Re: Flashing red lights


Message posted by lone wolf on August 13, 2003 at 13:29:17 PST:

Thanks. That confirms what I was told. I guess for a tour of a large group, they don't bother with the red rotating light.

I can't recall how many doors I was lead through with push button locks at the Blue Cube. Incidentally, it is called the Blue Cube because the outside wall panels are, well, blue. If the building has windows, I didn't see any other than perhaps the lobby door. It was a no camera tour, but they were kind enough to let us take a group photo in the lobby so that we can say "we were in the blue cube."

Most of the equipment looked pretty old. No nixie tubes spotted, but there was no shortage of red led displays on the equipment. The most interesting piece of hardware we saw in the Blue Cube was the CRT on the computer where they schedule satellite time. They were huge, maybe 3/4 of a meter tall, and easily a meter deep. I can't say I ever saw a CRT that big. An interesting factoid is there are more satellites in space than there are earth stations to recieve the data, so scheduling is pretty critical. You need to be able to talk to the right bird at the right time.

I put a link to Heavens Above. If you are in the high desert, it doesn't hurt to make a schedule of the brighter birds that will fly over the base. They move quite fast so spotting a satellite isn't very difficult. You really need a clock synched to WWVB, which is quite cheap nowadays.

Attached link: satellite tracking website

In Reply to: Flashing red lights posted by F-117A Webmaster on August 13, 2003 at 13:04:39 PST:

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