Monday, August 12, 2013

Here's the List of Locations Given in RAF Volmet

The interest in the UK Royal Air Force Volmet remains high, due to the surprise appearance of a North American relay station, possibly as part of an exercise in Canada.

This station, which could be heard worldwide, came up a few days back on 11159 kHz, a NATO and US Air Force frequency in a band which is highly monitored.  This morning, local time, it is no longer being heard anywhere. It is likely that the station has left the air, as quickly as it appeared.

The computer voice "talks" fast, and not always clearly. In addition, the names of the airports are often obscure compared to the well-known international destinations mentioned in civilian volmets.

The volmet is in a program which begins every hour and half hour. The program contains 5 time slots, identified at the beginning of each one as "Military One, time slot [x], information broadcast."  The slots run 6-7 minutes.  The fast "talking" leaves a lot of time after one pass through the list, and so it is repeated from the top, as time permits.

The really tricky one is slot 5, which apparently pertains to operations in the Middle East.  It seems a little strange.  Another strangeness is the re-appearance of Brize Norton , slot 1 number 1, in slot 3 number 9.  This has been confirmed.  It's either the same Brize Norton RAF base in England, or some place with the same name in North Africa which has managed to consistently have the exact same weather at the same time.

After considerable research, and listening to the recorded contributions of listeners such as Token who have lower noise, I've pretty well nailed it.  Confidence is high in this one.  Here we go:

Slot 1:

Brize Norton
Waddington
Birmingham
East Midlands
Manchester
Cardiff
Prestwick
Marham
Lossiemouth
Leeming
Conningsby
Benson
Odiham


Slot 2:

Northolt
Belfast Aldergrove
Culdrose
Hannover
Geilenkirchen
Adana Incirlik
Budapest
Bucharest
Bardufoss
Trondheim
Keflavik
Bodø


Slot 3:

Gibraltar
Porto
Tenerif South
Dakar
Ascension Island
Recife
Mombasa
Nairobi
Brize Norton
Bamako
Algiers
Abidjan


Slot 4:

Bari Palese
Catania Sigonella
Chania
Akrotiri
Larnaca International
Cairo International
Istres
Evreux
Nice Cote d'Azur
Lajes
Faro
Bahrain International


Slot 5:

Muscat International
Kandahar
Bastion
Dubai Minhad
Baghdad International
Kabul
Trabzon
Asghabat
Tibilisi
Al-Udeid
Thumrait
Salaha
Al-Maktoum
Fujairah International Airport