I have a plan to take airial pictures of "secret" bases.

Originally posted by ProjectX
Ill just stand out side the base are. where signs mark the border. And besides. Im 17. Not 18. I dont think ill be detained in gitmo.Plus my friends are starting to have second thoughts after reading all this. But still, if Im OUTSIDE the base....than wont that help me?

I'm guessing no. You're still spying on the base if you're flying a balloon with a camera attached to it. I'd think real hard if espionage/treason charges were worth some fuzzy pics of a base.

The other problem you might encounter is that sending live video wirelessly has a very short range. Most of the time it's just a couple hundred feet at the most. The X10 camera is also like a chat camera it usually only has a resolution of 640X480 unless they've upgraded it. The resolution won't be good enough to see anything with and you'd have to be close to the blimp to get a signal. You would have better resolution if you somehow used a still camera. If you had a digital camera you could send the photos wirelessly. You'd have to do some work on the camera (programming it to take pics every minute or so). Basically rethink the quality your going to get out of the x10 camera, because even if you do see something the resolution won't be there to really tell what you see.

I dont know a thing about cameras or American law, so I wont go into that.

I can talk about the radar sig though.

Whats the blimp made of? If its got any metal on it, it could be picked up. Wood and fabric would be your best bet.

I am pretty sure thatthose things are mylar with a battery powered motor, propellor and RC reciever.

Two things of note. If the base has an airfield, opperating that blimp within the airspace is probably a serious federal crime. Even if there is no airfeild, I am fairly certain that what you are contemplating could be construed as trespassing, and because it is a federal facility, it would be a federal crime.

a conviction for either of those would be a lovely things to go through life with on your record. Try expaining that to a potential employer with government contracts.

Not to mention that those toy blimps have really lousy RC range.

DeltaNine, glad you said that, someone had too.
I was gonna, but you beat me to it. Here's a good idea, get a standard digital set top box, and if you can shield it, hook it to a power supply in your ford, and use it to encode the signal. They'll get through it, but it may buy you some time to get THE HELL OUT OF THERE. If you can, bring along some camo tarp. One defence that a lot of bases are getting now days, is a pair of radar-controlled 7.62mm NATO chainguns on a turret, much like a phalanx. Anything without the proper signal gets within range, chakakakakakaka. One pile of shredded balloon. Though if you find a good base, go for it. I would like some of those pictures.

Al these posible federal charges are realy starting to scare me. Maybe I wont do that to a secret base. What about a regular army base? If that thing gets flown over an army base, no airfields, nothing to hide...willl that make a good pictures to satisfy the hunger of ATS?

www.cheyennemountain.af.mil...

Originally posted by ProjectX
3000 feet is way below the 3 mile range. What if I flew it higher?? As for the jamming signal....Do they have to figure out what type of signal it is,in order to jamm it. Or do they have some sort of a "one jam jamms all" type thing?

I will defenetly paint the thing to blend in with the sky, so that elimanates the shoot down thing.

u can go about setting the wireless system up in a much easier way than getting an x-cam

brilliant idea...a blimp, virtually no noise i hope? electrically-driven?...no doubt.
1: you are likely to not be able to transmit for 3 miles from it, so dont transmit at all, attach a cam-corder.

well this seems like a brilliant idea...
first of all it would be hard to even develop a working system that is reliable
second, the system would most likely be bad quality, and the aerial pictures wouldnt reveal anything special anyway
third your rc blimp would most likely be shot down, and you could be arrested or worse for trespassing on govt property, espionage, flying this thing in restricted airspace, who knows what else.

if you are really so interested, why not try driving into the base and asking for a tour? more likely to happen than what you are planning

Lol, funny idea. I don't think they will shot anything down. I bet their secruity is just 4WD drving around, mabe a few sensors.

Way to go informing everyone of your vehicle model, the target, the time you're going in, your method, where you live, how many of you there are, where you're going to be whilst this is going on and what your goal is.

Why not just phone the base up and tell them that you are coming?

You shoulda just asked for technical details and left it at that.

You can also go for an RC car to do that. depending on how good you can see what you are doing with the remote controlled object.

I saw several times people saying that Area51 has motion detectors, well what's the problem with those? It's an old technique to penetrate motion detectors about several days without interruptions till the enemy finally puts them off because they are down with their nerves.

When you do that about several days they will pay no more attention to them unless you get into the inner security range. Btw. you should fly below radar

This is a great idea!


IF you want to get arrested for espionage.... Even if you're young, I wouldn't expect that to save you much grief...

Well, Cyrus defenetly sounds like hes done this before. But I dint think ahead. Im just now realizing that there is NO WAY I can make the thing transmit a live feed from 3 miles. Maybe Ill ducttape a camcorder to the thing...

But anyway. My budget isnt exactly that big. I wont be able to increase to 5.0 GHZ. Im running the thing on 1.2 GHZ. And I have about 1 hour of battery life. The thing hums when its on the ground close to you. But when its like 300 feet in the air, you cant hear it.(or maybe you can hear it,but the sound of a few cars in the park drowned it out.)

Im allmost positive I wont # around with these secret bases. But I still want to get some high-class-imposible-to-get-pictures of something. Maybe Westover Airforce Base?Thats like a 25 minute drive from my house. Or I could fly the thing into Britney Spears shower .

Ill keep you guys updated on when I decide to do what.

first of all i dont think your gonna get pictures of anything too secret from the outside of the building, you need to get into a top secret aircraft hanger, because thats all your gonna get with a blimp floating around. if your serious what you really need to do is invest in some mechanics disguises, scientist disguises, or some type of disguise and get your hands on some clearence IDs, and some type of governmant identification patches then just go into a base yourself. TRY THAT

[Edited on 12-23-03 by jonathesis]

[Edited on 12-23-03 by jonathesis]

BUT if your serious about the blimp thing what you need to do is fly low, try to be stealth because if your flying high then your signals are going to be flying out into open space everywhere were your controlling signals will be more likley to get picked up, you could also paint your blimp as a desert rock camo or whatever the terrain may be. try to be as camoflague as possible. if you are successful in your mission then expect company from some type of government agents, be prepared, and ready to run. my last words to you are lay low, be stealth, and dont get caught. GOOD LUCK

[Edited on 12-23-03 by jonathesis]

if you are successful have your information in a drop box somewhere you and your accomplices could get to for insurance or blackmail, remember getting into that kind of business with government agencies wouldn't be very good results.

With the patriot acts and "orange" terror alert level, it wouldn't surprise me if you were immediately locked up for terrorist activities if you did something like this.

What would happen if your blimp got sucked into the engine of a military air craft?

Speaking as someone who likes to play with RC airplanes, your idea is dumb, dangerous and will definitely not work.

Those blimps work OK in calm air, but when is it not windy at an airfield?

If you want aerials of a base, check the internet for digital USGS ortho photo quadrangle maps. many states and other service providers have them available for free on-line, most are fairly recent and have as good a quality as what you are proposing.

Also go to your local county office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (a branch of the USDA), you will usually find them in the same building as the farm service bureaus (or check here)

They should have a slew of historic aerial photos as well as topo maps that will probably cover the site you are interested in.

I can tell you right now what you will see. A bunch of buildings, maybe an airfield or a training area. A couple of parking lots and a parade ground.

Originally posted by Cyrus
u can go about setting the wireless system up in a much easier way than getting an x-cam

brilliant idea...a blimp, virtually no noise i hope? electrically-driven?...no doubt.
1: you are likely to not be able to transmit for 3 miles from it, so dont transmit at all, attach a cam-corder.