Chapter 1363: Metal and Silicon

at the same time.

Hundreds of kilometers away.

The spring breeze from the Qilian Mountains carried fine sand and gravel, hitting the slightly mottled concrete exterior wall of the Maodao Radar Station.

Station director Liao Yongcai sat on an observation platform, holding a somewhat worn and yellowed notebook in his hand.

There was an old photo in the notebook. Although it was not very clear, it was still possible to see that it showed a half-buried building three kilometers away, like a weathered steel skeleton.

That was the 1974 Radar Control Center, which began construction in 60 but was only about 7010% completed and never put into use.

On the hillside a little further away from the camera, a huge concrete base outlines a jagged silhouette in the afternoon sun.

This was taken as a souvenir when he first arrived at the radar station.

The functional parts of the radar station are all in the new camp behind him, so these wreckages from the last century are listed as a "memorial area" and are not kept strictly confidential.

In the following twenty years, the mobile early warning radar that replaced the 7010 radar changed from the earliest parabolic antenna to the Cassegrain antenna, and then to the current planar phased array antenna.

But outside the wall, time seemed to be frozen by the wind and sand, and no obvious changes occurred.

Liao Yongcai had thought more than once that the radar station he was in charge of would never be able to fulfill its original mission.

The indicators of the new radar are first-class, but after all, it is only a model used for cooperation with the Air Force Ground-to-Air Missile Force. Its core function is to play a tactical role and protect the few large cities in Qingtang and Longyuan areas.

It is completely different from the strategic value that the 7010 radar was expected to play back then.

However, in just the past few months, everything has changed dramatically.

The memorial area, which was originally planned to be turned into a tourist attraction, was blocked off again, and transport trucks, which once only came 1-2 times a week, became regular visitors every night.

Apart from the usual basic supplies such as food and fuel, the remaining space is filled with various equipment and electronic components.

And, of course, there are engineers.

Thanks to the early development time of the 7010 radar, a huge space was left behind the antenna to accommodate the various signal processing, command and communication equipment at the time.

For today's new models in the 21st century, it is more than enough.

It also saves the trouble of major construction works.

Only recently, as the antenna was being installed, did some large machinery move in to cut and replace the reinforced concrete base that had become dilapidated due to lack of maintenance.

As for the ultimate purpose of this major move, Liao Yongcai currently only knows that it is related to the upcoming hypersonic weapons test.

His subordinates were told that the radar station would add a track measurement and control department to contribute to the development of the aerospace industry.

Considering that the Type 110 ultra-long-range single-pulse tracking radar located in Yunnan Province was indeed converted to civilian use in recent years, this statement does have a certain degree of credibility.

"Director Liao, the joint test data is out."

Just when Liao Yongcai was feeling sentimental alone, a voice suddenly came from below.

He turned his head slightly and found that the person coming was Guo Lin, the chief radar designer of the Electronic Technology Group.

The latter was climbing up the platform along the maintenance ladder at this time:

"The electromagnetic background around here is very different from that in Jinling. Our operators have not been able to adjust the electronically scanned antenna to the ideal state. You may need to use your experience."

Compared with specific mechanical equipment, electromagnetic waves and digital signals are invisible and intangible, and the working status of the equipment can only be inferred through some parameters.

And this process is inevitably affected by the external environment.

Especially during the initial debugging process, due to the lack of a zero point, a small deviation can often lead to an outrageous jump in results.

Therefore, it is no wonder that many electronic engineers tend to believe in metaphysics after they have finished their careers.

For example, something like Machine Soul Great Joy.

"Okay, let's go."

As an experienced technician, Liao Yongcai felt very satisfied with the feeling of being needed, and he instantly became full of energy.

The two men returned to the ground swiftly, then jumped into a jeep and sped towards the radar control center in the distance.

……

Even if there is ample space, it is impossible to set up a new control center in the underground building reserved for a radar.

Therefore, most of the equipment was updated on the basis of that year.

Due to the tight time schedule, many traces of the past were left behind.

For example, a metal pipe lying dormant at the bottom of a deep well.

It was originally laid to protect huge data transmission lines, but nowadays it is all fiber optic transmission, so the entire inspection well is useless.

Liao Yongcai was worried that there might be an accident while walking on the road, so he proposed to fill it up several times, but he never had the manpower available.

"Mr. Guo, Director Liao."

Seeing the two people walk out of the elevator, a young engineer walked up quickly, holding a stack of documents with the residual warmth of the printer in his arms:

"The work log for the trial run has been sorted out. Please take a look."

Guo Lin did not move, probably because he had seen it on the computer before. He just gestured to hand the file directly to Liao Yongcai.

When the latter took it, he noticed that there was a square piece of gauze on the other party's wrist, and judging from the edge, it seemed to be a mark of burns caused by high-energy microwaves.

This caused a slight sting in his shoulder.

There is also an almost identical scar there, which was left when he was young at the Xuanhua Radar Station.

"Let me take a look."

Liao Yongcai shook his head gently, put aside all distracting thoughts, sat down at a table and began to read.

Guo Lin quietly went to the other side of the control center, waiting for the former to give a conclusion.

In fact, if he is given enough time, the problem can definitely be solved in multiple iterations.

The reason why Liao Yongcai was specially invited here is, on the one hand, that with his experience the work can be completed faster, and on the other hand, it is also to provide this senior with some sense of participation.

The installation and commissioning of the new radar, including the subsequent testing process, were all completed by the 14th and 38th Institutes of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, and the Maodao radar station was almost completely excluded.

Except for Liao Yongcai and political commissar Zheng Tianyu, the rest of the staff were not even fully aware of the situation.

Obeying orders is one thing, but it is inevitable to have some emotions.

Liao Yongcai's performance did not disappoint Guo Lin.

About an hour later, when many people had almost forgotten that there was a person sitting in the corner, he finally spoke again.

"Engineer Guo, you know, equipment commissioning is a matter of feeling, and I hope to be able to participate in the work on site."

Guo Lin looked at Liao Yongcai's confident expression and hesitated for only a moment:

"it is good."

……

Under the seemingly silent sky, electric currents and electromagnetic waves are resonating in this Gobi desert.

Inside the control center, Liao Yongcai's finger hovered above the red button on the console, and the blue light from the LCD screen cast fine shadows in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

He has repeated this action for nearly thirty years. From the mechanical joystick of the 7010 radar to the interface in front of him, which is no different from a home PC and consists of a keyboard and mouse, the cool touch of the metal still seems to linger on his fingertips.

"It looks like... there is a 0.5Hz shift in the phase noise spectrum of array number three."

Liao Yongcai's voice mixed in with the buzzing sounds in the machine room, his eyes fixed on the three-dimensional beam pattern on the display screen.

"Director Liao, do you want to run the self-test procedure again?"

Behind him, the engineer who had just handed over the information asked.

"No, I just want to see what went wrong."

Liao Yongcai replied in a deep voice:

“Tune out the phase noise spectrum of array number three.”

The dancing curve on the main screen reminded him of that rainy night in 1983.

Xiao Liao, who was still a technician at the time, followed the old director to climb up the radar antenna and wrapped the spectrum analyzer in a military raincoat to capture ionospheric disturbances.

The unusual spike on the oscilloscope lasted 17 seconds and was later confirmed to be the beam of a radar imaging satellite.

That was certainly not targeted interference, it just happened to hit a perfectly coherent position, and the equipment at that time lacked automatic noise reduction capabilities.

But this is already the 21st century, and it is impossible for new equipment to still require manual tightening to achieve such basic anti-interference functions.

and so……

Liao Yongcai raised his head and looked at the top of his head.

"Engineer Guo."

His originally relaxed expression turned serious:

"Does this situation always happen?"

Guo Lin shook his head:

"That's the problem... it's intermittent, and it depends entirely on luck to reproduce it."

"That's right."

Liao Yongcai took a deep breath:

"I speculate that the abnormal frequency band of the No. 3 array... is that someone is using phase conjugate waves to interfere with us."