Spied on by a predator drone....just another day in the desert

I was on a hill watching the MAFEX exercise with a small group of photographers. The lawn mower in the sky sound appeared. It turned out to be a predator drone to snoop on the crowd. Not mentioned on the webpage of the event, but the predator controller was in the clear on 383.3 MHz. [The poor military schmuck that has to read the internet for this info now has to log that the evil doers monitored the predator.] There was talk about seeing manpads (shoulder launched surface to air missiles), but the controller decided that they were just long lenses. A good thing since there was one Hellfire missile on the predator.






Full coverage of the exercise can be seen at
MAFEX November 18th, 2010

did you give it the one fingered salute

reply to post by trigga


We just waved. There was talk of mooning the drone, but it was cold.

Originally posted by gariac
We just waved. There was talk of mooning the drone, but it was cold.

I wonder if the video feed from these is still in the clear, allowing an FTA satellite receiver to pick up...
Was it there only because of civilian observers? Any clues from the radio traffic?

Well that was kind of a cool story. S&F were you scared at all? I kinda would be!

reply to post by gariac


You really have to wonder why it had a missile loaded..
2nd

Thats pretty cool.
They have some of these stationed at the NAS base about 5 miles from where i live, to fight the so called drug war.
I keep hoping to see one flying across the bay but it hasnt happened yet.

please do not worry about those drones.

reply to post by Animatrix


that might just make the drug war more intense but there's hope.

reply to post by FosterVS


I suspect the predator was scheduled to be on the range that day and the "crowd" was a target of opportunity. Either they wanted the predator for the exercise, or they diverted the plane from elsewhere. They did want a shot of the airfield.

There are hobbyists that look for "wild feeds." I've checked postings for predator video and only found Telstar 11 to have predator or Airscan video. For use on the range, they really don't need a satellite link. They probably feed a Rover directly.

Telstar 11 would not be usable on the range, though perhaps it would be marginally useful in Vegas. There is a free program called saa.exe that determines what satellites can be seen from various locations.

reply to post by backinblack


There are live fire ranges on the NTTR, so it isn't that unusual to have armed aircraft. The missiles could be inert.

reply to post by gariac


Some FTA and satellite resources:

"fridge"
ABC news feeds
Gunter's page
satellite "parameter" website (needed to program receiver)
satellite forum
Rick's wild feeds
Lyngsat (satellite parameters with a bit more info)
Satbeams (similar to Lyngsat, but does a better job on footprint and signal strength)
Airscan and Telstar 11 on wiki
source for saa.exe
John Lockers satellite website
Public Integrity website with some intercepts

Originally posted by gariac
Some FTA and satellite resources:...

I've been "playing" with FTA for years.

But I really wonder if they would be using one of the known sat's in geosynchronous orbit to relay, More than likely a "black" sat I would think. Plus I believe there is about a 1.5 second transmission delay up to geosynchronous orbit and down. If they are controlling and observing that way, I wonder how much it affects operating them.

EDITED TO ADD:
Telstar 11 distributes TV and radio broadcasts to Europe and North America. It is operated by Loral Skynet, a division of the Loral Corporation. The six new channels included two CNN broadcasts intended for U.S. forces and four live links from spy planes, both manned and unmanned.

Guess I should have checked out some of your links. Wow - unencryted on a standard satellite used also for TV broadcasts. That to me seems REALLY fricken dumb.

Telstar 11N is designed to be a Ku-band satellite with a North American beam that covers the
US (as far West as Denver, Colorado), Central America, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean;
a European beam that covers all of Europe and parts of North Africa; an African beam that covers
the majority of the sub-Saharan continent, with focused power over South Africa and a majority
of West Africa. Telstar 11N will have the capability to provide service within each coverage region
or between coverage regions. The New Telstar 11 will also feature an Atlantic Ocean beam
connected to the North American beam.

If you look at the footprint of this bird, which is 37.5 deg. W, it does cover most of North America... hmm... time to play

reply to post by FosterVS


Without FTA, how could you watch the Qatar-Iran basketball game? ;-)

I've seen Airscan video. It has data placed over the video that indicates the plane's location and the location where it is viewing. With a bit of work, you can find the exact area on google earth. Airscan also has infrared video for looking through haze. I'd have to review the video, but my recollection is they fly about three miles from the target.

I suspect the border patrol video is line of sight. However an interesting situation arises regarding the route from Creech to Fort Irwin. I doubt this is line of sight, so there must be a satellite link.

At Aviation Nation 2010 I asked the airman at the tent about the Predator Drone feed. She said the Predator was at 18,000 feet and 3 miles away. Your recollection is good!

reply to post by DesertShadow


This was Airscan, i.e. a manned aircraft, but probably similar gear. I assume they had a Rover on display at Nellis showing the predator video. It is very compact. The antenna and receiver have a foot print less than half a foot on a side. If the people on the ground at the strip had a Rover, there is no way I could have seen it.

Their fleet:
N303AB
N303ET
N303TF
N337CV
N34798
N419
N723AS
N726AS

The Skymaster is a cool looking plane. It is push/pull. Note the prop on the rear:

reply to post by gariac

Sorry to ruin everyones spy day. You have to remember that the UAV battle lab is at Nellis. UAVs are flown all the time for hours at a time. Remember that the predator/warrior has a flight range of 400 miles to target, at which point it can hover overhead for up to 14 hours before returning. I don't think most people realize the capabilities of the aircraft, or the excessive flight time the battle lab uses to test technology integration. Look it up, not hard to find.

Think on this, if you were controlling a big airplane toy, and testing/practicing, why stare at an empty desert. wouldn't you do laps around anything you could see i.e. people, vehicles etc. What better way to test the equipment.

reply to post by bonecrusher321


The Battle Lab is at Creech, not Nellis, should anyone try to find it. It is easily seen from route 95.

As stated earlier, I could listen to the controller of the UAV.. It was on 383.3 and was diverted from EC West activity. So yes, targets of opportunity, but that doesn't mean we weren't snooped on.

Day not ruined....

if i saw a drone that close i probably watch it and try to figure where it was headed, but if it turned around i would calmy and in an "Aristocratic" fashion run away crying and pissing my pants

So your the prey? They arent called predators for no reason.