[MilCom] 282.4/282.425

[Milspec390 at aol.com]

Decade ago visited ex-SAGE radar site. Efficient solid state dull ARSR-4 
replaced glowing throbbing tube stuff. N'er a moon so luminous as FPS-67 pulse 
clipping circuits. Ignitrons lighted to Cold War elegance. 

Colocated GATR site featured NORAD UHF transceivers. One unit - from which we 
were kept distant - someone helpfully wrote and crossed out '282.425', then 
wrote '350.45'.
350.45 was Customs UHF until PopComm ever so less than helpfully published 
it, ca. autumn '96. Until then, personally heard 350 alla time in SW FL and CA 
high-desert homes.

 Following PopCommPromise, 350.45 dumped like an eight-day's croaked stiff, 
replaced by 282.4, not .425. Ca. '96 - '01, 282.400 heard regularly SW FL & So. 
Cal. Desert. 

Just prior to presidential transition, 282.425 reactivated. 282.4 goes the 
way of Wildroot (r). 

ESM for Tyros: Should you hear Customs P-3, come up regular TV ch. 13. Every 
ten seconds you'll see clean parallel lines across screen and hear 
'zzzzzeeeeappe' as 5 Mw pulses sweep past.

More ESM for Tyros: 166.4625 simplex sometimes features 'glizzapp' burst 
every thirty or so seconds. Sounds like slow motion LINK-XX. Agent provocateurs 
claim this is downlink for Customs airborne radar. Usually coincides w/comms on 
Customs V/UHF/FM freqs. 

                                                                              
                             =Z.=

Paul Vincent Zecchino
Manasoviet Key, FL
BT