Here’s a picture of the Keller Texas “Weather Ball”: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/433257/weatherball.jpg
This thing is a radar station of some sort.
Mystery solved: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM64Z7_Z231_FTW_Keller_Texas
It’s a radar antenna inside the fiberglass shell. Use to see them all the time off of Rt 3 in Nashua NH at the Ratheon site where they designed and built radar systems.
The shell is used to protect the array…It’s made of fiberglass because the radar signals goes right through it.
If it is leaking enough radiation to effect a car, the FAA needs to be notified so they can fix their shielding. anyone know how to do that?
It’s NOT that it’s leaking…The array shouldn’t be pointing at buildings/cars or people less then 200yds away. The array probably sweeps (aka turns) and it should be hard wired in to turn off when the array will strike a nearby building or road or people…Then turn back on when it’s safe. Since there’s a news article about it…I’m pretty sure the FAA knows about it now.
Especially since the news article was from 2002.
The Keller weather ball is a Doppler Radar. Since police use Doppler technology in speed guns, it is unusual that it kills an engine. Wikipedia explains the Doppler effect here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_radar I drive by the ball all the time. It does not affect an Acura.
It has nothing to do with being a Doppler radar or not. It has everything to do with the amount of power it puts out. The police car radar puts out less then .1% of this Radar.