Found Sercret FAA radar in the woods of NH USA

[yada]

On sept 11th the planes that crashed were being controlled by new boston center, because they would have been in their air space. This station would have been the first to find out the planes had gone off course.

[CatalinaWOW]

Yada, you need to get out more.  Read the wikipedia article.  The New Boston center tracks satellites.  The military doesn't control civilian flights, and this station probably has technology to eliminate the clutter of atmospheric air traffic.  The guys at the New Boston center probably found out about the 9/11 situation the same way most people did, on radio or television.

[Jr460]

Yes a VOR, most likely a VORTAC.   

Before GPS, VORs where great, much easier to deal with than a NDB.

If you ignore the ident for now, a VOR has both FM and AM modulation.  The first versions of VOR had a vertical 1/4 wave antenna inside a rotating metal cylinder.  There was a slot in the cylinder.  A bit of the antenna stuck out the top so you always got just a bit of the signal.   What the rotation did was give the signal an AM modulation, and where the peak was depended on where you where in relation to the VOR.  That alone doesn't help you much, so you have an FM modulation that is timed with it's peak to be when the slot is pointed to magnetic north.

Think of it in terms of lighthouse.  You have a white light that spins and you see the flash.   Now add a red omni directional light on top that flashes just as the rotating light points north.   With the time difference between when you see the red flash and the white flash you know what "radial" you are on from the light house.

You now have two ways to tell exactly where you are, use two VORs and see where the radial cross.  Or use DME and a VOR.  Distance Measuring Equipment.  DME is in the 900MHz and above range gets you within .1nm.

Having both at a site makes it a VOR-DME

VORs are VHF, the military needed something a bit more and also wanted UHF, so they have TACAN.  TACAN also has DME by default.  So a facility with all 3 is a VORTAC.   This what most are, a VORTAC, a plain VOR or TACAN, or VOR-DME is rare.   Even on a military base they put up VORTACs.

Newer VORs don't have an moving parts, they are a Doppler VOR like in this thread.

Wait, nothing moving.....  Doppler......

Yea they electricaly move the signal around to the smaller antennas, you just think the transmitter is moving.  The Doppler gives the FM modulation and the fixed part in the center gives the AM.

[yada]

Yada, you need to get out more.  Read the wikipedia article.  The New Boston center tracks satellites.  The military doesn't control civilian flights, and this station probably has technology to eliminate the clutter of atmospheric air traffic.  The guys at the New Boston center probably found out about the 9/11 situation the same way most people did, on radio or television.

I used to fly airplanes (cesna's single prop around 5000' elev.) around the north east. When you leave the airports air space (think upside down cones) you are controlled by "new boston centre" as they call it on the VHF radio. We made a circle off our flight plan, and as soon as we were 180' in, New Boston centre called us up on the radio to see what were doing or if something was wrong, this was pre 911 too. We told them sight seeing and told them how many minutes we were going to do that and had to resume our flight plan. You can't just fly around, you always have to check into someone's air space. As soon as those 9/11 planes deviated in course or altitude NBC would have called them up to see why.

[sokoloff]

I used to fly airplanes (cesna's single prop around 5000' elev.) around the north east. When you leave the airports air space (think upside down cones) you are controlled by "new boston centre" as they call it on the VHF radio. We made a circle off our flight plan, and as soon as we were 180' in, New Boston centre called us up on the radio to see what were doing or if something was wrong, this was pre 911 too. We told them sight seeing and told them how many minutes we were going to do that and had to resume our flight plan. You can't just fly around, you always have to check into someone's air space. As soon as those 9/11 planes deviated in course or altitude NBC would have called them up to see why.

I fly now (and flew before 9/11/01 as well). Most light aircraft are not "controlled" by ATC en route, and (way) less than 5% of my flights are under a flight plan. You absolutely can still take off and just go sightseeing around in 99+% of the country's airspace. I am based at a towered airport (Lawrence Airport) and once I'm 5 miles away from there, I can fly to my parent's airport in NC and I don't have to talk to anyone else on the radio if I don't feel like it. Flying to my wife's family in Ohio, we use a towered airport at the other side as well, so I need to talk to someone for the last 5-10 miles.

Below 10K and away from towered airports in the area, it's "Boston approach" on the radio. Above 10K it's "Boston center". The handoff/transition altitudes aren't always 10K MSL, but that's typical.

[CatalinaWOW]

I haven't checked the maps for your area, so don't know what NBC controls, and don't know if this is a joint FAA/military operation (such things exist). 

It could be that you were just lucky in your choice of flight locations.  Like flying out of the LA basin north - you go near or over Edwards flight test area and I am sure the Edwards controllers are interested when you fly near their airspace - and very interested if you enter it.

In any case calling an entity that contacts you, identifies itself and responds to your responses "SECRET" must involve a special meaning of that word.

[John Coloccia]

I haven't checked the maps for your area, so don't know what NBC controls, and don't know if this is a joint FAA/military operation (such things exist). 

It could be that you were just lucky in your choice of flight locations.  Like flying out of the LA basin north - you go near or over Edwards flight test area and I am sure the Edwards controllers are interested when you fly near their airspace - and very interested if you enter it.

In any case calling an entity that contacts you, identifies itself and responds to your responses "SECRET" must involve a special meaning of that word.

Like any other restricted area, you'll get in big trouble at Edwards, and you may even get intercepted. That said there is (or was, at any rate) a flying club there, so it's not like you absolutely can't go in and out, but you do need to talk to them and have a reason to be there. My home field for several years was Fox in Lancaster (just west of Edwards). No real big deal flying around there. Stay away from Edwards, and for your own sake stay away from the military routes...those boys can cook, and if I remember correctly there where drones every now and then too.

BTW, I have a friend that used to work at Boston center. As far as I know, it's still in Nashua, NH...not really anywhere near New Boston.

[EE-digger]

Old thread but I live a few miles from the OP's FAA installation, a popular local walk.  Nothing secret about it.  It may have an alternate use though ... generation of complex, lower frequency waves to penetrate the thin skin of those tin foil hats.