KO6YD

Are we really that safe?

Posted 12-Sep-07 by Dane (KO6YD)

After some thinking, I have come to wonder just how safe can a radar like the PAVE/PAWS site really keep us if some 100mw transmitter 20 miles away causes "interference". So, this thing is meant to watch for far off threats and somone can bring it to it's knees with some HT in Wheatland?.

So, what any threats to us needs to do is send someone over here, stop by HRO, a local Radio shack or Frys and pickup some 440 mobile rig and drive around N. Cal. Then they call home and give the go-ahead to "launch". I feel safe now.

I know a teacher in higher education and the complaint I hear is the students today are "book smart" but don't really know how to solve the real technical problems. They just want to know the formula so they can plug in the numbers for the design. RFI? What's that? What is the equation for that one?. They lack the basic idea of "Good Engineering Practices". So, when the contractor hires cheaper (maybe offshore) designers to upgrade the PAVE / PAWS systems, they cannot make the project meet spec. (for outside RF interference) so instead of solving that problem, which they don't have the expertise to do, they just shut down anything causing them problems. So instead of fixing the real problem (with the design), they shut down all the UHF sites so they now have clean airways to prove to the USAF that they meet specs.

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