Geocaching Mentioned In "area 51"

[+DamOTclese]

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8768

 

This article (and the links provided within it) are about the use of a frequency counter being used to locate hidden radio transmitters around Groom Lake in Nevada which were then logged using a hand-held GPS unit.

 

The devices that were logged and plotted were modified by the government to make frequency counters locating them more difficult however simple RDF propcedures would be enough to locate the buried devices by making two passes past the devices.

 

What's interesting is the off-hand use of the term "geocaching" in the Security Focus article. More and more people seem to know what it is and what it's about without news sources like this feeling the need to provide background into the term.

 

I was at Indian Springs Air Force Base for many years and we used to get flying saucer kooks coming into town looking for aliens or whatever else they could see to try to confirm their conspiracy beliefs (look at a map; Groom Lake is north of Indian Springs Air Force Base.) Sensors were placed to keep people from walking out onto the bombing range were there's considerable unexploded ordanance. I mention it because the GPS locating and publishing of coordinates of these sensors could constitute a hazard is someone were to get the list -- like from off of the Internet -- and go out there and retrieve the sensors. (Hell, the GPS logging and publishing of the coordinates for unexploded ordanance would also constitute a considerable hazard.)

 

Yet 25 or 30 miles from ISAFB is Mercury Test Site, an underground (mostly) nuclear test site. (I say "mostly" because at times when I was there the yield was greater enough to cause significant breeches of radiation and at least two tests have resulted in cattle, goats, and sheep needing to be destroyed in large numbers.) These areas are ringed by such sensors as were detected and then logged by GPS hand-helds.

 

The article makes me wonder about the legality of using GPS hand helds to locate devices the government wants to pretend are "matters of national security." Before the fascification of the United States, the use of GPS to locate government equipment was not in itself an actionable act. The _publication_ of such information could be actionable if there were allegations of malice or other such intentions. The damage done by the publication of GPS coordibates of such equipment could be easily enough rectified simply by digging up the equipment and relocating them.

 

Now with "PATRIOT Act" and other fascist, unconstitutional Acts and policies, it appears that even using a GPS unit is a federal offense, as would be using a frequency counter or RDF to locate government equipment anyone anywhere indiscriminately labels a "matter of national security."

 

But aside from the legal aspects of using GPS to locate government equipment, the article prompted wonder at the publication of coordinates. The possibilities for stupidity are legion: a web site could be created that offers the locations of geocaches one has to tresspass on to in such dangerous locations as bombing ranges and nuclear test sites. A percentage of the populace _is_ stupid enough that I expect that some day geocaching will include a segment of cachers that travel their countries hiding and seeking in dangerous places with no regard for safety just for the putative thrill of it.

[Keystone]

Fourth thread about this subject. Please continue the discussion over here. Thanks.