ADS-B exchange

[les snyder]

once upon a time, in a land far far away I was a USAF signals intelligence analyst... and well looking at what is available open source is giving me something to do during my weird sleep habits

the site, ADS-B exchange, displays returns from aircraft transponders, in real time, as to type, altitude, heading, acft type identification, call sign, country of origin, and overlays a representative icon on a map, and also allows you to track selected acft flight path... you can query to display only individual acft types... ie R135, B52, E3 etc

during my deployments I worked a lot of the RC135 missions out of Kadena AFB, Okinawa and Offutt AFB, Nebraska so like to take a look where the SIGINT birds are flying... hint, Black Sea, Persian Gulf, Sea of Japan

so if you have nothing else to do a little primer on RC135 mission.... Click on the "U" dialogue box and add r135 in the search box

Rivet Joint.... is the standard SIGINT platform... typically voice intercept
Combat Sent.... radar site and non voice comms
Cobra Ball.... missile launch and telemetry... this guy has been heading north from Kadena, over Honshu, Japan, into the Sea of Japan then turns off the transponder and goes dark... will return to Kadena

Rivet Joint has been sight seeing along the Romanian border... B52s scaring the bejeesus out of PVO Strany up in Belarus.. it was always exciting when a TU-95 would fly off the coast of Kyushu, Japan

regards Les
 

[Pathfinder]

If you like ADSB Exchange, try Skyglass. Costs like $5 a month, but really awesome detail and information - including the US .mil spy balloons up at 90k feet. Over the US.

[alfsauve]

I liked Kadena.   Went there every time the locals staged a "protest".  My job was to make sure every aircraft got out.  Fixing, or jury rigging if necessary, the avionics so every bird could fly out.  The interesting thing about these riots is the Okinawan's were not stupid.  They would riot only during the day.  At night it was business as usual.  Yankee bring your dollars downtown.  Except evey one billeted on base was restricted to base, but my team was housed in a hotel down town.  So after 5pm, the rioters would go home and we'd be bussed to town where we were told no to leave our rooms.  R-I-G-H-T!   

It was an extremely beautiful island. 

[les snyder]

Koza and BC street?.... I spent a month TDY at Joint Sobe Processing Center up at Torii Station, Yomitan....when the 6990th would Safe Haven down to Clark for a typhoon evacuation, they would bring down bicycles, and head back loaded with San Miguel beer...I got to tour one of the Combat Apple birds at Clark