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Letters to the Editor
Since Robert Gonsett's
CGC Communicator
is no longer posting long format items, we've agreed to take on some of the task. Constructive comments relevant to the San Diego broadcast technical community may be sent to the chapter
e-mail address. As always, we solicit your news and feature items.
And You Thought Electrocution was Your Main Concern
at the Transmitter...
Bob, I am forwarding this to you in its entirety form the Skunk Works mailing list. The "militarized every commercial FM/TV bcst antenna site in North America and Europe - hazard duty pay for the site engineer" refers to a system that Lockheed Martin has developed which is a variation on bistatic radar systems. As you may know, a bistatic radar uses a transmitter at a different site than the receiver. The LockMart system does not use it own emitter. It uses every FM and TV transmitter (in the area of interest) in the vhf and uhf bands as its emitter. Each system is capable of learning the patterns which are painted by the unique set of broadcast transmitters in a particular area. The system has been demonstrated with civil aircraft as targets and has very high accuracy. It is even capable of distinguishing types of aircraft. However, it is its ability to resolve "stealth" targets that holds real strategic value.
Therefore, if our shores are ever threatened by another power's stealth weapons such as aircraft or cruise missiles, every broadcast transmitter will become a strategic target in that conflict.
I have been tracking this story for a while but keeping quiet simply beacause I did not understand the implications. Obviously, we need to get this story out but it needs a lot of reduction. I will try to find the original article and quote it to you.
0034z 22 Jan 99
The 18 Jan 98 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology has a
cover feature titled "Uncloaking Stealth" beginning on page 58,
with all articles written by David A. Fulghum.
The article on page 60 titled "Eliminating Noise Key to
Anti-Stealth Radar" goes into a discussion of the use of the
<2 GHz spectrum (R7100/R8500 range) and the problems caused
by consumer emitters (PCS, navaids, tv etc); and the use of new
noise reduction algorithms to clear out the clutter.
The article starting on page 61 titled "Space Tracking Plan Eyes
Mobile Missiles" discusses at length the Lockheed Martin "Silent
Sentry" system and it's possible use in a future European and
North American continental defense against stealth cruise
missiles etc (left unstated is that the fine engineers at
Lockheed Martin have just militarized every commercial FM/TV
bcst antenna site in North America and Europe - hazard duty pay
for the site engineer). It points out the differences between
what can be accomplished with FM (bcst) signals and with TV
(bcst) signals. It also expands on a comment made in an earlier
article re how this system was developed by Lockheed Martin over
"the past 15 years". It seems that it's based on a system
developed for "U.S. airborne intelligence gatherers" to capture
enemy radar signals and their "returns from the object it sees"
which allowed the gatherers to see what the enemy was seeing.
The author was told that the technology is now "dated" and that
the "U.S. now has the ability to intercept the enemy's complete
air radar picture as it is transmitted around the
battlefield..". The author relates that it was not said if this
capability was derived from signals interception or from
"hacking" techniques.
Jeff Haverlah
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) fortean@primenet.com
Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/8832
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *
U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program
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TLCB Web Site: www.seacoast.com/~jsweet/brotherh/index.html
Southeast Asia (SEA) service:
Vietnam - Theater Telecommunications Center/HHC, 1st Aviation Brigade
(Jan 71 - Aug 72)
Thailand/Laos
- Telecommunications Center/U.S. Army Support Thailand
(USARSUPTHAI), Camp Samae San (Jan 73 - Aug 73)
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(STRATCOM - Thailand), Phu Mu (Pig Mountain) Signal Site
(Aug 73 - Jan 74)
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