Letxa.com

If you have any additional information regarding the sequence of events, please let me know!

As best I can tell, the hoax began on March 25, 1998 by someone that goes by Phikent. This person, apparently, still runs this site which is dedicated to virtually every science-related conspiracy you can imagine (Face on Mars, the Spirit Mars rover being a cover-up, UFOs, etc.).

Phikent's issue of radar anomalies received little mention until it was made popular in conspiracy circles by Richard C. Hoagland on the Art Bell radio show in December of the same year. It was used in conjunction with a conspiracy hoax of some kind of "special activity" (some speculated an ET landing, etc.) anticipated for December 7, 1998, at Turret Peak, AZ. Nothing happened on December 7th and both the Turret Peak and radar anomalies were discredited within weeks. In fact, it seems that after about January 1999 even Hoagland no longer brought up the radar anomaly topic, certainly not as a point of ongoing interest. Even so, the theory began to snowball among some conspiracy theorists. It evolved from simple radar anomalies to having something to do with HAARP and is now linked to the chemtrail conspiracy theory. The webmaster of RadarMatrix goes one step further and links it all to SDI.

At what point this became a hoax is uncertain. Given the strange theories favored by Phikent it's entirely possible this was a hoax from day one. If we give Phikent the benefit of the doubt we may choose to believe that it was a rational curiosity when he first posted it back in March of 1998, albeit presented in an alarmist fashion. However, once the theory was made well-known in December 1998 on the Art Bell show and subsequently thoroughly explained as normal radar anomalies there was really no reason for this hoax to continue beyond about the beginning of 1999. Yet like any good hoax, conspiracy theory, or urban legend, it did.

In fact, the hoax continues as of this writing in February 2004. The hoax is now almost 6 years old! If one searches for information on these radar anomalies today, one finds that most of the sites were abandoned in the beginning of 1999--the pages still exist, but most of them don't have any new radar pictures since early 1999. One may conlcude that maybe the hoax did die (for the most part) after it was discredited in January of 1999, but it was picked up again by followers of the chemtrail conspiracy and is now being carried into the 21st century by the webmaster of RadarMatrix.

The theory is as discredited and unfounded today as it was in January 1999.

Date	Event
1988	The NEXRAD weather radar network is established, first in Oklahoma City and then over 140 sites nationwide.
Dec. 27, 1994	There is mention of an educational institution (UCAR) obtaining NEXRAD imagery via WSI over the Internet.
1995	Internet starts becoming known to the public, websites such as AOL, Netscape, and Yahoo all come online during this year.
Mar 25, 1998	Phikent captures, posts and draws attention to radar anomalies here. He calls them "radar circles." The date is established from the date/time stamp on the radar images he displays. He still maintains the site here and it focuses on all kinds of scientific conspiracy topics (Face on Mars, secret free energy devices, etc.). This is the first known reference to the radar anomalies.
Mar. 30, 1998	A Usenet post on misc.activism.militia mentions a "radar ring" over Jonesboro. It was posted on April 18, 1998, but quotes or forwards a message written by Phikent (see above) on March 30, 1998.
May 12, 1998	A Usenet post on misc.activism.militia again mentions a "radar ring" and raises a HAARP connection and mind control.
Nov. 4, 1998	Richard C. Hoagland, conspiracy theorists extrordinaire, on the Art Bell talk show predicts an "alien event" for Dec. 7th, 1998. Nothing actually happened on that date, of course. Some physics theories promoted by Hoagland have been thoroughly discredited.
Dec. 4, 1998	Richard C. Hoagland registers his website EnterpriseMission.com.
Dec. 6, 1998	This Usenet post on francom.ovni (I believe a UFO newsgroup) mentions earthquakes and radar anomalies in the same sentence. First mention I've seen of radar anomalies having something to do with earthquakes.
Dec. 7, 1998	The "alien event" predicted by Richard C. Hoagland for this date doesn't happen. It is suggested that perhaps HAARP modified the weather to prevent the alien event from happening bringing in all kinds of weird theories--basically, this page justifies the belief that something "important" was going to happen on this date. When it didn't Hoagland came up with this.
Dec. 16, 1998	A Usenet post on alt.fan.art-bell mentions the radar rings and, apparently, that they were mentioned by Richard C. Hoagland on the Art Bell late-night radio program (which touches topics such as conspiracies, UFOs, supposedly revolutionary energy devices, etc.).
Dec. 30, 1998	Hoagland again appears on the Art Bell radio program to defend has theories on radar anomalies against critics.
Jan. 3, 1999	Hoagland's recent claims thoroughly discredited in this post on alt.fan.art-bell by a PhD who is also involved in UFO investigation. Even UFO and conspiracy theorists reject him!
Jan. 8, 1999	Charlie Maxwell, a meteorologist at the NWS office in New Mexico, explains the radar anomalies mentioned by Hoagland on the Art Bell program. Between the previous explanation on Jan. 3 and this explanation, the hoax should have been thoroughly recognized by this point. Apparently it lived on...
Sep. 8, 1999	This post appears on alt.alien.research. Apparently now the radar anomalies are somehow associated with UFOs.
May 6, 2000	Mark Steadham registers his website ChemtrailCentral.com dedicated to forwarding his theory that some contrails are actually "chemtrails" which he alleges are intentional chemical spraying part of a secret government operation.
Dec. 31, 2000	The NEXRAD NIDS contract expires meaning that all NEXRAD imagery is now available directly from the NOAA for free.
Aug. 5, 2002	Over 3-1/2 years after the radar anomalies were discredited and even Hoagland left the topic, Darrin Meyenburg registers his website RadarMatrix.com dedicated to forwarding his theory that the radar anomalies are evidence of a HAARP-Chemtrail-NEXRAD-Weather Control-Star Wars program, apparently consolidating all the previous radar anomaly theories into an all-encompasing conspiracy theory.
Feb. 6, 2004	I post a study regarding the explanation of radar anomalies to ChemtrailCentrail. It is quickly relayed to the the webmaster of RadarMatrix (electricmojoman) who proceeds to ignore almost every question on radar anomalies and clings to his HAARP-Chemtrail-NEXRAD-Weather Control- Star was theory. He is also basically offensive.
Feb. 22, 2004	Mostly in response to the offensive attitude of electricmojoman, I launch this site in part to study and provide information regarding NEXRAD and in large part to answer the rediculous theories that continue to abound regarding NEXRAD radar anomalies.
Apr. 23, 2004	The webmaster and moderators at Chemtrail Central decide to ban me from their forums even though I broke no rules. Within a couple of days the webmaster from RadarMatrix had also been banned. About the same day, the webmaster of RadarMatrix opens up a conspiracy forum to compete with Chemtrail Central since he was unhappy with the way Chemtrail Central was being run. The new forum currently seems inactive but seems to complement the RadarMatrix website.