mapping in the sierras and places west

[Greg Broiles]

At 07:50 AM 11/12/2001 -0800, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
>But you missed the mil 4-engine cargo-type plane towing a wire held
>in a trailing Y config by two mil copters flying in tight formation
>behind it,
>circling SF.  Yes, I wouldn't have believed that was possible without
>having seen it.
>
>Maybe they were mapping too.

They overflew San Jose and Santa Clara, too, headed westbound.

What would a trailing wire like that measure or receive? My limited 
understanding of RF says it'd be good for picking up very low frequency 
emissions or transmissions - but I don't know of any sources of those that 
I'd expect to be of interest, other than those used by US subs and I'm sure 
they have better ways to pick those up.

I'd have expected the interesting intel to be up at the other end of the RF 
spectrum, in the 800-2400 Mhz range with cell phones, cordless phones, 
pagers, 802.11b, etc.  Any ideas?


--
Greg Broiles -- gbroiles at parrhesia.com -- PGP 0x26E4488c or 0x94245961
5000 dead in NYC? National tragedy.
1000 detained incommunicado without trial, expanded surveillance? National 
disgrace.