[FedCom] Plattsburg ICE

[john wilson]

   Twenty years ago I was the first private citizen to receive the
Gorizont Russian satellite in Virginia and probably most of the east
coast.  In addition to receiving the secam tv transmissions I received FM
SCPC voice transmissions sourced from among other countries Cuba. I also
was the first to receive the Russian Molynia orbiting satellites that
deliver tv to Siberia and other northern latitudes in Russia.  I
experimented with various components attempting to receive the INMARSAT FM
SCPC transmissions and was successful.  I wrote a 2 part article in
Monitoring Times magazine (Feb/Mar 94).  I was one of the first
individuals in my state to receive satellite fax and experiment with MPEG2
FTA reception.
So I know a little about experimenting.

  Maybe you and I listen to a different 225-400 mhz. band.  Among other
monitoring equipment I have are  7 1,000 channel scanners dedicated
covering 225-400 mhz.  At 100 channels per second that is 10 seconds for
the total  7 scanners simultaneously.  Short transmissions are no problem
for me.  Normally not one transmission is made and nothing more.  Such
short transmissions are common in air to air training between other
aircraft and/or a controlling aircraft.  A subsequent scan cycle will
catch them.   So what if you can "see" a spread spectrum signal.  Unless
you have something the rest of us don't, you aren't going to hear
anything.

  As for using MMDS downconverters apparantly you don't know that any
video signal you receive trying to mate it to a 2.4 videoscanner won't
work.  The video and audio relatiionships are inverted.  You will have a
mixer stage mess.

 Do you know how aircraft speed measurement is done?  Apparantly not.  It
is not done by operating radar in an aircraft.  In Virginia it called
VASCAR.  A fixed wing aircraft flies a pattern over a particular portion
of highway that has painted with white stripes for a known distance
between the stripes.  A state police observer sits in the rear and selects
a target vehicle.  When the vehicles crosses one of the lines the observer
activates a stop watch and stops it when the vehicle crosses the second
line.  If he passes too fast between the two lines the observer using a
cross reference table of time/speed can radio to a ground chase unit who
stop an target the drivers.

  I don't where you are getting your information but 1,090 mhz. is for
aeronautical navigation  (960-1,215 mhz.) transponder IFF use and not any
aircraft speed measurement.

  If someone is not versed in the subject matter he can be misled in his
experimenting means to an end and have only wasted time and money spent to
show for it.

  Enough of this.  Enjoy whatever.

Tom KB1LKV wrote:

> 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
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