Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Howard, I have actually walked past it at night - outside the perimeter fence. It's on the route of the old corpse way, which has been a long-distance walk for many years - The Lyke Wake Walk - a competitive and very tough walk that has to be finished within 24 hours. There used to be a little badge in the form of a coffin for everyone who completed it. It certainly looked eerie looming out of the mist in the twilight. The spookiest things along the walk are stumbling over a sheep in pitch darkness, or the loud squawks when you blunder into a nest of grouse! That said, I would never have thought of walking it alone. There have been cases of walkers inadvertently trespassing on the site, being arrested by RAF police with big dogs (now patrolled by a private security force), having been questioned, "invited" to sign the Official Secrets Act, and then being dropped off at the main gate after an excellent breakfast. (not exactly reaction with "extreme prejudice) One story even involves a bus full of pensioners that got lost in the fog and ended up between the golfballs - probably as believable as UFO-sightings.:-) Apparently, the new pyramid has 360? radar that covers everything (still including Russia, but now also the Middle East and N. Africa), but concentrates mainly on locating orbiting junk. Interesting is that the base is not marked on the Ordnance Survey maps of the UK (at least not on the 1977 issue). But is very clearly marked on Russian maps of the same period. As far as I know, the most important "spy" site in the area is Menwith Hill, the "Ear to the Sky" which, according to local hearsay, monitors international phone, e-mail and Internet traffic - purportedly for the NSA - is a part of the ECHELON System, and may even be involved in the control of drone attacks. But, as ever, all you have to do is put a high fence around it, put up unambiguous signs and post armed guards, and you already have the next conspiracy theory.:-) Cheers Douglas On 20.01.2013 15:53, Howard Ritter wrote: > Douglas? > > Thanks for the interesting information about the Yorkshire moors. Must > have been spooky to work at at Fylingdales?especially at night! > > Actually, there was nothing particularly secret about these installations. > They were just radar stations using technology developed in the 1950s and > '60s. They sent their data to a central facility called the CC&DF inside > Cheyenne Mountain south of Colorado Springs (which was my last duty > station in this system, before I changed gears by going to medical > school). Now, the newer installation you mentioned sounds like a > phased-array radar, which steers the beam electronically and can generated > multiple beams simultaneously; there's maybe some classified technology > there. > > The more nuanced answer to your question about unidentified objects is > that we would not likely have recognized one if we'd seen it! The system's > mission was to look for space objects with ballistic (i.e., free-fall) > trajectories that were either a closed orbit (satellite) or one that > intersected the surface of the Earth (as an ICBM warhead would do). > Objects with none of these conditions were ignored, and in any case only > data relating to position, velocity, and intensity of the radar reflection > were generated; a radar doesn't produce an image. Moreover, the radar was > programmed to ignore anything closer to it than a satellite in low Earth > orbit, say 90 miles or so. Alien spacecraft traveling under power in the > atmosphere would be ignored by the computer as being aircraft and/or too > close to be a threat object, and one traveling under power in near-Earth > space would be ignored as not being ballistic. Such a thing would have > shown up on-screen (as a computer-generated blip, not an image), but the > data would have been discarded as being irrelevant. An alien craft > actually on orbit, like a satellite, and generating a strong reflection, > WOULD generate data that would be saved and sent to the CC&DF for > analysis, and would lead to the generation of a new-satellite file. Such > an unexpected finding would have prompted an extreme-priority designation > that would have tasked the sites to gather maximum data on it every pass. > When it moved on, out of orbit, disappearing suddenly without "decaying" > due to atmospheric friction, this would have generated extreme > consternation. I never heard of any such object. Even new Soviet > satellites were known about virtually as soon as they were launched, and > nothing I was aware of generated the level of intense interest that the > sudden appearance of a sizable, previously unknown object in orbit would > have. Of course, there are lots of bits of space junk originating from > exploding fuel tanks, the occasional collision, etc., many thereby driven > into new orbits, and so small as to be marginally or irregularly > detectable, that are monitored without their origin ever being identified. > > Of course, such aliens would presumably be highly capable of evading > detection if they wanted to. They could simply stay out of sight of radars > that could detect them as unidentified orbiting objects. Or if an alien > ship used technology that gave it a low radar cross-section, and were on > an orbit that had characteristics typical of satellites and the rocket > bodies used to launch space probes, it presumably would not occasion > anything other than routine interest, nor would its appearance or > disappearance be thought mysterious. > > I kept constantly hoping, though! > > ?howard > > > On Jan 20, 2013, at 8:17 AM, Douglas Sharp <douglas.sharp at gmx.de> wrote: > >> Of course not - that's why there are thousands of entries when you google >> on Fylingdales and UFO.:-) >> >> Even sightings of mysterious, panther-sized black cats, a UFO crash, >> lights in the sky and everything else that seems to hang around secret >> military facilities. (if it's so secret, why is it so clearly visible in >> one of the most exposed areas of Yorkshire?);-) >> >> The site is built on a medieval corpse way, and the moors were always >> full of will of the wisps, corpse candles, boggits, trolls and other >> things that jump out and scare unsuspecting travellers - and the giant >> Horcum lived not far away, he left a big hole in the ground by throwing >> rocks at a rival (It's actually the end of a glacial lake, but that's not >> half as spooky). >> >> Cheers >> Douglas >> >> >> On 19.01.2013 20:53, Howard Ritter wrote: >>> Why, none?of course! ;-) >>> >>> ?howard >>> >>> >>> On Jan 19, 2013, at 2:05 PM, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote: >>> >>>> Fascinating stuff, Howard, but, of course, we all want to know about >>>> the inexplicable, or how many likely extra-terrestrial spacecraft >>>> turned up? >>>> >>>> Douglas >>>> _________ >>>> Douglas Barry >>>> Bray, Co. Wicklow >>>> Republic of Ireland >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >