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, No, it was not Cisco. I seem to recall it was SAI, a Huntsville, Alabama firm that had several defense department contracts. 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 11:48 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] Cold War Space Radars - UFOs? > Hi Jim, > > Cisco Systems? Or is it another secret? > > Douglas > > > On 20.01.2013 17:50, Jim Nichols wrote: >> 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 >>> >>> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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 > >