Groom Lake Video Security Cameras
May 2010
You've
seen photos of these security cameras since the old ufomind.com days,
but now it will be revealed what company installs these cameras.
Accompanied by Cliff Shadow, I took a trip to one of the more remote
cameras sites. The location can be seen here on google_maps,
or roughly N37 17.320 W115 35.341 if you want to use another map
program. The roads leading to the location are good enough for
2WD with a few rough spots, but the area is rarely visited by tourists,
so you might want to use two vehicles if doing this in anything less
that a real 4x4 with off-road tires. The border has a real fence rather
than orange poles since it borders Range 61, a live bombing range.
[I've seen gun ships shoot targets on this range as viewed from
Tikaboo. It's the real thing. Don't get caught on the wrong side of
that line.]
This site has some real security problems, well
presuming you expect the camera to provide any security. It is quite
possible to avoid being seen by the camera. [If the camera was the Divine Ms. M,
you could sneak up and pinch her on the butt.] You can also get very
close to this camera by walking the fence line, which makes detailed
photography a cinch compared to the other cameras on the range.
Gate
The
gate is designed to keep out honest people. The weak link is the thin
barbed wire that could easily be cut with a Leatherman.
The signs are "old school", i.e. "Use of deadly force authorized." The signs at the front gate have different wording.
Clearly somebody was out sick the day the "weakest link" theory was taught. Nice lock.
All
this said, only a fool would intentionally cross a gate around the
Nellis range. The roads are "wired", so the likelihood of a camo dude
being around is very high. Then there is that issue of being on a live
fire range......
Camera and Antennas
The
camera is the usual Groom Lake affair. A Cohu camera in a pressurized
environmental case with two antennas" microwave and UHF.
Now
this is where things start to get interesting. The camera is so close
to the border than it is possible to read markings on the cables. The
thick cables are really just Carlon flex with presumably other cabling
inside. But the thing to notice is the small RF cable at the far left
of the image. A zoomed in and rotated image of the heat shrink follows:
WTI turns out to be Wireless Technology Incorporated. Their trademark is a big W, as is seen on the microwave radome of their gear.
If
you look at this "Drive-By" system, they use microwaves for video and
control off a lower frequency (presumably UHF) antenna. I suspect the
base is using a variant of the WTI "V-MAX", but with microwave dish antennas at both transmitter and receiver to get extra range.
Need a bit more proof that WTI does the Groom Lake cameras? Go to their youtube page. It seems their favorite videos are about Area 51.
Camera Target
Attached
to the rock wall near the gate is a red marker, presumably as a target
to aim the camera. It can't be easily reached without a ladder, though
I suppose if one camo dude cllimbed on the shoulders of another camo
dude...uh never mind.
This
is a view of the camera from near the photo target Clearly the camera
is pointing right at the photographer, confirming the red "ribbon" is
an alignment mark.
Power
The
solar cell is mounted on one of the tripod letgs. On the ground towards
the bottom right of the photograph is an olive drab box with perhaps a
grounding rod next to it. Presumably this holds the gel cell battery.
The box could even an ammo box modified for this use, and perhaps
partially buried to regulate the temperature.
Dudes
Though this gate is far away from Area 51 and may not even have a road to reach the base, the dudes show up.
This
photo was taken from behind some rocks near the security camera
location. The dudes are blind to this location. The driver dude image
was altered to protect his identity. You can see the passenger seat
dude looking through binocs.
Here
the dudes head us off at the pass. The dude-mobile with strictly
off-road use haven't bothered to show plates for years. ["We don't need
no stinkin' license plates!"]
Well
away from the border, the dudes sit back to let us pass them.
Presumably they got our plates when we left the SUVs to hike up to the
camera. [We're not camo dudes, so we need those stinkin' plates.]