Blognote: The Graves French Space Surveillance radar is located near Dijon, France and operates on 143.050 MHz. It uses a powerful transmitter transmitting a continues wave carrier. Here is a screenshot of the ISS crossing the Graves RF fence courtesy of of Paul J. Marsh at
http://www.pe1itr.com/graves/capt0701140741.jpg. According to Paul There are four antenna beams "sweeping" there sectors. The Graves sourcebook gives good info about the radar at http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/graves.pdf.
Full Story on Space.com
By PETER B. de SELDING, Space News Staff Writer
BROYE-LES-PESMES, France - A French space-surveillance radar has detected 20-30 satellites in low Earth orbit that do not figure in the U.S. Defense Department's published catalogue, a discovery that French officials say they will use to pressure U.S. authorities to stop publishing the whereabouts of French reconnaissance and military communications satellites.
After 16 months of operations of their Graves radar system, which can locate satellites in orbits up to 1,000 kilometers in altitude and even higher in certain cases, the French Defense Ministry says it has gathered just about enough information to negotiate an agreement with the United States.
Rest of the story at http://www.space.com:80/news/060707_graves_web.html
