Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Douglas and Howard, Looks as if many of us have a connection there. My oldest son, a computer systems analyst, spent some time there for his employer, in the early 1980s. Jim Nichols Tullahoma, TN USA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Sharp" <douglas.sharp at gmx.de> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2013 10:41 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] Cold War Space Radars - UFOs? > 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 >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >