UFOData Magazine News Round-Up

February, 2007

Trimingham Radar Fault: The MoD Stance

In the last issue of UFOData Magazine (Jan/Feb 2007), we looked at the instances of car breakdowns caused by a faulty radar at Trimingham in Norfolk. Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we put in a request to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the results of their inquiry into the fault. They replied surprisingly quickly (but not quickly enough to appear in the last issue) and there were some surprising elements in the documents sent to us.

With government documents covered under the Crown Copyright, we cannot reprint them in full (it’s twenty-odd pages anyway), but reproducing extracts is permitted.

In February, 2006, a Unit Inquiry (UI) began and MoD officials began collating data. They amassed material from within the ministry, as well as newspaper reports and statements from both serving personnel and private citizens.

In the findings of their report, the board first gave some background to the Trimingham site, describing its location on the B1159 road between Cromer and Mundesley in Norfolk, and that the Type-93 radar was first installed there in April, 1997. Engineering responsibility for Remote Radar Head (RRH) Neatishead and RRH Trimingham is held by RAF Scampton.

The attributes of the Type-93 radar are then listed, explaining that it consists of 96 elements, each of which can receive and transmit radio energy. The elements are mounted on a coiled component called the ‘Serpentine’ and in between each element is a Phase Shifter. There are 96 Phase Shifters and it is these that focus the radio energy into a beam. Special software called DREAM (Digital Recording Equipment for Analysing Messages) has been designed to analyse the data output of the radar and find any faults.

In November, 2005, the operators at Trimingham began noticing a decrease in height accuracy coming from the array and were forced to us the Multi-Scan Correlator to correct the errors.

In January, 2006, the continuing errors and the complaints coming from local residents about their vehicles developing problems led operators to believe that a fault had occurred in the Waveguide Pressurisation System. Efforts were made to avoid transmitting over the B1159 road and checks were made every 3 hours.

In February, 2006, work began to locate the faults and it was discovered that almost a third (about 30) of the Phase Shifters were found to be unserviceable. Apparently this is a common problem with the ITT-made Type-93 radars fleet. At the same time, radiation hazard tests were conducted, both on the site and also on the B1159 road. No dangerous levels were discovered. The faulty Phase Shifters were replaced and a pressure switch was fitted to the Waveguide Pressurisation System to allow radar transmissions to be cut-off if the pressure fell too low.

The board summarised their conclusions as:

It is not possible to exactly determine the radar effects on motor vehicles in question. This Unit Inquiry cannot dismiss the apparent coincidence of known radar faults on the Type 93 radar at Trimingham and a dramatic increase in vehicle electromagnetic interference. Moreover, the cessation of vehicle incidence reporting correlates with the radar's return to serviceability (a fact which was not readily known within the local population). It is therefore reasonable to suggest, on this information alone, that the radar was the probable cause of the reported car interference effects.

They also noted that use of the Multi-Scan Correlator to correct the faulty height data inhibited the DREAM software from finding any fault.

Between 7^th and 11^th of November, 2005, Radiation Hazard (RadHaz) tests were conducted to ascertain if there was any danger to the local population. Make of the following section what you will:

The Report showed that all non-ionizing RadHaz measurements, made at the Trimingham Site, were within the limits set by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB); with the exception of a single measurement taken at the B1159 Lay-By which indicated an above-average radiation level. It is also noted that the DCTO Report highlighted this reading as a 'spurious emission' which, according to the Report, wasn't likely to have been generated from the Type 93 Radar at RRH Trimingham.

A further test was done in February, 2006, and it was decided that the readings from the November survey were in error and that radiation levels were far below danger levels.

The MoD received only five claims for compensation, totalling £1908.43, from members of the public and the board ruled that those payments should be made.

Other recommendations included the removal of radiation warning signs on the MoD fence along the B1159.

The Unit Commander, a wing commander at RAF Scampton, concurred with the Board of Inquiry (BoI) that the incidents were unforeseen and that the Trimingham radar was likely the cause of the motor vehicle incidents. That said, he went on to declare that “I agree that there was no hazard to either humans or equipment.”

The Air Surveillance And Control System (ASACS) Force Commander from RAF Boulmer also agreed with the BoI findings and revealed that the following measures had been implemented:

An excel spreadsheet has been created to document the Phase Shifter Loads thereby enabling the timely identification of failing Phase Shifters. The 4^th Line Field Service Engineer has control of the document and the data is generated each quarter. A thermal camera will now be used to identify the excess heat symptomatic of a failing Phase Shifter (a thermal camera is being procured by the Air Defence Ground Based Systems Integrated Project Team (ADGBS IPT)). DREAM recordings are also being taken on site every 24 hours, which should assist in identifying height errors.

The ADGBS IPT has reviewed all documentation and is content that the engineering procedures are robust. Procedures for use of the thermal camera will be produced by the ADGBS IPT following testing.

Training for the use of the thermal camera will be arranged by the ADGBS IPT. All Type 93 radar technicians are now trained in conducting

He also noted that the president of the BoI had since been posted overseas…

So there we have it. The Type-93 radar fleet is prone to breaking down and in this case, almost a third of the Phase Shifters failed. The actions taken to alleviate the faulty equipment resulted in the diagnostic software being unable to detect the fault and, thus, reports began to come in from members of the public, whose cars began conking out.

Despite this, the MoD declared that radiation levels were not dangerous and that no damage to MoD or private property had occurred, even though compensation claims had been received. They were lucky to get only five, when, according to Neil Crayford of the Crayford & Abbs garage in nearby Mundesley, dozens of vehicles had been affected and are still being affected.

How does a RadHaz team find that radiation levels on site are below danger levels, but in a lay-by on the B1159, they are ‘above average’? A second test several months later finds that levels are ‘well below’ danger levels and, therefore, the earlier readings must have been erroneous! Is it possible a car was zapped in the lay-by, was towed away or left under its own power and a residual radiation reading was left behind, only for it to have gone by the time of the second RadHaz tests? Or was there something else in that lay-by, as the report stated that the radiation reading ‘wasn't likely to have been generated from the Type 93 Radar at RRH Trimingham’?

Why remove the radiation warning signs from the fence and, if there was no danger to the public, why were they there in the first place?

If any of our readers are familiar with the practices at our radar sites, perhaps they could drop us a line in the usual way and let us know what they thought about what went on at RRH Trimingham.

Hopefully, with the new implementations, all is well in that part of Norfolk, despite Mr Crayford saying that about two cars every ten days are still coming in after experiencing problems after driving by the Trimingham site.

UFOData Magazine would like to thank the Ministry of Defence for its quick reply to our FOAI request.

Steve Johnson

Novelist Sidney Sheldon Dies

On January 30^th, 2007, legendary American novelist, Sidney Sheldon, died. He was 89. The cause of death was complications arising from pneumonia.

Starting his career writing for Hollywood and Broadway, his first novel was not published until he was 53. His books drew a largely female audience and became a mainstay of airport gift stores the world over.

In 1991, he changed direction for his novel, The Doomsday Conspiracy. A believer in the subject, Sheldon gave thanks to renowned UFO researcher, James Hurtak and his wife, Desiree.

The Doomsday Conspiracy is a thriller in which a US naval officer, Robert Bellamy, tracks down witnesses to a weather balloon coming down in the Swiss Alps, only to find out that it was a UFO. Then the witnesses start turning up dead.

Robert then uncovers a global cabal that will stop at nothing to keep the UFO enigma secret. The book ends with a stark warning, yet a glimmer of hope.

Sheldon’s notes at the end confirm his belief in the subject. He writes:

In researching this novel, I have read numerous books, and magazine and newspaper articles citing astronauts who had reportedly had extraterrestrial experiences: Colonel Frank Borman on Gemini 7 supposedly took pictures of a UFO that followed his capsule. Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11 saw two unidentified spacecraft when he landed on the moon. Buzz Aldrin photographed unidentified spacecraft on the moon. Colonel L. Gordon Cooper, on a Project Mercury flight, encountered a large UFO over Perth, Australia, and recorded voices speaking languages later found to belong to no known earth language.

I talked to these men, as well as to other astronauts, and each one assured me that the stories were apocryphal, rather than apocalyptic, that they had had no experiences of any kind with UFOs. A few days after my telephone conversation with Colonel Gordon Cooper, he called me back. I returned his call, but he had suddenly become unavailable. One year later, I managed to acquire a letter written by him, dated November 9th, 1978, discussing UFOs.

I telephoned Colonel Cooper again to ask him if the letter was authentic. This time, he was more forthcoming. He informed me that it was, and that on his journeys into space he had personally witnessed several flights of UFOs. He also mentioned that other astronauts had had similar experiences that they were warned not to discuss.

I have read a dozen books that prove conclusively that flying saucers exist. I have read a dozen books that prove conclusively that flying saucers do not exist. I have run video tapes purporting to be photographs of flying saucers, and have met with therapists in the United States and abroad who specialize in hypnotizing people who claim to have been taken up into UFOs. The therapists say that they have handled hundreds of cases in which the details of the victims’ experiences are startlingly similar, including identical, unexplainable marks on their bodies.

An Air Force general in charge of the Blue Book project – a US government group formed to investigate flying saucers –assured me that there has never been any hard evidence of flying saucers, or of aliens.

Yet, in the foreword to Above Top Secret, a remarkable book by Timothy Good, Lord Hill-Norton, Admiral of the Fleet and British Chief of Defence Staff from 1971 to 1973, writes:

“The evidence that there are objects which have been seen in our atmosphere, and even on terra firma, that cannot be accounted for either as man-made objects or as any physical force or effect known to our scientists seems to me to be overwhelming … A very large number of sightings have been vouched for by persons whose credentials seem to me unimpeachable. It is striking that so many have been trained observers, such as police officers and airline or military pilots …”

He goes on to mention Majestic Twelve and the mysterious ‘suicides’ and ‘accidents’ that killed many scientists involved with the Strategic Defence Initiative, the so-called ‘Star Wars’ Project.

He rounds of by saying: “There are 400 billion stars in the galaxy. We’re made of Stardust, really common stuff. In a universe filled with star-dust, it’s hard to believe that we are the only creatures who could be.”

Hopefully, Sidney has his answers now… SJ Note: The Doomsday Conspiracy is published by HarperCollins and can be obtained

from all good bookstores, both in the high street and online.

Strange Object Captured on Film Over Leeds, UK

On Thursday, February 1st, 2007, a video recorded on a cameraphone was sent to Russel Callaghan at UFOData Magazine. It also appeared on local BBC TV news programme, Look North.

The clip can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MArCbVRiQVw

By a remarkable stroke of fortune, UFOData Magazine researcher and features writer, Sacha Christie saw the object and took a great photograph.

Enquiries have been made into what this could be, including contacting RAF Fylingdales, and UFOData Magazine will publish the findings when we learn more. It could be a piece of debris entering the Earth's atmosphere, either natural or man-made.

The object is somewhat similar to what was photographed in Wales in 2003. That was initially thought to be a meteor or bolide exploding in the atmosphere and it made the Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1st October, 2003. That was eventually explained as an aeroplane contrail illuminated by the setting sun. What was seen today, however, does not seem to be the same, as the object was seen to move across the sky.

Hopefully more answers will emerge soon.

Update:

Russ received a reply from RAF Fylingdales. Here is their response:

Investigation Into the Object Reported Flying Over Leeds on 1 February 2007

07 February 2007

A report was received by Sqn Ldr Darling from a Mr Russell Callaghan giving details of an object flying over Leeds (West Yorkshire) on 1 February at 0930.

Two photographs of the phenomena were provided.

We carried out an investigation to determine if the object could have been a satellite decaying in the atmosphere and to determine if Fylingdales radar had detected the object.

Data from AF Space Command indicated that there were no satellite decays worldwide on 1 February ± 24 hours. The complete satellite orbits database was also processed through our own decay prediction software, which produced the same result.

It is possible that some of the uncatalogued pieces from the Chinese payload that was destroyed a few days ago could be burning up in the atmosphere, but these pieces are very small and unlikely to cause the display as shown in the photographs. They would also be travelling North to South or South to North rather than the West to East direction reported for the Leeds object.

A search for uncorrelated targets showed none for Earth orbiting satellites at the time of the event ± 1 hour (i.e. Fylingdales identified every satellite detected in the surveillance beam).

A similar search was performed using the history tapes data for possible meteor detections. There were no meteor head or meteor trail detections during this period, although it should be noted that a meteor over Leeds would have been well above the Fylingdales surveillance fence elevation and would have never passed through it.

Our assessment is as follows:

·The object was unlikely to be a satellite burning up on re-entry.

·Although Fylingdales did not detect a meteor it is unlikely that a meteor would have penetrated Fylingdales surveillance coverage.

Brilliant Objects Seen In Skies

The BBC News website (news.bbc.co.uk) reported on January 24^th, 2007, that a

bright light sighted from all over Wales was probably a meteor: The light was first seen at 0730 GMT, with one eyewitness describing it as a "long line, thicker at one end, bluey-green and flashing".

Reports of the light came in from the Lleyn Peninsula through to Swansea.

Jay Tate from Spaceguard UK said it was most likely to be a piece of space debris entering the earth's atmosphere. "It was frightening," said Morfudd Parry Roberts from Aberdaron, Gwynedd. "I was sitting having a cup of coffee by the window when I saw it (the light)

move from the north towards the south.

"It was a long line, thicker at the front end. It was quite frightening because it seemed so big." "It was a bluey-green and flashing. It was at least 50 times bigger than a

shooting star and seemed to be gliding through the sky quite low down, not falling." Witnesses said the light lasted for a few seconds. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/6294099.stm)

The reports sound similar to something that prompted a spate of 911 calls across the Atlantic in North Carolina, USA within a day or so of the Welsh sightings. One caller described what they were seeing as: “like a ball that grew a tail. It was about 20 to 30 degrees above the horizon. Uh, and it came from west to east. It was like a shallow arc across the sky and descended down” and that it was “bluish-white in colour”. (http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/012607kvuecarolinaufo-cb.210902c1.html)

Staying on the BBC website, on January 26^th, 2007, an article by Louis Theroux was published. Titled ‘Weird or Just Wanting?’, he charts his efforts to track down some of the ‘odd’ people he has interviewed over the years, including one particular chap, Reverend Bob Short, who claims to channel an alien called Korton. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6302049.stm)

Gerald Ford and the UFO Debate

On December 26^th, 2006, Gerald Rudolph Ford died aged 93. He was the 38^thPresident of the United States and inherited the big seat in the Oval Office from Richard Milhous Nixon, who was forced to resign after the Watergate Scandal. This made Ford the only unelected president of the world’s most powerful nation. For almost three years, his administration saw the USA withdraw from Vietnam and the signing of the Helsinki Accords, which hoped to reduce Cold War tensions in Europe. His administration also provided arms and aid for Indonesia when it invaded East Timor in 1975, resulting in the deaths of up to 200,000 people and a bungled rescue attempt of American sailors from a ship taken captive by the newly-formed Khmer-Rouge government of Cambodia. He also survived two assassination attempts. Perhaps most notably (and infamously) Ford granted Nixon a presidential pardon, absolving ‘Tricky Dicky’ of any crimes ‘he may have committed during his Presidency’.

Ford’s career intersected with the UFO subject on several occasions, most notably in the Sixties, when, as a congressman, he pushed for investigations into UFO sightings in 1966. He wrote to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative L Mendel Rivers:

“No doubt you have noted the recent flurry of newspaper stories about unidentified flying objects (UFOs). I have taken special interest in these accounts because many of the latest reported sightings have been in my home State of Michigan.

“The Air Force sent a consultant, Astrophysicist Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Northwestern University, to Michigan to investigate the various reports; and he dismissed all of them as the product of college pranks, or swamp gas, or of an impression created by the rising crescent moon and the planet Venus. I do not agree that all of these reports can be, or should be, so easily explained away.

“Because I think there may be substance in some of these reports, and because I believe the American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air Force to date, I am proposing that either the Science or Astronautics Committee, or the Armed Service Committee of the House, schedule hearings on the subject of UFOs and invite testimony from both the executive branch of the Government and some of the persons who claim to have seen UFOs.”

Rivers called hearings and what followed was a recommendation that independent scientists be assigned to evaluate UFO sightings from the archives of the US Air Force’s Project Blue Book. The man charged with leading this team was Dr Edward U Condon of the University of Colorado. When the Condon Report was released in 1968, the conclusion:

“Our general conclusion is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge. Careful consideration of the record as it is available to us leads us to conclude that further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.”

A year later, Project Blue Book was closed down. So, with the best of intentions in mind, Ford was partly responsible for official UFO studies grinding to a halt!

Once Ford became president, he would have little time for UFOs, however it seems his interest in the subject remained. He was quoted years after leaving office as saying: “During my public career in Congress, as Vice President and President, I made various requests for information on UFOs. The official authorities always denied the UFO allegations.”

Following his troubled presidency, it came as little surprise when he was voted out of office and a genial, Georgia peanut farmer by the name of James Earl Carter Jr. Jimmy Carter would also show an interest in UFOs, having officially reported a sighting while acting as governor of Georgia in 1969. He would also attempt to find out more about the subject through official channels while ensconced in the White House. Like Ford before him, he would be doomed to failure.