Anyhow ..
RSO/LCO make the call, so if you see planes when you launch, stand down
until they pass.
When you talk to an ARTCC and your NOTAM is active, competent pilots will
see the NOTAM and/or TFR
and avoid the launch site coordinates completely (by seeking higher
altitude or flying around). Usually they
do this when they files their flight plan. Some people don't do that, they
just take off and fly around the area
and those are the ones you watch for.
There are many incompetent pilots, those that don't read the NOTAMS for the
local airport in their area
and then they fly around and call the ARTCC and report incidents which
didn't exist because they didn't
check the NOTAMS in their area. Yes, it has happened before and don't get
me started on the wonderful cropduster pilot
who tempts fate from time to time. All you can do is stand down and if it
persists, contact the local airport
and/or get their tail number and report it to the FAA. If you're in an MOA,
then it's different since the Radar
supervisor can see everything and you talk to them whenever you see
altitude over FL15 (15K).
Now, a lot of small utility helicopters and prop planes don't have flight
plans and don't check their NOTAMS either, these
guys are just flying around working on things. You've got to watch for them
too, we see it all the time. That's
part of running the range and sometimes there are close calls.
The good news is that the FAA mandated Automatic Dependent Surveillance
(ADS-B) for all aircraft by 2020,
usually this is on big birds that go over FL15 but you see it on a lot of
smaller private planes/jets since when you listen
in to an ASD-B broadcast you can get their ICAO number, but when you look
it up, it is not a commercial jet or
it is a military vehicle (you can tell from the ICAO code). Anyhow, ASD-B
operates on 900-1090Mhz band and you
can pick them up for well over 100 miles (I see planes from FAT/LAX all the
time and I am near SJC).
You can get an SDR radio which can tune to 900/1090Mhz and with the right
antenna pick up flights from over
at the LCO table too see what is around you. http://www.rtl-sdr.com/ has
details on the SDR architecture.
If you want to build one, get an Ubuntu machine, the RTL 2832 with the
RTL820T tuner from LadyAda
(http://www.adafruit.com/products/1497) and git clone Salvatore's repo for
dump1090 (http://www.satsignal.eu/raspberry-pi/dump1090.html) - you can
look online for how to build a proper aircraft antenna, and micro-cicruits
has the
RF gear you need to attenuate down to -150 dBm
I have one I bring to Blackrock to watch flights around me, it is good when
you are coordinating with Mountain
Home AFB, and 3 ARTCC's to run the BR HA waivers - you need that and a
Satphone. It will make you paranoid
but in the end - nothing beats a good pair of eyes/ears and binoculars -
that's what makes a good RSO/LCO.
-james
On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 10:32 PM, David Smith <davew6dps@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Here’s a different approach. Asking pilots, is there a visual warning to
alert pilots of a dangerous airspace?"
Yes, Richard. It is called reading NOTAMs for the area you are flying
in....
As for acoustic detection of aircraft, it has been tried since WWII. Some
limited success with supersonic aircraft at relatively low altitude, but
there are too many issues to be practical for sub-sonic birds....
