Rich, I'm not sure what your problem was, but your definately not going
to see a target from 30 miles away with binoculars. I'm from NY, and
prior to 9/11 we used to spot the twin towers from somewhere like 15 or
16 miles off the beach on a very good day. We do, on occasion, pick up
aircraft on the radar, but the image it leaves looks like a bananna, as
it moves across the screen. Could it be a helocopter? Or a strange
bounce of the signal? Could it have been a sail boat, not under sail
power, with a radar reflector in it's mast? With a little bit of
overcast on the horizen it would be easy to miss. You need something
pretty big to pick it up at 30 miles.