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INFORMATION
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INFORMATION
SERIES |
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Abstract
Inexplicable and
thought-provoking events have been reported
throughout the history of UFOs/UAP. My team
experienced several of these things in the 1970's
when we had the time to conduct skywatches. You
can read about them in detail, but there was one
incident where we went on skywatch to observe an
IFO, and a real UFO showed up! On
another occasion on a routine skywatch one of our
spotters saw an unidentified target coming out of
the northeast and remarked,"we got a bogey." All
three observers, yours truly included, had
binoculars trained on the target which was a very
bright white object coming head-on out of the
northeast. Within seconds all three spotters
witnessed a complete flight reversal without any
turn radius and without any deceleration or
acceleration and the object headed back northeast.
I was reminded of this after watching the
Skinwalker episodes but also thinking back
about the Nimitz and FA-18 encounter with the "tic
tac" in 2004. Upon leaving the area of the jet
encounter, the object had raced straight to
the carrier force's "cap point" over 40 miles
away! These objects are aware of our presence and
have taken certain actions to demonstrate this. In
some instances there have been unexplained bursts
in background radiation. And in other cases a
spike in spectrum analyzer readings. We can take
advantage of this information, MADAR, and the
right equipment, this could be the basis for an
interesting scientific experiment.
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It's
very difficult to see anything at the MADAR Operations
Center at Newburgh, Indiana, because of the way the
taller buildings are bunched together, and especially
with the security lights used extensively for
protection. When the MADAR 142 goes in a code blue alert
the operator grabs a night vision camera and goes
outside, looking for a dark area to film the limited
amount of visible sky. So skywatches are
definitely out of the question here, in the normal
sense. But the MOC does have some very interesting
equipment within its control room. I'm suggesting and
planning some experiments at a much better location.
Norris City, Illinois is 50 miles east at Newburgh. If
the exercises are successful, I then suggest the team
move the experiments to another location to see if the
results are similar or radically different. Skywatch Outpost 2 Close-up view looking southheast This beautiful
area about 2 miles SE of the Norris City, Illinois
MADAR site 115 is perfect for skywatch patrols. The
N-S line is actually running diagonally from almost
lower left to upper right, and right through the
property and open area associated with the long
driveway. The circular area within the driveway
"dipper" is larger than it looks. In fact the house
is pretty large and at the end of the driveway near
the top. This site is 50 miles west of the MADAR
Command Center at Newburgh, Indiana. There are two
other MADAR sites in-between these two locations and
three others further east.
 S.
Illinois and S. Indiana MADAR Array.
The MADAR
Project has over 160 sites in the U.S. and around
the world. The MADAR sites from Norris City,
Illinois (115) to Mt. Vernon, Indiana (119)
to Evansville (153) to Newburgh (142) [MADAR
Operations Center] stretch along a 50-mile line
and are part of the initial experiment to be
conducted this year. It may soon encompass 114 at
Santa Claus and possibly even sites 28 and 208 at
Corydon, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky.
Basic equipment will include binoculars and a cell phone, but the main pieces being funded and incorporated are 1) a GQ GMC-500 geiger counter, 2) a GQ EMF-390 multi-field electromagnetic radiation meter for RF up to 10 Ghz and a 2.5 Ghz spectrum analyzer, and 3) a Creative XP night vision unit. Three sites are already funded. The planned experiments involve at least the two observation sites. During skywatch operations the Newburgh site becomes the Skywatch Command Center and operates MADAR node 142. The southern Illinois site is just outside the farming community of Norris City. About a hundred feet behind the spotters is a stake driven in the ground with a strobe light flashing about every 2 seconds. Near the spotters is a car and the team has two night vision cameras, a geiger counter, and the spectrum analyzer. A conventional Sony camcorder is on hand if cell cameras fail to work as in many UAP instances. The spotters will be connected by recorded cell phone communications system referred to as Skynet Intercom during skywatch patrols, which at times may include the participation of observation sites in-between at Mt. Vernon, Indiana (site 119) and Evansville, Indiana (site 153), and at times sites even farther east. All of the MADAR sites are running 24/7 so they will be accumulating 1-minute datapoints even if they don't go into alert status. The team should have a third party with a cell phone who makes sure that all activities are relayed through the skynet intercom system. The main part of the team will be busy doing other things, and the command center may request certain actions be taken.  MAVERIC MAVERIC (Multiple Audio/Video Environment Recording & Integrated Console) was intended to automatically record data when MADAR is triggered at the Newburgh site. But during skywatch patrols the director will override the system and put all the available equipment into a skywatch patrol status.  Night view of Command Center Although the
observation site team at Norris City will have a
digital aircraft scanner monitoring the area where
Kansas City Center, Indianapolis Center, and Memphis
Center sectors converge, the Command Center at
Newburgh has the same feed fed into the OBS program
recording Flight Radar 24.
Besides the MADAR itself (not visible in this view), on the left side of the L-shaped console are several monitors. Directly left of the operator (and almost out of view) is a 21" LCD which is the Skyglobe program (see below) depicting all the stars and planets currently visible. To the right of that is the 42" LCD displaying the current Flight Radar 24 data, complete with full data block information on every flight, along with audio aircraft scanner feed. Above these monitors are wall-mounted LCDs displaying other data but especially the output of the GMC-300E geiger counter. Archived data from that counter is stored online. More to the right and In front of the operator is the main computer with a 32" monitor which displays the Reolink Skycams (also seen below). Above that is a smaller LCD which is a heads-up quad security display of four pieces of equipment. 1) A mounted camera monitored EMF-390 meter (spectrum analyzer), 2) a camera-monitored standard magnetic compass, 3) another view of the geiger display mentioned earlier, and 4) the Accurite Lightning Alert which shows energy bursts. All recorders are either active 24/7 or are available within minutes and three main external 3 terrabyte hard drives store all the data.  Skyglobe This Skyglobe
program can identify any star or planet visible in
the region. Anything conspicuous in the sky during
an exercise will be pointed out to the team(s) prior
to the skywatch.
 This is a
Flight Radar 24 view of the region we are
talking about. Notice where the three aircraft
ARTC control centers join together SW of the
cloud in the center of the monitor. This image
also shows that cloud just east of the Norris
City site.
 ReoLink Skycams
Close-up view of above This is an early morning view from the ReoLink skycams, the moon shown in the bottom left quadrant. Normally the skycams are automatically recording from 9 PM to 6 AM. These cameras are angled up and towards the four compass points. THE SKYWATCH
EXPERIMENTS
The skywatch will begin when observers are at their observation sites and are punched into Skynet Intercom. This is similar to the Plan 62 the Air Force used during the Mantell UFO chase in January of 1948, except two-way communication and recording will document each event during the exercise. The aircraft scanner is turned on, the volume set and the squelch adjusted. The geiger counters and spectrum analyzers will be turned on and the record button selected and set to alert the team if readings exceed the planned thresholds. If either of these devices are activated, or if a MADAR goes into a code blue alert, the team will be on full alert and will belooking for visual targets. As soon as possible night vision will be brought to bear and used to illuminate and record anything of interest.  Creative Pro XP
with infra-red tactical night vision
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During the entire patrol, any and all of the activities of importance will be recorded with necessary communications back and forth when needed between participants, even with other sites which may be involved. And since all the equipment is basically hands-free, the data will be downloaded later on computer, filed, and studied. For this reason each piece of equipment will be marked with the part and site number. This includes imaging from the hard drives of the night vision cameras, the geiger counter, the spectrum analyzer, etc. With this type of documentation there will be no questions about who, what and when. The Skynet Intercom will say that someone got a burst of radiation and could see no visual target until the night vision betrayed its presence. The data from the other pieces of equipment will (or may not) back this up. It is very important to mention that while a MADAR-equipped site near a skywatch team might not be triggered during a skywatch, SCRAM data (specific column readings and measurements) contained within the MADAR's spreadsheet could yield extremely important information. The magnetometer reading could show an increase before or during a documented event. Or the onboard compass may show a significant variation in the readings. For that reason a special form will be created to make sure all the necessary checks and processing are completed. If the first experiment proves to be moderately successful, another one of longer duration will be planned. Later on, an experiment would be to take the equipment to a different location to see if the phenomenon follows the observers or is indigenous to the original area. There could be many times when a MADAR site may wish to conduct an unscheduled skywatch patrol and test new ideas and equipment. If a site in our array is having sightings or uncorrelated targets (unexplained MADAR "hits") it would be imperative to invite others to participate. Another idea would be to have a tripod with a piece of 4" vinyl post sleeve mounted vertically. On the four sides of the sleeve, 4 trail cameras could be mounted and an all-sky camera mounted on top. This could be placed near the observation site DURING an excercise and left overnight, the SD cards swapped out the next day and studied. And again, all cameras will have ID numbers and the SD cards also numbered so we know which camera and SD card were used and what direction it was pointed. That would be listed on the form I proposed earlier as well. This should be an exciting, or at least interesting year. Before the year's end the Santa Claus site (114) will be in a better location and across Christmas Lake. A balcony-like patio will be perfect for a skywatch. Fran Ridge MADAR Command Center skyking42@gmx.com |