"matt weber" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 00:33:19 GMT, (Mark Zenier)
wrote:
[snip]
Before satellites the Defense Department was able to send several
teletype channels at at time, maritime mobile. That was with a big dish
and probably 10's of kilowatts. (The best description of using that
equipment, that I've seen, was in a description of the incident where the
USS Liberty, the radio intelligence ship, was attacked by the Israelis.
In the Atlantic Monthly about 10-15 years ago, as I remember).
Yes, but that wasn't moonbounce, it was tropo scatter. YOu can only
use Moonbounce when the moon is visible to both ends. Troposcatter
works just about anytime, anywhere. The change in permittivity at the
top of the toposphere will actually bounce a tiny portion of the
microwave signal back down quite reliably. You can get about 600
miles that way. But you need the sort of big dish, and tens of
kilowatts to do it reliably. Only the military could really afford to
use it.
The USS Liberty is said to have had moonbounce capability. The moonbounce
antenna is supposed to have been one of the distinctions seperating it from
the Egyptian ship the Isrealis said they thought they were attacking.
The large parabolic antenna in the picture, pointing straight up, seems to
be that moonbounce antenna.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...00/u123118.jpg
Frank Dresser