack Obama and European leaders step up their rhetoric against Bashar al-Assad, whose armed forces they accuse of carrying out the chemical weapons attack last Wednesday that killed many hundreds in eastern Damascus.

Read the complete story at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/26/syria-warplanes-cyprus-tensions-damascus.

Blog Editor Note: With the UK military involved and the RAF Cyprus Base in the mix, here are the latest primary UK Military Flight Watch Support HF frequencies.

United Kingdom (TASCOMM)
Voice Call Sign: ARCHITECT
Frequency (USB): 4742.0 5702.0 9031.0 11247.0 13257.0 18018.0 kHz

Ascension
Voice Call Sign: HAVEN
Frequency (USB): 4742.0 9031.) 11247.0 kHz
NOTE: Flight Watch available for notified flights.

Cyprus
Voice Call Sign: CYPRUS
Frequency (USB/kHz):
Channel 1 - 4742 (a)
Channel 2 - 9031
Channel 3 - 11247
NOTE: (a) H+15 weather broadcasts, when active.

Mount Pleasant (MPA)
Voice Call Sign: VIPER
Frequency (USB): 4742 (a) 11247 (a)
NOTE: (a) H+35 weather broadcasts when active.

1. Flight Watch available for notified flights.
2. Aircraft not fitted with ALE are to scroll through the frequencies in order to select the best reception. Transmissions are to be made at 15 sec intervals before changing to the next guard frequency.

RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus (LCRA)

ATIS  125.000 MHz
Approach Control  123.600 235.050 362.300 (discrete) MHz
Director 123.600 123.300 (discrete) 264.850 MHz
Tower 130.075 339.850 257.800 (discrete) MHz
Ground  122.100 396.850 MHz
Operations  234.050 MHz

Watch this blog for any additional frequencies involved with the Syrian military crisis.

Monday, October 15, 2007

DHFCS TASCOMM Net part of the US DoD HF-GCS?

Over the weekend on the UDXF newsgroup several of us have had a discussion regarding the DHFCS TASCOMM net control station XSS. It is located at Forest Moor and since the middle of September has showed up on 5708 and 13215 kHz. These two frequencies are part of the US DoD HF-GCS ALE network frequencies.

So is XSS now a part of this net now or are they sharing these two Aero OR assignments with the HF-GCS?

So now I am curious. Lets see how many of the HF-GCS ALE net freqs below get used by the DFHCS network.

Drop me a line if you see TASCOMM NCS station XSS on any freq below that does not have an asterisks next to it. Mode is ALE/USB.

3137.0 4721.0 5708.0* 6721.0 9025.0 11226.0 13215.0* 15043.0 18003.0
23337.0 kHz

Latest ALE Address IDs on the TASCOMM ALE network:

200202 C-17A Aircraft #ZZ172 (previous N172UK), 00-0202

UKE306 E-3D AWACS RAF 8 Sqn/No. 23 Sqn RAF Waddington, UK #ZH106

UKE307 E-3D AWACS RAF 8 Sqn/No. 23 Sqn RAF Waddington, UK #ZH107

XSS NCS at Forest Moor, UK

And if anyone has any IDs for the following addresses or has any to add to the list, please drop me a note:
XAS XAX XBC XBE XCA XCV XDB XDV XEJ XFT XFW XFY XGF XGJ XGP XGV XGZ XHJ XHK XHN XHZ XIM XJF XJK XJP XJT XJV XKA XKB XKD XKP XKW XKY XLE XLG XOP XSA

Sunday, August 26, 2007

UK RAF Flight Watch/TASCOMM Profile



RAF Flight Watch Support
A part of the UK DHFCS TASCOMM HF network,
TASCOMM uses two 24 hour manned operations center at DHFCS Forest Moor and DHFCS Kinloss.

United Kingdom (TASCOMM)
Voice Call Sign: ARCHITECT
Frequency: 4742.0 5702.0 9031.0 11247.0 13257.0 18018.0 (USB) kHz.

Long range HF communications Flight Watch for RAF/Naval aircraft from 24 hour manned operations center at DHFCS Forest Moor and DHFCS Kinloss.

Ascension
Voice Call Sign: HAVEN
Frequency: 4742.0 9031.0 11247.0

Cyprus
Voice Call Sign: CYPRUS
Frequency: 4742.0 (a) 9031.0 11247.0

Mount Pleasant (MPA)
Voice Call Sign: VIPER
Frequency: 4742.0 (b) 11247.0 (b)

Notes:
(a) H+15 weather broadcasts, when active.
(b) H+35 weather broadcasts when active.
(c) Aircraft not fitted with ALE scroll through these guard frequencies above in order to select the best reception. Transmissions are made at 15 sec intervals before changing to the next guard frequency.

Monday, June 25, 2007

TASCOMM Net Confirmed


While I have commented publicly on the UDXF newsgroup about my suspicions on the true identity of the widely reported UK XSS HF ALE net, I pretty much let those in Europe set the agenda regarding what this net should be called - UK DHFCS or TASCOMM?

Wellt that is now going to change. Thanks to a new intercept posted by my old friend Ary Boender to the UDXF group last week, I think the more accurate tag for this net is the UK TASCOMM HF ALE network. Based on the intercept and a report I posted on these pages last summer, I am convinced that the UK DHFCS net is not a correct identifier and does not tell the whole story. I support this conclusion with information presented in a press release at http://www.vtplc.com/newsandevents/newsdetails.asp?ItemID=646.

This whole XSS-US DHFCS-TASCOMM discussion reminds me of an argument I had several years ago on an internet newsgroups with a hardhead on whether the US JCS network should be called the Scope Command Network or HF-GCS (then GHFS). Official publications eventually showed that I was right in that discussion. It was the HF-GCS network (then GHFS) and not the Scope Command Network.

The operable paragraph that pins this TASCOMM tag for me from the VT press release at the link above is:

"Under DHFCS, Terrestrial Air Sea Communications (TASCOMM) is available for use by RN, RAF and the Army. TASCOMM is a ground-air-ground, ship-shore and ground-to-ground HF radio communications service designed for NATO and National use. Previously known as STCICS, TASCOMM has its control centre at the NCS at Forest Moor with an alternative network control centre (ANCS) located at RAF Kinloss. Both the NCS and ANCS will control, transmit and receive assets around the world to provide an efficient and responsive service to the users. Combined with the introduction of new RAF and RN platform HF communications equipment supplied under separate contracts, DHFCS will take full advantage of the modern high-speed waveforms to provide rapid data throughput, eventually including HF email. ALE, ARQ and ALM techniques both simplify and speed up the process of establishing HF communication channels."

And now the intercept that Ary posted for Michael, DH5FAU in Germany:

"On June 20st at 1208 Z I logged an unusual message on the british XSS-Net on 9019,0. XSS was calling UKE307 then:

[AMD]XSS [THIS IS TASCOM ARE YOU RECEIVING MY TEXTS?]> I think that we now know who XSS is. XSS=TASCOM!!!"

In fact, XSS is the net control station for this TASCOMM net, probably with the control head located at Forest Moor (transmitters, unknown???).

So to my readers of the MT Milcom blog, in future posting I will be reporting to this and other venues the ID of the XSS ALE stations/frequencies as the TASCOMM HF ALE network, not just as the UK DHFCS. Of course, if someone else who has better contacts than me wants to set the record completely straight, drop me a note privately at the email in the masthead. But for right now, I think this XSS bunch is operating on the UK TASCOMM ALE Network.

BTW the August issue of MT has a complete writeup on freqs, addresses, etc on this net by my MT colleague, Hugh Stegman in his Ute World column. So I won't bother to steal his thunder by posting all that stuff here on these pages. The August Monitoring Times has everything you need.