Generally military lasers are infrared. So when people see lasers, well ya know, I doubt the stories. Now you can see tracers, even those IR tracers because the spectrum of the IR tracers isn't very pure. The gun ships spit bullets out so fast the tracers look like laser beams. I have witnessed this first hand.
There are ranges designated for laser use, but on the west side of the range. From Alamo, you are more likely to see Range 61 in use. It would be a good research project to see which ranges allow lasers
There is laser ranging to measure cloud heights, but I don't know if they are visible.
Regarding hearing tests on the TRS, you hear nothing on the EDACS system. It is encrypted 100% of the time. The UHF/VHF air traffic is in the clear, but they talk in code. If the base wanted to, they could use encrypted radios. I think they go for simple AM aircraft comms for safety reasons.
The P16 and P25 systems have comms in the clear, but I don't know if Groom is using either of those systems. Eventually I think the P16 and EDACS system will be history and the range plus Base Camp will be P25. It must be tough to keep the old EDACS system running.
