Posted on 10/03/2020 11:14:53 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Is there unclassified info on these antennas, could be interesting for HAM radio.
I use to work with the detachment out of NAS Pax River and some civilian or fisherman more than likely saw it leaving at 02:00 posted it on some message board later in the day. Its not hard for the media around the bases to get the information as most have family and friends working on the base. When I was at Pax we had a massive Pre-Y2K Drill planned for months in advance. The local newspaper exposed the whole thing 3 days before hand, so the C.O. invited them to send a reporter to cover the drill. Since I worked at the airfield and was Night Ops Qualified in landing anything up on our runway to a C-5. He followed me around like a lost puppy and bugging the heck out of me, so I got him good I had 3 C-141s come in under night vision conditions gave this reporter some headset with a radio, but no Night Vision. I lead him to the rear ramp by voice commands, the ramp opens up and at least 30 red dots are shining at us.....LMBO! I will say this the rest of my night was reporter free suspect he was changing his underwear somewhere. I somehow received a 96 hour pass via the Executive Officer and I heard he complained to the C.O. which fell on deaf ears we are the military and he accepted an invite to observe us in action.
“VQ-3 was in Guam at that time. We had 4 EC130-Qs in our squadron ... there was never 4 parked on the ramp anytime. One was always gone. I was an E-5, made E-6 there and was flight crew. Operated the trailing wire antenna to talk to XXXX and does anybody know long the trailing wire antenna was? 10 points and a brew if you do.”
5 miles LOL - I was in a squadron on the other side of the TACAMO unit at Barbers Point - VPU-2.
Guessing it’s an authorized release.
Interesting article and the ten minute video at the end was very informative. Thank you for posting this.
As a former TACAMO crewman I can tell you this is SOP.
If anything/something comes up that makes the Pentagon nervous, they order all the VQ-3 birds up so they can disperse if they need to.
The bird that was on alert at the time was unaffected, and already airborne. And did not have a transponder turned on.
The reasoning is: TACAMO must maintain 7x24x365 coverage.
They have several aircraft to accomplish that mission and they are moved around like chess pieces.
It’s still amazing how those heavy airplanes get up into the sky.
“does anybody know long the trailing wire antenna was?”
I believe it was 27,000 feet but rarely extended beyond 24,000.
Nevertheless, whatever length resonated best with 27khz.
Right. 23,000 give or take a hundred or so. If the wire broke you had to change the whole reel. That happened occasionally.
The antenna tuner kept the transmitter operating at max with little or no SWR.
touché
Please ask the veterans and pilots on FR who know about this stuff. I am really uninformed. Just an airshow fan and reader of books about stealth and development of airplanes.
Also thanks to all the veterans and current members of the armed forces for their service.
Appreciate the post and info!
It is, more or less. Same basic airframe as the KC-135 tanker. They put a radome on it and called it AWACS, there is a cargo-only version, other radar/surveillance planes as well as some I've forgotten, all based on the same Boeing design. The civilian 707 was very similar but not quite the same fuselage.
Jesus declared, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” - Matthew 24:36.
The fact of the matter is that there is ALWAYS at least one of these birds up AT ALL TIMES. That the West Coast and the East Coast birds may have been changed out simultaneously is not a big thing. If the opponent wants to take this as some kind of sign, well that’s on them then, isn’t it?
Good eye, that’s what the E6-B is based on.
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