A freeper pointed out that it’s “brown noise and static” as in b.s.
That's what I heard last night, 'brown noise and static' Had me on the floor LMAO ! Go John !
My guess is that McCain was speaking as a Navy pilot describing spurious, non-threatening electronic emanations coming up from below -- as opposed to ground to air missile tracking emanations.
That's awfully RACIST of him to say, isn't it???
(As opposed to "brown NOSE" which is what you will NOT see Sarah Palin do w/r/t to the Press)
Brown noise is sound whose upper frequency components drop off at a rate of 6dB/octave, as distinct from pink noise which has a 3dB/octave drop, and white noise which has a uniform amplitude at all frequencies. From a practical standpoint, pink noise is probably the most useful for purposes of testing audio equipment.
Ground noise is ambient noise which is detected even when the input to a device is shorted and should be completely quiet. It represents the baseline noise level of a system.
Ground noise would seem more apropos here from a technical standpoint, but 'brown noise' could appeal on the basis of scatological or historical references.