In Feb. @quartzcity.bsky.social, @tropicostation.bsky.social, @airplaneian.com and I went to the Center for Land Use Interpretation’s Desert Research Station to see their Remote Sensing exhibit. This is a steerable VLF antenna made with 9+ miles of copper wire. 1/

The DRS is located directly under the R-2508 airspace used for military training and testing of experimental aircraft. They installed an SDR and antenna to listen to exercises. The control room has an intentional control room aesthetic. 2/

People driving in for the artists’ presentation about the exhibit probably doubled the population of Hinkley, CA for that day. Here Matt Coolidge, director of the CLUI, passionately contextualizes us in the long history of remote sensing in Southern California. 3/

Matt was _this_ close to getting a Vietnam-era radar shipped from an east coast museum to install at the DRS when the military decided they wanted it back. But at least he has a radome. 4/

No aircraft deigned to fly overhead while I used this listening station (R-2508 is usually quiet on weekends) but I was able to eavesdrop on quiet conversations from 50 yards away.

The DRS has an indoor exhibition space as well as the large outdoor space. 6/

Scott took some photos but I don't think they're public. After leaving the DRS we raced to the Boron Aerospace Museum and made it a few minutes before it closed. Luckily the awesome person working there was ecstatic to have visitors and kept it open another hour while giving us a personal tour. 10/

The place is like an outsider museum of Edwards AFB ephemera. Covid almost killed it, but like an endangered Desert Tortoise it survived an extended period of deprivation. (But go see it, just in case.) 11/

The Spring 2025 issue of the CLUI's newsletter, The Lay of the Land, has an article on the Remote Sensing exhibit and the presentation that day by the artists involved. 12/ clui.org/newsletter/r...