Amateur radio operators often deliberately use aircraft for long-range VHF+ propagation so this is entirely plausible. It’s too bad pskreporter didn’t exist when this aircraft went missing, this would provide more spots in addition to WSPR for different narrowband protocols.
Peter wrote:
Analysis of amateur radio signals can show aircraft.
We always wondered why nobody tried to find the plane on weather satellite pics. We even talked to one of the “goddesses” of satellite interpretation about it but she said that it had been tried but nothing found. Apparently in the area there were no contrails at the time of the disappearance.
Yet, with the possibilities certain military applications do have, I still have a massive doubt that nobody really saw this thing. Why they did not provide the data or help in the search can have many reasons, mostly that whoever has that capability would not let on that they have it.
The explanation given is that military satellites are normally aimed at specific targets of interest.
Peter wrote:
The explanation given is that military satellites are normally aimed at specific targets of interest.
Of course…. And the area between Malaysia and Thailand isn’t of interest and the radars there were shut off? I quite believe that the radar operators in that area may have been asleep and then did all they could to erase whatever they had so nobody could blame them but military satellites as well as other intelligence gathering platforms hardly ever sleep or if so, can be read out. If Inmarsat can read out this kind of data, then so can others.
I am sure the area is of interest but from a satellite it is quite a wide angle, most of it is water, and would the resolution be enough to spot a 777 not making contrails?
Certainly, disclosing a highly classified capability is not going to happen, especially as it will make no actual difference to the outcome of the crash, which had already happened.
Contrails are one way of spotting it, heat another. Personally I never thought that the “visual” channels would be any good, but there are a multitude of IR channels, which should be able to pick up temperature variations both from contrails and engines. In the weather satellite field however, I am told that the resolutions are simply not good enough in most cases, even though contrails can be picked up from time to time.
I learnt quite a few things about wx sat capabilities from that.
Apart, for me the prime area of interest would not even be the crash site (which is actually quite accessible for most geostationary birds) but the initial flight path, which is still very much in question at and around Malaysia and Thailand.
Mentour Pilot does a thorough job again. Scroll down to the MH370 video.
https://www.youtube.com/@MentourPilot
What a contrast to some sort of documentary with dramatic music and lots of weeping people and superficial technical data..
It’s a bit of a sit but worthwhile in my opinion.
Not wishing to give away the plot, but some of you above already mentioned it..
A very good movie. I learned a few things I had not heard before.
Tech stuff was very well described.
I did hear of the amateur radio signal stuff a year or two ago but didn’t know they came up with actual data.
Indeed very good one from mentour.
