[FedCom] Heard 08 October 2006 NYC area

[gary]

Michael W. Scheel wrote:
<major snip>
> The radar return from FAA ATC radar would be so small you would need a 
> directional antenna the size of a large building which most ATC Radars 
> are. You would be better off trying to detect them with airplane scatter 
> on the tv channels. Something I read and tried out back in the late 70s. 
> I pointed a large TV antenna array at Milwaukee Wi and placed the TV on 
> Channel 18. I then would see a brief burst of signal when an airplane 
> was in the right place between Milwaukee and my location in Davenport 
> Iowa. But it was really boring I think I never got more than a half 
> dozen burst in 60 minutes. Only tried it a couple of times.
> 

This technique is used for meteor detection. What they do is set up a 
radio in CW mode so that it emits a tone (beat frequency) when the TV 
signal carrier is detected.

http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/forwardscatter2.html