[FedCom] Plattsburg ICE

[Tom KB1LKV]

When I'm able to sit back and devote 100% of my attention span to
hobby pursuits, I'll use a apectrum analyzer to do frequency searches
as often as a scanner in search mode. Admittedly though, it is an old
school technique. I've found scanners, even the new faster "turboscan"
models to be good only for relatively small amounts of spectrum. Even
at 100 channels per second, it would take an eternity of seventy
seconds to scan the whole MilAir band. The UHF and VHF Fed Bands are a
little better at about 10 seconds per ssearch. My personal preference
is to keep a search range time down to under five seconds, as most
"tactical" transmissions should last no longer than that, according to
COMSEC doctrine.  Spectrum analyzers also have the advantage of
letting you know "see" things like spread spectrum.

So if you're searching around with your spectrum analyzer looking to
see what's on the airwaves, it's not a big deal to tune up around the
S-Band to see if there is this big radar signal that normally isn't
there. If your scanner programmed with the normal MilCom/FedCom
frequencies for your area is silent, it might be a good idea to
concentrate more on frequency searches.

It might even be possible for the more technically minded hobbbyist to
homebrew a  radar detector that would let them know when an airborne
radar is up and about in their area, and alert them to a potentally
good monitoring opportunity. About twenty years ago, one of the radar
detector manufacturers (maybe Fuzzbuster) did this exact thing for
1090 Mhz. in order to detect possible aircraft speed enforcement.  The
military has also done something similar for troops to detect GSR
systems. Hobbyists who are interested in something like this should go
check out http://www.gbppr.org/ as they have done some neat things
using various surplus electronics.

At any rate, the point of the original post was that one of the users
mentioned that a certain form of TVI was an indicator of an
operational airborne radar system in the area. Open source research
showed that the frequency range was well within the hobbyist's grasp,
and offers a possibility for the monitoring hobbyist to expand their
monitoring horizons and technical knowledge. Real techies should
always try playing with different things, and as the webmaster of
http://users.erols.com/jwilson9/ I'm sure you can understand that. The
S-Band region fits the experimenter almost perfectly, as the raw
materials are cheap and available. As an added plus, it looks like it
is host to FedCom.

And since it is all about the enjoyment of playing with neat, odd,
surplus, cast-off electronics stuff, practicality can safely be a
secondary consideration especially if it's a good learning experience.

-Tom, KB1LKV