Hi Courtney,
No problem. Lots of amateur radio enthusiasts in Europe and in the US are monitoring the Russian Task Force. For the Russians they have publically stated that the Task Force is not about Syria or support of Assad.
The Russian Task Force is on a bit of a goodwill jolly on this planned deployment. It certainly features a lot of port calls! The meteorological and oceanograpic Morse transmissions were a feature of all the past Russian Carrier Task Force deployments in recent years. This Task Force is slightly larger and they have assigned three vessels to collect the data. The hard part is linking up the callsigns to a specific ship.
The transmissions are in easily decodable international format. See following.
http://www.vos.noaa.gov/ObsHB-508/Ob..._compliant.pdf
RAL65 message from 31 Dec 2011 at 12 GMT hour
31121 99406 70111 41498 72707 10190 40430 52015 70322 873// 22212 00110 20302 31013 BT AR RAL65 K
The interesting parts of the transmissions are the lat and long, course and speed.
Second and third groups 99406 70111
40.6N 11.1W (If the third group starts with 1 then it denotes Easterly. 7 for Westerly)
The 222?? (22212) group is for course and speed. (RAL65 was on a NE course and travelling between 6 and 10 Knots.
1st figure Code
0 = Ship hove to
1 = NE
2 = E
3 = SE
4 = S
5 = SW
6 = W
7 = NW
8 = N
9 = Unknown
/ = Not reported
2nd figure Code
0 = 0 Knot
1 = 1 - 5 Knots
2 = 6 - 10 Knots
3 = 11 - 15 Knots
4 = 16 - 20 Knots
5 = 21 - 25 Knots
6 = 26 - 30 Knots
7 = 31 - 35 Knots
8 = 36 - 40 Knots
9 = Over 40 Knots
/ = Not reported
The three ships transmitting weather data are RAL65, RKO81 and RAL46. Ship RAL46 ceased transmissions and two ships make a port call at Malta ( Frigate Ladny and the oiler Sergei Osipov). After being underway for a period of time callsign RAL46 reappeared with weather traffic.
Frigate Ladny is Black Sea Fleet and I can't see her having any involvement with HQ Northern Fleet? Ladny went to Ceuta, Spain after a port call in Toulon, France.
Going back to the first RAL46 transmission heard from the Atlantic on 21st December 2011.
RIT DE RAL46 BT 715 19 21 1614 715 BT FM RAL46
21121 99367 70096 41498 80207 10160 40310 53010 70211 884// 22233 20801 302// 41002 21014 BT AR
That placed her in the Atlantic and working with HQ Northern Fleet.(RIT)
36.7N 09.6W
RAL46 appears to be RFS Sergei Osipov.
RKO81 is controlled primarily by HQ Baltic Fleet Headquarters.(Callsign RMP). This narrows it down to either the Frigate Yaroslav Mudry or the tanker Lena.
Interfleet task force was formed in the Moray Firth when the Baltic Fleet (BF) task unit consisting of frigate Yaroslav Mudry and tanker Lena joined the force.
From
Warships, Supply Vessels of Russian Navy’s Carrier Group Move on Through Atlantic >> Naval Today
RAL65 initally entered the Mediterranean and then left after a short period. There is rumour on a Russian forum that the Admiral Chabenenko has been recalled after a port of call in Ceuta, Spain. RAL65 could be the Chabenenko or a tanker in support?
RAL65 has been noted off Portugal for the last few days and now appears to be moving north. Either this is a port of call to Brest, France or it is returning home and possibly via the English Channel? Scramble the Nimrods! OK maybe just the Fleet Ready Escort?
Update for 3rd January.
3rd Jan 00 GMT
RAL46
34.9N 21.4E
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3rd Jan 06 GMT
RAL46
34.7N 24.7E
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3rd Jan 12 GMT
RAL46
34.6N 23.8E
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3rd Jan 06 GMT
RKO81
34.8N 22.1E
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3rd Jan 12 GMT
RKO81
34.7N 22.1E
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3rd Jan 18 GMT
RKO81
34.6N 23.6E
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3rd Jan 12 GMT
RAL65
43.4N 09.8W
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3rd Jan 18 GMT
RAL65
44.4N 09.1W
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