In sci.physics Michael A. Terrell wrote:
wrote:
In sci.physics Michael A. Terrell wrote:
Do you really think any of these antiques are still in use?
The US retired all its Nike sites in the mid 70's.
Taiwan was using Nike until 1997 and Greece was using it until 2004.
I have no idea of the current status of Turkey, Italy, and South
Korea, but all were using it in 2000.
The whole system was upgraded in the 70's and all the tube based
stuff replaced with solid state.
We used to regularly break the MP's speed radar at Ft Bliss until the
MP's wised up and made sure there was a metal building between them
and us.
We could wipe them out to about a mile away and jam them a lot
farther than that.
This was the late 60's.
Late '60s? the police used real garbage, with an unprotected 1N23
type diode in the horn as a mixer. Just touching the element in the
horn would blow those diodes. Hell, a UHF ham radio transmitter would
take them out, at well under a kilowatt. The front end diodes were
shipped, wrapped in a thick layer of lead foil. I think I still have a
couple Western Electric surplus around, somewhere.
Yep, that's why we could blow them from so far away.
While I was in Korea, a spook detachment set up a listening post
down the hill from us.
They were a bunch of jerks and ****ed off everyone, so I gave their
equipment the same treatment.
Sure. If they knew what caused it, you would have spent at least
five years in Leavenworth.
They obviously knew what caused it.
What they didn't know and couldn't prove was that it was anything
other than a routine maintenance operation.
Gee, out of band signal rejection is a specification in all receivers
sold to the military, from WWII. I should know, I built a lot of state
of the art telemetry equipment for P, LL, UL and other microwave bands.
One KU band system is aboard the International Space Station as part of
their video, voice channel and data link to NASA.
Out of band signal rejection is one thing, being in the main beam
of a 44 db gain antenna of a high powered radar is another.
And since we had guys with guns to make sure nobody wandered into
the IFC operational area, there is no way they could snoop around.
They moved to the next mountain after they got their gear fixed.
Tell me more about your toy radars.
Toy? they were used a Carin Airfield, just a few miles from Ft
Rucker Alabama, for the US Army helicopter and US Air Force Air Traffic
Controller schools. 2 million watts is not a toy. It had a 200 mile
maximum range, and was built by Westinghouse. two complete, hot systems
that could be switched over at the flip of a switch, if there was any
problems. Five techs on duty, 24/7 doing routine maintenance, and
emergency repairs. If they went down, two schools and 17 airfields were
shut down to all non instrument rated pilots.
A mere 2 MW?
A Nike LOPAR is 1 MW, ABAR is 5 MW, HIPAR 10.4 MW.
I'll bet the antenna gain was much higher at our site, giving about
the same EIRP.
And you would probably lose the bet.
LOPAR 32 db cosecant squared.
HIPAR 29 db cosecant squared.
There were three different models of the ABAR; I don't remember the specs.
The target track, which is what was usually used for games was 250 kW
with an antenna gain of 44 db; you figure the ERP.
A Nike site always had a LOPAR and either an ABAR or a HIPAR depending
on the particulars of the site.
A hot site had 5 radars going at one time.
Another sign of old equipment pushed past its capabilities.
Another sign you are blowing smoke out your ass.
TTR - Target track radar; tracked the target
TRR - Target range radar; tracked the target in range in ECM, frequency
agile to defeat ECM, elevation and azimuth provided by the ECM source
MTR - Missle track radar; tracked the missle in flight
LOPAR - Short range acquistion radar; used to monitor the engagement range
ABAR and HIPAR - Long range acquistion radar; used to detect targets outside
the engagement range.
Five radars to do five different things all at once.
A **** duty on a Nike site was to go into the HIPAR dome and get rid
of the bird bodies inside and sweep them up from the outside. Birds
only got close the the HIPAR once.
Sigh, we didn't need no stinkin' dome, but there were plenty of birds
laying in the parking lots. They needed to replace the main bearing
once. The crane could barely lift it high enough to swap the bearings.
Ooooh, I'm impressed.
The Michigan site I was on was not supposed to run the HIPAR other than
into the dummy load unless there was a "situation" as it wiped out
Detroit's ATC radar 50 miles away.
A Nike site had about 50 people and was manned 24/7.
So? All that means is that your equipment was older and needed more
support.
No, it means there was more equipment and a site was totally self contained.
Sites in places like Korea had a infantry company for "guard duty".
You didn't need a company to guard a RADAR site inside the US,
dingledorf.
Last I checked, Korea isn't inside the US, moron and the sites like
your's in Korea didn't have an infantry company either.
My radar is bigger than your radar.
Neither of owned those RADAR systems.
The Battery Commander may have held the paper, but the Maintenance
Chief, which I was, for all intents and purposes owned the system
as much as any piece of issued military equipment can be owned.
--
Jim Pennino
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