Glenn Campbell's report on Groom Lake "Weather" Stations

originally posted by: PeterMcFly
a reply to: gariac

But if wifi was present in the setup, it could be the client rather than the WAP.

A completely passive monitoring program like airodump-ng will detect and decloak everything: AP, client, connected or not, client trying to connect at large and even the "kids" scanning the air using a not so passive method.

Coupled to a highly directionnal antenna like a planar Curtain Quad is lot of fun...

Kismet is completely passive. Perhaps you confused it with Netstumbler.

I have a COTS 2.4G 16dBi sector type antenna. Actually two since kismet supports multiple wifi adapters. There is no wifi coming from Groom or the TTR. (Nellis is another story.)

I am carrying all the gear I can carry up Tikaboo. All this stuff sounds interesting until people realize that somebody has to do the work.

Unless they are stupid, if there is a wifi connection to the weather station, it will be a client with no beacon. Passwords? Doubtful. Probably a ssh key.

Don't get me wrong. There is plenty of wifi telemetry out there commercially. I came across a high tension tower with WAP. Railroads use wifi. But you have to assume a DoD sponsored project has some security.

At the time I first found the weather station, there was only one cellular service in Alamo. So when I see a yagi point to the cell site, I'm pretty sure they are talking to big red. It wouldn't be that hard to measure the driven element of the yagi and estimate the frequency.

originally posted by: gariac

originally posted by: PhoenixOD
Maybe some type of station monitoring RC drones that nut job Americans might use to get video of what goes on in their own governments secret weapons programs and leak it youtube so they can feel important.

Are there any consumer drones that can fly the 10 miles (as close as you can get to the base), let alone the 26 miles from Tikaboo? I always thought a land based remote video would be the way to snoop on the base. Stuff in the air is easy to detect.

I have looked at the laws regarding drone usage near federal or military facilities (don't ask...) They consider flying (or driving) an RC vehicle of any type the same as physically/bodily crossing the border. So the repercussions would be the same. There is also the matter of flying a drone in a MOA - from what I understand it is allowed providing you fly < 400 ft.

a reply to: FosterVS

I don't know about a drone in a MOA, but you can fly an aircraft VFR in a MOA.

Regarding a "land drone", can you cite the federal law? I think this is uncharted territory. The is also the problem of attribution.

I looked at the area near Freedom Ridge. The ridge doesn't appear to be more than 30 ft above the road. I'm not sure what the limits are for telescoping TV vans. The laws for balloons start five miles from the airport. You could probably do a balloon based observation, though I doubt the imagery would be very good.

I think the Tikaboo hike will be the only real way to observe the base visually.

If the base stole Tikaboo, policing it would be a pain.

Flying at night should provide sufficient cover until EMCCD technology becomes cheap.

NVM

www.wrcc.dri.edu...

FYI, the wind speed gauge was repaired on Oct 20.

a reply to: gariac

Either it's getting pounded, or down. I can't connect.

a reply to: gariac

Flying a drone out of visual range is prohibited.


Orrr...maybe not..as yet.
www.dronejournalism.org...

originally posted by: FosterVS
a reply to: gariac

Either it's getting pounded, or down. I can't connect.

Weird. I just connected to it. I linked to the archive, so you would have to select the October data to see the wind gauge recover.

latest photo

current weather

It looks like the wind direction sensor is frozen. Not that it matters since the purpose of the weather station has nothing to do with weather.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: gariac

Flying a drone out of visual range is prohibited.


Orrr...maybe not..as yet.
www.dronejournalism.org...

I've been searching and reading what I can about "hobby" drones/RC aircraft. The rules in most circumstances seems to be:
1) No higher than 400 ft. altitude
2) Must be within visual range of operator
3) No heavy than 55 lbs.(?)
4) If flown within 5 miles of an airport, you have to advise airport

This mainly came from the FAA website.

a reply to: gariac

I managed to grab a sunrise photo off the NTIK Web page, but I suspect the server is being DDOSed. You can get through, but not reliably.

Was wondering when he would return to the Area, no pun intended. I remember Glenn from the early days Groom Lake. He certainly is an interesting person. As for the weather stations, I have no doubt that’s what they are. With that said, I also have no doubt the government has access to them and uses them whenever they need to. The fun days of lurking around Area 51 are pretty much long gone with Freedom Ridge being closed off back in the 90’s. Still, a part of me is happy to see Glenn back doing what he used to do, and that's pissing off the Cammo Dudes lol.

a reply to: EngineerGuY

I do have a problem with pissing off the camo dudes. They are just doing their job. Now of course I don't mind giving them some work to do, namely follow me around when I am near the border. But no taunting.

Easily the most entertaining camo dude encounter I had was when I decided to camp at some spot towards the back gate, but at a nice pull off near a road that leads to a remote gate at the north side of the range. I hadn't realized this nice little spot was a camo dude perch for viewing tourists. Apparently I had triggered a road sensor, so the dudes headed to their spot, which required a hard right turn. In fact, they couldn't see my SUV until the made the turn.

I heard a vehicle approaching and got my camera handy. The dudes turned, kind of panicked when they saw me, put their truck in reverse, and then managed to run off the trail. One dude had to get out to access the situation and guide the driver. At that point, I put the camera down and didn't take any photos. No use making them look bad.

If you check the latest Tikaboo image, the peak is fogged in. Relative humidity is 98%. Also the wind direction gauge appears to be stuck at 36 degrees.

Since this weather data is sooooo essential, I expect the wind direction repair to be done pronto!

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: EngineerGuY

I do have a problem with pissing off the camo dudes. They are just doing their job. Now of course I don't mind giving them some work to do, namely follow me around when I am near the border. But no taunting.

Easily the most entertaining camo dude encounter I had was when I decided to camp at some spot towards the back gate, but at a nice pull off near a road that leads to a remote gate at the north side of the range. I hadn't realized this nice little spot was a camo dude perch for viewing tourists. Apparently I had triggered a road sensor, so the dudes headed to their spot, which required a hard right turn. In fact, they couldn't see my SUV until the made the turn.

I heard a vehicle approaching and got my camera handy. The dudes turned, kind of panicked when they saw me, put their truck in reverse, and then managed to run off the trail. One dude had to get out to access the situation and guide the driver. At that point, I put the camera down and didn't take any photos. No use making them look bad.

I agree, taunting is something I would never do, nor have I on my visits. I enjoy having them follow me around. Regardless, it's been a few years since my last visit. Looking forward to getting back after spring some time. Enjoying the recent pics on Lazy G Ranch Gariac!

A bit OT, but I noticed the DRI has photos of their Warm Springs Summit station. I've been up there a few times, but not in the conditions that they photographed.

Old AT&T micorwave link seen from Warm Springs Summit

When you drive on Route 6, the old AT&T microwave tower is easily spotted from the highway. In the linked photo, you can see Warm Springs Summit is substantially higher than the AT&T facility.

These telecom companies were very clever with their links. They avoid mountain peaks in order not to have to drive up them in the winter. On the case of the Warm Springs Summit facility, they may use the tracked vehicle stored at Basecamp to drive to the site. I know from experience you often can't reach it in a SUV. One section of the road gets very deep drifts.

Warm Springs Summit overall

The DOE and USAF use the site, plus the state of Nevada. Also a ham repeater and cellular site (CDMA).

www.youtube.com...

This link is a short (thankfully) update to Glenn's original video. He drives to the Alamo cell site. Glenn was looking for a companion yagi antenna corresponding to the one on the weather station. However I talked to the contractors when they were setting up the Rachel station and the guy said it was a Verizon cellular link. That is consistent with a yagi not found at the Alamo site.