AREA 51: THE CIA’S SECRET FILES

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: PhoenixOD

I phrased my post kind of poorly. The REAL sensors are magnetic and are not easily spotted. What they showed in the video was a pressure sensitive sensor, as you stated.

If they place the magnetic sensors (magnetometer) correctly, they are set up around intersections. That is, visualize the cross of an intersection. If you put sensors on all four sides, you can sense the direction of the vehicle.

I forgot about that - the part showing cables across GLR, in plain view. The type normally used for counting vehicles as they pass. I don't ever remember seeing them on GLR. Pretty hokey, I suspect they may have been props for this documentary, passing them off as "sensors".

The following exchange is PART of a message I got on YouTube, from a claimed ex-camo dude:
My knowledge of equipment used is some 16 years or so old. Most of it I still can't talk about. The road up to the tourist trap itself used to be considered the first line of awareness of an approach. The dust kicked up was a dead give away. Since it is indeed common knowledge about the sensors they were considered secondary. Used to be those sensors were EEEEVERYWHERE not just on the roads. Seismic sensors even back then were pretty cool but VERY buggy. Can only imagine what they're like now.

a reply to: FosterVS

I've only seen two types of sensors used. The PIR (passive infrared) sensor used to be at Roadblock Canyon. It was on the hill on their side of the border, clearly visible, pointing at the general area of the road. Those sensors are good for a few hundred feet, but probably caught a few critters. Since you have been to Roadblock Canyon, you can see how the layout really doesn't lend itself to hiding a magnetometer off the side of the road because in a canyon, there is no side of the road. ;-) Just the rock wall.

The magnetometers are hidden in the brush. They were easy to find when there was no time delay on the trigger. They chirped on 151.5MHz. [Surprisingly, that is a legal frequency for the military to use around the NTTR.] They are now on delay so that they go off far enough away that you won't catch them with a frequency counter.

I have the manuals and schematics for the EMIDs and MIDs systems. They were designed by Sandia. Regarding the sensors being everywhere, I'm not so sure about that. The system is battery operated, and poorly designed. They use a bunch of 9VDC batteries in parallel. These batteries need to be replaced, and that has to be done without creating a trail that somebody can detect. [Remember, the desert never heals.] If the sensors are not by roads, they would have to be moved often to prevent a trail from forming.

There are all sorts of rumors about the sensors used. While people claim they used seismic sensors, everyone that had been dug up was a magnetometer. There were rumors about "people sniffers." The trouble with that is just about any kind of urine sets off a people sniffer. [Those things failed miserably in Vietnam.]

The PIR sensor at the back gate is on 433.92MHz. [An ISM frequency, which is perfectly legal for anyone in the US to use.] They don't have the sensitivity cranked up very high on it. You literally need to be right at the gate. Just pull a U-turn at the back gate and you can hear it go off. Remember the BBC posse drove to the back gate undetected. I suspect they parked by the side of the road rather than making a turn and parking by the fence.

I'm in the camp of Jerry Freeman probably made it to Area 51, or the general area. I think the security at the base, unless they have some microwave perimeter sensor, could be penetrated on foot. It wouldn't be pleasant.
Jerry Freeman

Area 51 has always had a lot of mystery surrounding it and it probably always will. I made the drive through the desert as far as most people go - up to the signs that say "Use of deadly force authorized".

Which leads me to the question: How can a tax funded government installation openly declare that life and liberty will be taken without due process and get away with it?

a reply to: Vroomfondel

Critical military assets are subject to protection. No surprise there. I have seen warning signs with the words "USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED" at Edwards, Holloman, Kirtland, and other Air Force bases. It doesn't mean that the guards will automatically default to employing deadly force against intruders, only that such action is authorized if the guards feel it is warranted. Making such authorization public knowledge serves as a deterrent to potential trespassers.

originally posted by: Shadowhawk
a reply to: Vroomfondel

Critical military assets are subject to protection. No surprise there. I have seen warning signs with the words "USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED" at Edwards, Holloman, Kirtland, and other Air Force bases. It doesn't mean that the guards will automatically default to employing deadly force against intruders, only that such action is authorized if the guards feel it is warranted. Making such authorization public knowledge serves as a deterrent to potential trespassers.

When I toured the Blue Cube (satellite control center in Sunnyvale, now defunct), I signed paperwork granting the use of deadly force on myself. [That was the only place I ever signed something like that.] I'm not so sure the feds/military can whack people willy nilly without consequences.

The Groom Lake front gate sign no longer has the "use of deadly force" on it.
front gate sign
front gate sign zoom #1
front gate sign zoom #2

The gates at the less visited points still have "deadly use" signs.
warning sign at range 61 gate

originally posted by: gariac
The Groom Lake front gate sign no longer has the "use of deadly force" on it.
front gate sign
front gate sign zoom #1
front gate sign zoom #2

The gates at the less visited points still have "deadly use" signs.
warning sign at range 61 gate

Great. Now I have to steal borrow another sign to be current.
Although the one I have doesn't say "Deadly Force".
THAT'S the one I need for the collection.

a reply to: FosterVS

Somebody stole the warning signs at Road Block Canyon. It would be kind of unfortunate if somebody crossed the border because the signs were missing.

Other than Bald Mountain, I generally only visit one border location on each trip. There isn't much to discover at border locations, again excluding Bald Mountain, where there is infrastructure.

Given all the publicity of Groom Lake, it is funny how nobody came up with a photograph of the work done on Bald Mountain, a location easily observed from the highway. If Chuck Clark was around, the modifications to Bald Mountain (2010 I think) would have been documented. Sadly, there is nobody that lives in Rachel that monitors the base, or at least posts about it.

originally posted by: gariac
a reply to: FosterVS

Somebody stole the warning signs at Road Block Canyon. It would be kind of unfortunate if somebody crossed the border because the signs were missing.

Other than Bald Mountain, I generally only visit one border location on each trip. There isn't much to discover at border locations, again excluding Bald Mountain, where there is infrastructure.

Given all the publicity of Groom Lake, it is funny how nobody came up with a photograph of the work done on Bald Mountain, a location easily observed from the highway. If Chuck Clark was around, the modifications to Bald Mountain (2010 I think) would have been documented. Sadly, there is nobody that lives in Rachel that monitors the base, or at least posts about it.

There were no signs at all on the "road" to Roadblock Canyon in April, approaching it or at the border there. Just a couple of the orange border stakes. Speaking of which, I was on the lookout for a camera there - if there is any gear at all, I missed it.

I have a bucket list of border crossings, at this point I only have a couple left.

EDITED TO ADD: FYI, the sign I somehow came into possession of came from the perimeter fence of a unrelated facility. It was one of many. Stealing the sign at a border crossing would be a sh*t thing to do, woe to the next person down that trail.

a reply to: FosterVS

Roadblock Canyon is a camera free zone as far as I can tell. But you will trip sensors on the way to the border. I always get a camo dude visit when I go there.

I have this theory that the border cameras are not for the tourists. [Excluding the new ones on the tall towers.] The solar cells simply don't have enough area to run the cameras for any appreciable time. My theory is the cameras are for the contractors that need to cross the border. Each camera system has two antennas. One is a microwave dish that points to Bald Mountain. The other is a yagi sized in the UHF business band. The yagi points to where the contractor would be parked.

So the contractor triggers the magnetometer just like the tourists. But the contractor comes up on the UHF channel, doing communications via the Yagi. There would be a receiver parked on the UHF channel, which in turn powers up the camera. There is a gateway between the UHF channel and the very complicated P25 encrypted trunk system that the base uses. So the contractor says "This is John Doe at gate yada yada yada." The dude looks at the video, confirms it is John Doe and doesn't bother to come out to the gate.

The rancher has a radio to talk to the base, and I just can't see the base giving the rancher a trunk radio.

I liked this documentary compared to most others because it was logical and didn't just harp on the fact that no one is allowed in there. It actually had some interesting facts like putting mock-ups on poles to test the radar sensitivity etc. Nice one foster!