Missile Defense X-band Radar vessel passes by Ballard

Ballardites had the chance to see the Missile Defense Agency’s Sea-Based X-band Radar (SBX) vessel as it passed by Tuesday evening.

Hovie Hawk sent us this photo. “Our electronics (garage door opener, remotes, etc.) were on the blink we were told it was a military vessel coming into Seattle that is jamming the signals,” he writes.

SBX is headed to Vigor Shipyard Seattle for maintenance and upgrades, which will take about three months to complete. According to the information from the Missile Defense Agency, “The SBX Radar is one of the sensors for our nation’s missile defense system. Its mission is to identify ballistic missile threats and relay that information to the battle management, command, control and communications system for missile defense.” The radar will not be based in Seattle or operate while here, no word on where it’s headed after the upgrades are complete.

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18 thoughts to “Missile Defense X-band Radar vessel passes by Ballard”

  1. Yup, its been inoperative before it entered the Straight.

    Either Hovie Hawk is making it up to sound dramatic or hes got
    other issues to deal with.


  2. “Our electronics (garage door opener, remotes, etc.) were on the blink we were told it was a military vessel coming into Seattle that is jamming the signals,”

    Sounds like a story to me … SBX isn’t in the jamming business.

  3. For those not keeping up with the latest mergers and acquisitions, Vigor Shipyard Seattle is what used to be Todd Shipyards on the north end of Harbor Island. You’ll be able to see the radar from anywhere on the Seattle waterfront from the Aquarium to Magnolia.

  4. You got to be kidding, do you actually this very powerful radar would actually be active as they tow it into harbor, talk about the conspiracy theory!!

  5. I usually avoid the comments on this site, as they tend to be more
    bickering than interesting. But, the note on remote control interference speaks
    to my inner geek.

    *Garage door openers operate on 300-400 MHz depending on year of
    manufacture. Most are on 315 MHz or 390 MHz.

    *Most TV and stereo remotes currently work on infrared light pulses. If
    your remote has the LED looking thingy on the end, or has a tinted plastic
    window, that is what it uses.

    *X band radar, which is used on the SBX, is in the 7.0 to 11.2 GHz range.
    This is the same type of radar commonly used for air traffic control and
    maritime vessel control.

    With one MHz being .001 GHz, you can see that garage door openers and X
    band radar are very far apart in the radio spectrum (in different bands,
    actually). The TV and stereo remotes are not radio, but non-visible light.
    This military vessel-thingy (technical term) should have no effect whatsoever on
    these types of electronics. Ballard residents receive D band radar 24 hours a
    day from the FAA radar station at Fort Lawton, which is 1 to 2 GHz, much closer
    to the Garage remote, with no radio interference issues.

    Coming from a radio geek, the interference issues aren’t being caused by
    the SBX radar station.

  6. I usually avoid the comments on this site, as they tend to be more
    bickering than interesting. But, the note on remote control interference speaks
    to my inner geek.

    *Garage door openers operate on 300-400 MHz depending on year of
    manufacture. Most are on 315 MHz or 390 MHz.

    *Most TV and stereo remotes currently work on infrared light pulses. If
    your remote has the LED looking thingy on the end, or has a tinted plastic
    window, that is what it uses.

    *X band radar, which is used on the SBX, is in the 7.0 to 11.2 GHz range.
    This is the same type of radar commonly used for air traffic control and
    maritime vessel control.

    With one MHz being .001 GHz, you can see that garage door openers and X
    band radar are very far apart in the radio spectrum (in different bands,
    actually). The TV and stereo remotes are not radio, but non-visible light.
    This military vessel-thingy (technical term) should have no effect whatsoever on
    these types of electronics. Ballard residents receive D band radar 24 hours a
    day from the FAA radar station at Fort Lawton, which is 1 to 2 GHz, much closer
    to the Garage remote, with no radio interference issues.

    Coming from a radio geek, the interference issues aren’t being caused by
    the SBX radar station.

  7. My father was on a similar contraption called the Texas Tower #2 off of the coast of Massachusetts. Number 4, or Old Shakey went down in January 1961. Communications being what they were 50 years ago, we did not know that he was safe until 24 hours later.

  8. They didn’t want to tell you the real story. The bees that haven’t been disoriented and killed off by the cell phone frequencies have been massing underground and are buzzing out their own interference frequencies to take down all of mankind’s technology.

  9. They didn’t want to tell you the real story. The bees that haven’t been disoriented and killed off by the cell phone frequencies have been massing underground and are buzzing out their own interference frequencies to take down all of mankind’s technology.

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