According to a DoD NOTAM notice, Global Station Keflavik, Iceland, will close 1 Jul 2006. The NOTAM reads in part, "Expect to have coverage gaps along the northern transatlantic and polar regions. Aircrews should rely on general Mainsail calls, with Andrews and Croughton-specified contact being secondary. HF support will continue to be supported by other HFGCS stations. In addition, aircrews should reference the flight information handbook for appropriate stations and frequencies."
At a July 2006 London HFIA - HF Industry Conference during a presentation on the HF-GCS, one of the slides mentioned finding a replacement for the Keflavik coverage.
And I have not seen a single report on any of the radio newsgroups of an IKF sounding on any HF-GCS ALE freq since the announced closing.
Well that should be the end of this story, or is it? As my Ticonderoga loving friend would say on Saturday morning, "Not so fast my friend!"
Take a look at the map below we found on the Rockwell Collins website (SCOPE Command HF Communications page).
On what appears to be a current map showing the locations of all the HF-GCS ground stations, it clearly shows Keflavik as part of the Scope Command net. I have also received from a well placed source that I trust that in the current USAF FLIP Flight Info Handbook it has Keflavik listed as a station in the net including a listing with its ALE addess IKF in the Scope Command ALE section of that pub.
And now add this tidbit to the mix. At 1528:33 UTC this morning on 9025.0 kHz I saw USCG HU-25C Falcon Asset (ALE Address F12) call IKF on ALE. While I haven't seen IKF sound yet on any of the HF-GCS ALE Scope Command net freqs, I do find that intercept interesting in light of the other material I have presented above.
Maybe IKF is still around or is it? Anybody in the know want to tell us for sure?
Now if I could just get a handle on the ALE address for Grand Forks, if there is one.