Thirty years ago I visited friends in Annapolis, Maryland USA to set up a big hi-fi audio system and especially to go fishing. Annapolis is home to the US Naval Academy and many naval operations. My friends, all native to the area, gave me a driving tour of the city. I saw antennas like I've never seen before or since. The strangest antenna system, so they told me, was for communicating with submarines. After seeing all the antennas that day, it occurred to me that it must take a huge amount of electricity to keep all that equipment running.
I was actually in Annapolis yesterday (3/19/23). The submarine communication antennas are still standing but are now used as navigation aids and as a base for smaller, local antennas.
The Annapolis array is Navy radio station NSS, or what remains of it. Most of the towers have been taken down. The remaining towers stand due to nesting protected birds. I think Ospreys. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSS_Annapolis
I was a CTM from 1973-1979 assigned to the NESSEC Installation Team from 1974-1977 and visited most of these sites during that time. I spent my last 2 years at NSGA Homestead. This video brought back lots of memories!
I was a CTM from 1970-1976. Worked on the FLR-11 in Keflavik (Rockville), Iceland from 72-74 and I'm pretty sure we had a FRA-54 hooked up to a Wullenwever over in Grindavik. I was also in Rota, Spain from 75-76 and it was cool to see the old and new photos.
If you get a chance take a closer look at the Chesapeake base. I trained there, and the direction finding antenna was only one of several interesting antennas. I was told by one of the Navy officers there that they even had a VLF antenna for communicating with submerged submarines there. I think that was the antenna that was almost a mile long and you had to drive over it to get to the pistol range.
My late wife was stationed at NSGA Guam; Sabana Seca; and Homestead. Very strange to drive to the operations building inside the antenna! Will never forget the sight of those antennas.
This is just worsening an already bad case of antenna envy, Lewis. Thanks. (It really *warmed my heart* to learn that the Newfoundland site is still active)
I was fortunate enough to work out of the Imperial Beach site after its decommissioning but before demolition. I was attached to the US Navy's Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Seven, which had taken over the building in the middle of the complex. It was surreal to be standing in the middle of the array, then walk into the building which still had all the cabling but none of the equipment. It was a big deal for all of San Diego when it was demolished.
I was stationed in imperial beach quite the awe inspiring antenna array unfortunately none of the equipment or the narrf ( naval radio receiving facility antennas are left I was one of the “O” branches assigned there in the late 70’s-80’S
I thought the old WWII coastal defense gun sites buried under the dunes were cool, although there were concerns about the building materials used (we had to leave buildings for 15 minutes every hour)
I saw the Chesapeake, VA one back in 1994 when I was in the Marines and I was there for Security Forces training. I always wondered what that array was for. There was a lot of different dishes and arrays on that base.
I live only a couple miles away from NSGA Marietta and I never even knew it existed - and I've lived here pretty much all my life! I might have to take a bicycle ride out there and take a look.
fwiw "Mahlon Loomis was an American dentist and inventor known for proposing a wireless communication and electric power generating system based on his idea that there were electrically charged layers in the Earth's atmosphere."@@trob11731826-1886
I was in the U.S. Navy special warfare group stationed in Coronado, California in the late 1960s to the 1990s. I lived in Imperial Beach--called "IB" by locals--and passed the site there daily in both directions. After leaving NSWG, one of my shipboard assignments was in radio intelligence on a naval vessel; part of our coordination was with the radio site in IB. I gained access only once, and my memory is pretty fuzzy. That site is now a training site; the only reminder that an antenna site existed are the ground circular scars.
I remember that site near IB. I was but a kid then and used to ride up and down the length of the strand from time to time. That site stands out in my memory!
Excellent information, Lewis! I had no idea about these sites, but it's truly fasinating to see just how extensively these kinds of systems were created during the Cold War. I would love to have seen these facilities in operation. Cheers!
VERY interesting about these receiving stations and their history! Sad to see such amazing technology just abandoned and left to rot, or just destroyed. Thank you for the great detail and history.
While watching, it occurred to me that these massive antennas must contain tons of steel, thus substantial recycling value. I would hope that someone took advantage of this. If nothing else, it would provide money and materiel to build new and better antennas.
Living and working with the US Navy in San Diego I remember driving near the elephant cage many times. Now eventhough it torn down many old timers still refer to the complex as such. Now the Navy has a much large circular antenna array there now. A Lot of people call it the "Monster Cage"
San Diegan here.. no more antenna array today, SpecWar has entirely redeveloped the area for Special Forces Warfare training and operations. Nothing on the land resembles anything which used to be. The building in the center of the former CDAA remains but nothing else.
Our walks outside the Wullenweber in Gander including the occasional moose scare and even a bear chasing a jogger. Do miss that base but that was early 90s. As the locals called it, the turkey farm.
Another interesting video. I have watched your channel since stumbling on it while searching for info on the 1960's pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio 270. As a kid growing up in North East England I well remember listening to those stations. I currently live in WA State and did not know of the antenna array located at Alderwood. However ironically I live immediately below Naval Radio Station Jim Creek the VLF station which is as old as I am and still functioning. Could be a good subject for an episode.
Very insightful again. Worked two years inside RAF Edzell but not on the DF side of the house. Have been inside the facilities at Rota and Imperial Beach but I was doing other more interesting things and was there for coordination meetings only thank goodness. 😂. Did you forget to add NSGA Diego Garcia and NCTS Guam?
@@RingwayManchester I was At Winter Harbor and Edzell, both with frd 10s. And Diego Garcia in the middle, which correct, did not have the frd 10. 1974-1977
Great to see Canada, maintaining a couple of these and using them still. I wonder why they are doing that? I’m pleased that they are though. I wish some FLR-9’s were still maintained.
Yes - I’m Canadian and it does strike me as odd that we are the only country that still finds these useful? One would think that either they are useful, or they are no longer useful: not both.
I had the fortunate experience of being the OPS Tech Section Supervisor from 74 to 78 in Gander. Every so often, during an emergency and the inability to find the civilian antenna maintenance individual, I had to climb those poles to attach the guy cables. It was cold on those fingers, and extremely frustrating if you dropped any of your tools from up there. 😎
Here again excellent memories. I started in HAM Radio in 1961, joined the Navy in 1964 and worked at three of these sites during that enlistment. What's interesting is the fact that I have been in radio from 1961 to present 2023. I presently own a commercial tower being use for 5G broadband. Still get on 20 meters with my keyer and do the old stuff. KE6QK !
I was stationed at Galeta Island Panama. '83-'84. After Navy left in '95, NSA took it over until '99 when it shutdown completely. I was at Homestead, left just prior to hurricane Andrew. The damage was the impetus to close it down. Abandoned now, property sold off to some telecomm company. I enjoyed both duty stations a lot. Good times.
Great video, thanks for sharing. I was stationed at NSGA Adak (Company I Marine Support Battalion) several times. It was, by far, my favorite duty station. The worksite with the RFD was called the Dinosaur Cage or Shotgun. The Zeto Point site had White Alice. Those who've been to Adak will know what I'm talking about. Maybe I missed it in the video, but there was also Diego Garcia & Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
I had the distinct privilege of being stationed at all four of the Navy's different CDAA sites within my 11 years of active duty between 1972 and 1983. My first duty station was Misawa Japan. We used a three-band AN/FLR-9 array maintained by the US Air Force Security Service. My next duty station was NSGA Azores where it still used the AN/GRD-6 small diameter array. This unit had a motorized goniometer but was originally configured with a manually operated gonio. NTTC Pensacola also had a GRD-6 for training purposes. My next duty station was NSGA Northwest which had an FRD-10 array. I was in charge of the shop that maintained the two goniometers and all of the distribution equipment. The goniometers were really a great piece of engineering! My final tour on active duty was back to NSGA Azores where the GRD-6 had been replaced with the AN/AX-16 Pusher array (made by Plessy in the UK.) It was an interesting time to be involved with Classic Bullseye and I am curious if any other CT had worked with all four CDAAs.
Great video, it's nice to have a clear and concise history of these stations. My grandfather worked for ITT in the 60's and was a project manager overseeing the installation of the equipment rooms at Edzell station. I believe he also did the same in Spain and likely some other stations. He spent a lot of time in Guam, Japan and Okinawa. Apparently goniometers were his specialty and he had the nickname "Captain Gonio" - of course none of the family knew any of this growing up, it was all highly secretive and all we knew was he worked on secret government stuff and was traveling all over the world doing who knows what... was grandpa a real life James Bond? We could only guess. What we did know was that government agents would visit the neighborhood and ask the neighbors questions, and some of our phones were tapped. Now that all this stuff is decommissioned and de-classified I'm able to piece together what he actually did and its fascinating.
@Ringway Manchester. I'm enjoying your video's, and am binge watching at the moment. When I was a kid, we all had crappy AM FM radio's. They sold em everywhere, even as toy car shaped ones. My dad even had a radio with SW1 and SW2 switches, which I messed with a lot LOL. Anyway, I remember being able to regularly tune in to a morse code numbers station broadcast. Would that have to be a SW radio? Or could that be any old crappy toy car radio for listening to chart music. This was Midlands UK possibly around '78 - '81when I was around 10 yrs old. I could recite that morse code sequence cos it repeated so often. I listened to a Russian numbers station broadcast which sounded very similar to my memory, (Russian M12 CW on Curt Rowlett's channel). Probably could have been any one of hundreds maybe.
You answered a question I had. After moving to Norfolk, Virginia, last year I was looking on Google Earth at the surrounding region including the Great Dismal Swamp between here and North Carolina and came across that structure. It's mostly in North Carolina but the access is from Virginia
1:00 I am a student at the University of Wisconsin, currently on university property right now. I am additionally a member of our amateur radio group---the Badger Amateur Radio Society (W9YT). Words cannot describe how exciting it is to hear my future alma matter's name said in the same breadth as anything to do with radio. Fantastic, just fantastic!
that a great video. I was not Sure if any were in use today. maybe when you got more information on upgrades at the 2 caranda cites. with the US and Canada being close I sure we share info between us received at the 2 stations . This is a great part of radio history .73's Boston NY,USA
Excellent video, thanks. Challenge. Can you find any info on the smaller variant, the AN/FRD-13 also known as ‘Plessey Pusher’ ? At least two of these were in operation in Denmark during the cold war. B.t.w. The first Wullenweber examined by the allied forces were at ‘Skibsted Camp’ in Denmark - currently home to a Danish SIGINT reception station - but originally build by Germany during the occupation.
I was a CTM stationed at NSGA Hanza 1967 to 1969. NSGA Galeta Island 1970 to 1973. NSGA Terceira Island, Azores 1976 to 1979. NSGA Keflavik 1979 to 1980. Great video, enjoyed it.
Great video. I was stationed at Skaggs (Pacific Net Control) and Northwest (Atlantic Net Control) in the late 70's, early 80's. (I noticed you grabbed an aerial photo of mine of Northwest that is on the NavyCTHistory web site. Glad to see it put to good use.) You left out most of the Mediterranean sites except for Rota (Net Control for Med). I remember there were Bullseye/Bulldog sites in Turkey, Italy, and possibly elsewhere. Also, the reason the Canadian sites are still operational is Canada was very interested in tracking fishing ships encroaching in Canadian fishing waters. The Cold War might be over, but Canada still wants to protect their fishing waters. I imagine the reason the US shutdown the project is there are cheaper and better methods today to track foreign ships and aircraft instead of a couple dozen bases with hundreds of sailors stationed at each. Classic Wizard was more accurate anyway; Bullseye/Bulldog was generally considered to be accurate only to within a 1-mile box.
While I was stationed in Coronado, California, I lived in Imperial Beach. Never knew there was a radar site there, it was already Silver Strand when I arrived. My time in Hawaii, however, was different. The dinosaur cage was still there even if not in operation, at least not for it's original purpose, I attended a CPR class in the central building. A lot of the civilian staff here remember and miss the old cage. We even have a photo on the wall of our building with it.
Fun to see aerial and satellite views of the Imperial Beach, California USA station. Drove past it many times. Thank you for your dilligence and research.
Thanks for another great video! I'd love to see a video on the VLF transmitter antenna array in Cutler, Maine. It is similar is some respects, and I think your viewers would like it. I've heard that between the Cutler installation and its sister facility in Australia, they cover somewhere around 70% of the world's oceans for the purpose of communicating with submarines. I've also heard that, as impressive as the aerial antenna array is, the main antenna is actually underwater just offshore. I'd like to learn more about this site, but researching it myself probably wouldn't yield as much information as your video would provide, and it certainly wouldn't be as entertaining!
@@RingwayManchester No problem. You have some great shots of the Arrays. It was good to see them again. The original goniometer was mechanically spun. Fascinating to watch. nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/65d/jresv65dn3p237_a1b.pdf
@@thefrustratedtheologian6238 Didn't the RCA corporation build a full one? Yes, near La Jas AFB on Terceira Is. Hmm, I could be wrong. I never got to that one. Thank you.
I used to work for the FCC here in Puerto Rico. There was an elephant cage direction finder antenna operated by the Navy. I use to work in their facility in Sabana Seca getting HF signal direction azimuth from the antenna. We moved from there at around 1991 or 92 because i remember getting azimuths from iraquí jammers in the first iraquí war. Any way there were multiple stations in the states an some times the system got input from multiple stations in the world. The station is not there anymore. In 1992 the FCC got its own station a Doppler one. Thank you for your channel.
Some research dug up a military paper that discussed how the threat from Russia would remain even after the Soviet Union's collapse. And being next-door to them, I could see why we would keep ours going.
I vividly recall driving up to the guard shack about 850 m from inner reflector of the NSGA Skaggs Island antenna in the late 1970s where my father who was a Navy vet and a ham asked the guard of the antenna's purpose. The guard replied that he thought "it was some sort of nuclear thing". The family turned around and continued to our picnic and the answer was dismissed as silly, but later I learned the site was to be repurposed in the early 1970s for a phased array RADAR to guard the San Francisco area with Zeus and/or related missiles at remote launchers. An arms treaty which limited the number of interceptor warheads caused plans to shrink to just the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in North Dakota so the answer was less silly than thought. I drove up to the same spot in 2014 but there was a locked gate and later that year the whole access road was blocked. Side note: the first station to receive Sputnik 1 in America was the Press Wireless, Inc station roughly 5.7 km North-East of the Skaggs antenna. That station continued to track later Sputniks for the Hearst Newspaper chain.
One of my coworkers found me some info on this site. It was called "Collins HF Comm-central". It was capable of linking HF radios anywhere on the planet. It operated under various callsigns, including "Liberty" and "Rasputin" and was a central hub for US strategic and tactical communications.
This video has great engagement, 12 hours since release and as many views as 15% of subscribers. Highly interested following, for highly interesting content
The location in gander is nicknamed the Turkey farm, it always fascinated me growing up, we would always drive by the entrance road heading to the old railway tracks to ride quads and dirt bikes, seeing the department of defence signs while riding last always peaked my interest so much. Such a great find, love the content of this channel, if any fellow Newfie’s wanna chat about it, feel free to message!
We have a smaller version that appears to be active in Lake County Florida located on private property in the middle of a cow pasture on an isolated dirt road that does have power lines. The government paid the land owner a very large sum of money for the permanent rights to keep the antenna there. No one knows who is using it nor for what purpose.
Somethings ringing a feint bell. A circular array based on the east or south coast of England. But the control centre was away from the antenna circle, outside it. Built by the US. Anyone know what I might be remembering?
Good video. Thank you. Even Uncle Sam can't control sunspot activity. Besides, with satellites and trunked systems, the old ways become passe'. Anyone grab some of these leftover goodies at a surplus sale?
Very interesting. I did not know these existed. I only know the vdf antennas at airports tuned to the vhf airband so the controllers see a bearing of the speaking airplane on their screen.
I remember growing up in Michigan in the.'70s, the military (one branch or another, if not all) was wanting to set up an ELF station in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but the "treehuggers" (Dad's name for them) didn't want it built. Don't recall hearing about it getting approved, and if so, is it still there?? I think it'll be an interesting visit!!!
Yes ELF was active for a few years. Control was on K.I. Sawyer A.F.B.. Transmitter was outside of Republic MI. I has been deactivated since the early 1990's. KI Sawyer AFB closed in 1995.
I was posted there in the mid nineties, can confirm it was a two story building, although the first floor had quite a ceiling. The Gonio room was very high, so the building is pretty tall for only two floors.
@@dakohli that makes sense. On average, one story is 10-12 ft, depending on the type of structure. However, commercial buildings could be two story's with 20ft ceilings, depending on what they're used for. Using "story" as unit of measurement would not be a standardized measurement.
I worked at Sabana Seca in the late 90's. In 1979 a bus load of USN sailors were ambushed by Los Macheteros - a Puerto Rican independence terrorist group. Two sailors died. I believe they were on their way to/or returning from a shift at the "Elephant Cage".
Yes, the bus which traveled between the base and elephant cage for shift changes was ambushed by ‘macheteros’. Memories of the attack remained fresh. Most personnel had already rotated out before my arrival. I worked inside the elephant cage from 1983-1986. Best job I ever had. Go Navy.
I’m sure 4000 years from now archeologists will find the ruins of these and label them temples because that’s the only thing archeologists can ever come up with. It’s a temple. Everything is a temple.
These antennas were only for HF signals in the 3-30 Mhz range. Now, most military comms are much higher frequencies or satellite based, so there isn't much need for HF direction finding anymore.
FWIW: I was living in northern Dade County, Florida when Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992. The city of Homestead is located in southern Dade County. Going through a Hurricane is similar to how a US Navy recruiter once described boot camp to me: *_"It's not an orgasmic experience."_*
i wish they could have just kept these places up as a monument or something instead of demolishing them i also find it odd how canadians still use their stuff compared to america
Most of the newer receivers are SDR and modular, I have been out of that business 20+ years so I am pretty dated as well. Pretty much what we see today, in the civilian world, had its roots in the technological developments funded by DARPA, NRL and the NSA.
Thirty years ago I visited friends in Annapolis, Maryland USA to set up a big hi-fi audio system and especially to go fishing. Annapolis is home to the US Naval Academy and many naval operations. My friends, all native to the area, gave me a driving tour of the city. I saw antennas like I've never seen before or since. The strangest antenna system, so they told me, was for communicating with submarines. After seeing all the antennas that day, it occurred to me that it must take a huge amount of electricity to keep all that equipment running.
I was actually in Annapolis yesterday (3/19/23). The submarine communication antennas are still standing but are now used as navigation aids and as a base for smaller, local antennas.
@@mattpierre891 Thanks for the update!
Everything would likely be run off generators with an onsite fuel silo.
Chances are that if someone can point to a "submarine" communication antenna, it's probably something else!
The Annapolis array is Navy radio station NSS, or what remains of it. Most of the towers have been taken down. The remaining towers stand due to nesting protected birds. I think Ospreys.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSS_Annapolis
I was a CTM from 1973-1979 assigned to the NESSEC Installation Team from 1974-1977 and visited most of these sites during that time. I spent my last 2 years at NSGA Homestead. This video brought back lots of memories!
I was a CTM from 1970-1976. Worked on the FLR-11 in Keflavik (Rockville), Iceland from 72-74 and I'm pretty sure we had a FRA-54 hooked up to a Wullenwever over in Grindavik. I was also in Rota, Spain from 75-76 and it was cool to see the old and new photos.
So why would they remove them rather then just abandoning them if the land isnt going to be reused?
If you get a chance take a closer look at the Chesapeake base. I trained there, and the direction finding antenna was only one of several interesting antennas. I was told by one of the Navy officers there that they even had a VLF antenna for communicating with submerged submarines there. I think that was the antenna that was almost a mile long and you had to drive over it to get to the pistol range.
Will do!
being in anOTHER region of Virginia as a child i musta missed all these awe inspiring Antennae
MCSFTBN alumni here too. Late 94 to early 95. Was that the long row of twin pole antennas?
@@Silverhornet81 That was the ROTHR (Relocatable Over-the-horizon Radar). There is another one located in Texas.
My late wife was stationed at NSGA Guam; Sabana Seca; and Homestead. Very strange to drive to the operations building inside the antenna! Will never forget the sight of those antennas.
This is just worsening an already bad case of antenna envy, Lewis. Thanks.
(It really *warmed my heart* to learn that the Newfoundland site is still active)
I would have liked to hook one of those arrays to my HF receivers!
Cold War equipment like this is fascinating.
Sure is
4000 years from now, historians will debate if it served a religious purpose or was meant as a solar calender.
NSGA Northwest 1994 to 1997. Worked in building 41, right in the middle.
It's an odd feeling seeing more and more things that were around and in use while I was growing up fading away
I was fortunate enough to work out of the Imperial Beach site after its decommissioning but before demolition. I was attached to the US Navy's Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Seven, which had taken over the building in the middle of the complex. It was surreal to be standing in the middle of the array, then walk into the building which still had all the cabling but none of the equipment. It was a big deal for all of San Diego when it was demolished.
I was stationed in imperial beach quite the awe inspiring antenna array unfortunately none of the equipment or the narrf ( naval radio receiving facility antennas are left I was one of the “O” branches assigned there in the late 70’s-80’S
I thought the old WWII coastal defense gun sites buried under the dunes were cool, although there were concerns about the building materials used (we had to leave buildings for 15 minutes every hour)
I saw the Chesapeake, VA one back in 1994 when I was in the Marines and I was there for Security Forces training. I always wondered what that array was for. There was a lot of different dishes and arrays on that base.
I live only a couple miles away from NSGA Marietta and I never even knew it existed - and I've lived here pretty much all my life! I might have to take a bicycle ride out there and take a look.
It was on Loomis Trail Rd. Just a few buildings remain, but they still look unapproachable.
fwiw "Mahlon Loomis was an American dentist and inventor known for proposing a wireless communication and electric power generating system based on his idea that there were electrically charged layers in the Earth's atmosphere."@@trob11731826-1886
I was in the U.S. Navy special warfare group stationed in Coronado, California in the late 1960s to the 1990s. I lived in Imperial Beach--called "IB" by locals--and passed the site there daily in both directions. After leaving NSWG, one of my shipboard assignments was in radio intelligence on a naval vessel; part of our coordination was with the radio site in IB. I gained access only once, and my memory is pretty fuzzy. That site is now a training site; the only reminder that an antenna site existed are the ground circular scars.
I remember that site near IB. I was but a kid then and used to ride up and down the length of the strand from time to time. That site stands out in my memory!
Drilled there 1990-1999
Excellent information, Lewis! I had no idea about these sites, but it's truly fasinating to see just how extensively these kinds of systems were created during the Cold War. I would love to have seen these facilities in operation. Cheers!
Thanks RM. Very Interesting Video. Really Enjoy your Information and Details to Each Spectrum of Radio Communications*** Keep up the Great Work****
Thanks Jerry!
VERY interesting about these receiving stations and their history!
Sad to see such amazing technology just abandoned and left to rot, or just destroyed.
Thank you for the great detail and history.
Thanks!
While watching, it occurred to me that these massive antennas must contain tons of steel, thus substantial recycling value. I would hope that someone took advantage of this. If nothing else, it would provide money and materiel to build new and better antennas.
@@RevMikeBlack a lot of copper was involved.
yes it seems very wasteful📐
Funny thing about technology…what was amazing “yesterday” will be obsolete “tomorrow”
Living and working with the US Navy in San Diego I remember driving near the elephant cage many times. Now eventhough it torn down many old timers still refer to the complex as such. Now the Navy has a much large circular antenna array there now. A Lot of people call it the "Monster Cage"
San Diegan here.. no more antenna array today, SpecWar has entirely redeveloped the area for Special Forces Warfare training and operations. Nothing on the land resembles anything which used to be. The building in the center of the former CDAA remains but nothing else.
Ah the memories when you showed RAF Edzell. The Elephant cage around Building 300 took me back 30 years. I was on base from 92-96 😊
1976/77 in Edzell. CTT2 when I left for civilian life. Was a really great year.
84-86. CTT2
CTM2 RAF Edzell 87-89
RN CPOCT(A) 31 Div from 88-91 then civvy street, very interesting times!
79-81
Our walks outside the Wullenweber in Gander including the occasional moose scare and even a bear chasing a jogger. Do miss that base but that was early 90s. As the locals called it, the turkey farm.
Yet again another amazing video keep up the hard work.
Another interesting video. I have watched your channel since stumbling on it while searching for info on the 1960's pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio 270. As a kid growing up in North East England I well remember listening to those stations. I currently live in WA State and did not know of the antenna array located at Alderwood. However ironically I live immediately below Naval Radio Station Jim Creek the VLF station which is as old as I am and still functioning. Could be a good subject for an episode.
Very insightful again. Worked two years inside RAF Edzell but not on the DF side of the house. Have been inside the facilities at Rota and Imperial Beach but I was doing other more interesting things and was there for coordination meetings only thank goodness. 😂. Did you forget to add NSGA Diego Garcia and NCTS Guam?
Thanks for the info!
Diego Garcia is a 6an/a16 plessey pusher not an frd10
@@RingwayManchester I was At Winter Harbor and Edzell, both with frd 10s. And Diego Garcia in the middle, which correct, did not have the frd 10. 1974-1977
Great to see Canada, maintaining a couple of these and using them still. I wonder why they are doing that? I’m pleased that they are though. I wish some FLR-9’s were still maintained.
Cheers!
Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to. Lol
Yes - I’m Canadian and it does strike me as odd that we are the only country that still finds these useful? One would think that either they are useful, or they are no longer useful: not both.
I had the fortunate experience of being the OPS Tech Section Supervisor from 74 to 78 in Gander. Every so often, during an emergency and the inability to find the civilian antenna maintenance individual, I had to climb those poles to attach the guy cables. It was cold on those fingers, and extremely frustrating if you dropped any of your tools from up there. 😎
I was posted to 770 in the mid nineties. Was a nice posting.
Here again excellent memories. I started in HAM Radio in 1961, joined the Navy in 1964 and worked at three of these sites during that enlistment. What's interesting is the fact that I have been in radio from 1961 to present 2023. I presently own a commercial tower being use for 5G broadband. Still get on 20 meters with my keyer and do the old stuff. KE6QK !
it's Buster Goniometer and his Unfeasibly Large CDDA
Western Australia has a facility.. Excellent video as always.
Have a good one.
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt is the Southern Hemisphere counterpart to Cutler, Maine.
I was stationed at Galeta Island Panama. '83-'84. After Navy left in '95, NSA took it over until '99 when it shutdown completely. I was at Homestead, left just prior to hurricane Andrew. The damage was the impetus to close it down. Abandoned now, property sold off to some telecomm company.
I enjoyed both duty stations a lot. Good times.
Great video, thanks for sharing. I was stationed at NSGA Adak (Company I Marine Support Battalion) several times. It was, by far, my favorite duty station. The worksite with the RFD was called the Dinosaur Cage or Shotgun. The Zeto Point site had White Alice. Those who've been to Adak will know what I'm talking about.
Maybe I missed it in the video, but there was also Diego Garcia & Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
DG and GB used a system called the GRD-6, not Wullenwebers.
I had the distinct privilege of being stationed at all four of the Navy's different CDAA sites within my 11 years of active duty between 1972 and 1983. My first duty station was Misawa Japan. We used a three-band AN/FLR-9 array maintained by the US Air Force Security Service. My next duty station was NSGA Azores where it still used the AN/GRD-6 small diameter array. This unit had a motorized goniometer but was originally configured with a manually operated gonio. NTTC Pensacola also had a GRD-6 for training purposes. My next duty station was NSGA Northwest which had an FRD-10 array. I was in charge of the shop that maintained the two goniometers and all of the distribution equipment. The goniometers were really a great piece of engineering! My final tour on active duty was back to NSGA Azores where the GRD-6 had been replaced with the AN/AX-16 Pusher array (made by Plessy in the UK.) It was an interesting time to be involved with Classic Bullseye and I am curious if any other CT had worked with all four CDAAs.
Great video, it's nice to have a clear and concise history of these stations. My grandfather worked for ITT in the 60's and was a project manager overseeing the installation of the equipment rooms at Edzell station. I believe he also did the same in Spain and likely some other stations. He spent a lot of time in Guam, Japan and Okinawa. Apparently goniometers were his specialty and he had the nickname "Captain Gonio" - of course none of the family knew any of this growing up, it was all highly secretive and all we knew was he worked on secret government stuff and was traveling all over the world doing who knows what... was grandpa a real life James Bond? We could only guess. What we did know was that government agents would visit the neighborhood and ask the neighbors questions, and some of our phones were tapped. Now that all this stuff is decommissioned and de-classified I'm able to piece together what he actually did and its fascinating.
great info. i was at both NSGA Hanza in Okinawa and wahiawa oahu. great memories. thank you for the pictures and info.
@Ringway Manchester. I'm enjoying your video's, and am binge watching at the moment.
When I was a kid, we all had crappy AM FM radio's. They sold em everywhere, even as toy car shaped ones.
My dad even had a radio with SW1 and SW2 switches, which I messed with a lot LOL.
Anyway, I remember being able to regularly tune in to a morse code numbers station broadcast.
Would that have to be a SW radio? Or could that be any old crappy toy car radio for listening to chart music.
This was Midlands UK possibly around '78 - '81when I was around 10 yrs old.
I could recite that morse code sequence cos it repeated so often.
I listened to a Russian numbers station broadcast which sounded very similar to my memory, (Russian M12 CW on Curt Rowlett's channel).
Probably could have been any one of hundreds maybe.
Great subject. While mentioning maine, don't be afraid to go down the rabbit hole of the VLF/ULF transmitting station at Cutler Maine.
I used to drive by Skaggs Island every day, and it was pretty obvious it was for RDF, but I had no idea how it worked.
You answered a question I had. After moving to Norfolk, Virginia, last year I was looking on Google Earth at the surrounding region including the Great Dismal Swamp between here and North Carolina and came across that structure. It's mostly in North Carolina but the access is from Virginia
Love these
CTRC, stationed at Skaggs Island x2, Rota, Imperial Beach, Clark AFB
1:00 I am a student at the University of Wisconsin, currently on university property right now. I am additionally a member of our amateur radio group---the Badger Amateur Radio Society (W9YT). Words cannot describe how exciting it is to hear my future alma matter's name said in the same breadth as anything to do with radio. Fantastic, just fantastic!
that a great video. I was not Sure if any were in use today. maybe when you got more information on upgrades at the 2 caranda cites. with the US and Canada being close I sure we share info between us received at the 2 stations . This is a great part of radio history .73's Boston NY,USA
Excellent video, thanks. Challenge. Can you find any info on the smaller variant, the AN/FRD-13 also known as ‘Plessey Pusher’ ? At least two of these were in operation in Denmark during the cold war. B.t.w. The first Wullenweber examined by the allied forces were at ‘Skibsted Camp’ in Denmark - currently home to a Danish SIGINT reception station - but originally build by Germany during the occupation.
Challenge accepted!
I was a CTM stationed at NSGA Hanza 1967 to 1969. NSGA Galeta Island 1970 to 1973. NSGA Terceira Island, Azores 1976 to 1979. NSGA Keflavik 1979 to 1980. Great video, enjoyed it.
Great video. I was stationed at Skaggs (Pacific Net Control) and Northwest (Atlantic Net Control) in the late 70's, early 80's. (I noticed you grabbed an aerial photo of mine of Northwest that is on the NavyCTHistory web site. Glad to see it put to good use.) You left out most of the Mediterranean sites except for Rota (Net Control for Med). I remember there were Bullseye/Bulldog sites in Turkey, Italy, and possibly elsewhere. Also, the reason the Canadian sites are still operational is Canada was very interested in tracking fishing ships encroaching in Canadian fishing waters. The Cold War might be over, but Canada still wants to protect their fishing waters. I imagine the reason the US shutdown the project is there are cheaper and better methods today to track foreign ships and aircraft instead of a couple dozen bases with hundreds of sailors stationed at each. Classic Wizard was more accurate anyway; Bullseye/Bulldog was generally considered to be accurate only to within a 1-mile box.
Hey Skip. Good to see you are still around!
@@RandySpangler Hi Randy; yup, still kicking. Good to hear from you; I've lost track of almost everyone from those days. I see you're in VA still.
I think Sinop was the site in Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.
While I was stationed in Coronado, California, I lived in Imperial Beach. Never knew there was a radar site there, it was already Silver Strand when I arrived. My time in Hawaii, however, was different. The dinosaur cage was still there even if not in operation, at least not for it's original purpose, I attended a CPR class in the central building. A lot of the civilian staff here remember and miss the old cage. We even have a photo on the wall of our building with it.
6:40 not hard to tell I discovered your video on these Soviet antennas first lol
Great videos - thanks. Some amazing technology went into these beasts - For example, some sites had 500-1000 antenna multicouplers.
The Soviet Union also had similar systems scattered around eastern Europe called "Krug".
Stay tuned ;)
Fun to see aerial and satellite views of the Imperial Beach, California USA station. Drove past it many times. Thank you for your dilligence and research.
One was (maybe still is) near Long Beach.
Thanks for another great video! I'd love to see a video on the VLF transmitter antenna array in Cutler, Maine. It is similar is some respects, and I think your viewers would like it. I've heard that between the Cutler installation and its sister facility in Australia, they cover somewhere around 70% of the world's oceans for the purpose of communicating with submarines. I've also heard that, as impressive as the aerial antenna array is, the main antenna is actually underwater just offshore. I'd like to learn more about this site, but researching it myself probably wouldn't yield as much information as your video would provide, and it certainly wouldn't be as entertaining!
I think there was one on the Azores as well.
There was! I missed it
@@RingwayManchester No problem.
You have some great shots of the Arrays.
It was good to see them again.
The original goniometer was mechanically spun. Fascinating to watch.
nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/65d/jresv65dn3p237_a1b.pdf
It was not an FRD-10. It was a rather small array on the northern tip of Tercera (sp). I was there 83-84.
@@thefrustratedtheologian6238
Didn't the RCA corporation build a full one?
Yes, near La Jas AFB on Terceira Is.
Hmm, I could be wrong. I never got to that one. Thank you.
@@allenshepard7992 The NSGA was about 30 minutes from the main airfield. I have no knowledge of your question.
Interesting videos. In my time in the service(Army), I worked at places where they were installed as I was comms. I was at 3 Army and 2 Navy sites
I used to work for the FCC here in Puerto Rico. There was an elephant cage direction finder antenna operated by the Navy. I use to work in their facility in Sabana Seca getting HF signal direction azimuth from the antenna. We moved from there at around 1991 or 92 because i remember getting azimuths from iraquí jammers in the first iraquí war. Any way there were multiple stations in the states an some times the system got input from multiple stations in the world. The station is not there anymore. In 1992 the FCC got its own station a Doppler one. Thank you for your channel.
I remember the one at RAF Chicksands in Bedfordshire. Long since gone.
67 to 73 CTM2 Stations Skaggs Island, Guam. Kami Seya Japan & Misawa Japan.
Good on my country Canada for keeping these puppies up and running!
I wonder why it is only Canada that has kept them operational?
Some research dug up a military paper that discussed how the threat from Russia would remain even after the Soviet Union's collapse. And being next-door to them, I could see why we would keep ours going.
I vividly recall driving up to the guard shack about 850 m from inner reflector of the NSGA Skaggs Island antenna in the late 1970s where my father who was a Navy vet and a ham asked the guard of the antenna's purpose. The guard replied that he thought "it was some sort of nuclear thing". The family turned around and continued to our picnic and the answer was dismissed as silly, but later I learned the site was to be repurposed in the early 1970s for a phased array RADAR to guard the San Francisco area with Zeus and/or related missiles at remote launchers. An arms treaty which limited the number of interceptor warheads caused plans to shrink to just the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in North Dakota so the answer was less silly than thought. I drove up to the same spot in 2014 but there was a locked gate and later that year the whole access road was blocked. Side note: the first station to receive Sputnik 1 in America was the Press Wireless, Inc station roughly 5.7 km North-East of the Skaggs antenna. That station continued to track later Sputniks for the Hearst Newspaper chain.
Thanks for the info!
I’m pretty sure there used to be a cage at GCHQ Benhall (when GCHQ was spread over two sites).
The Imperial Beach, CA array was visible from highway. I saw it in the early 1970s
There was an elephant cage array on the north side of Cedar Rapids, IA in the late '90s/ early 2000s. I never knew the purpose or operator of it.
One of my coworkers found me some info on this site. It was called "Collins HF Comm-central". It was capable of linking HF radios anywhere on the planet. It operated under various callsigns, including "Liberty" and "Rasputin" and was a central hub for US strategic and tactical communications.
This video has great engagement, 12 hours since release and as many views as 15% of subscribers. Highly interested following, for highly interesting content
So do we now know the secret of the true use of Stonehenge ? ( would love a April 1 cross over with the whitewicks on this !)
Good idea
Ha Ha! That's what I came down here to say.
The mystery of Stonehenge has been solved!
Great research, very well done!
Thanks Tom
Local Pronunciation Corner: Here in Maine, Winter Harbor is pronounced "winnahaaba". ;)
Homestead Fl, Rota Spain, Northwest VA ...AR EE
The location in gander is nicknamed the Turkey farm, it always fascinated me growing up, we would always drive by the entrance road heading to the old railway tracks to ride quads and dirt bikes, seeing the department of defence signs while riding last always peaked my interest so much.
Such a great find, love the content of this channel, if any fellow Newfie’s wanna chat about it, feel free to message!
Excellent research and great video. Thanks
I beleive there is another near Munich and another near Baldock (uk) both oporational.
Thank you for the interesting and varied videos :-)
He neglected NSGA Keflavik Iceland. While Kef did not use FRD, it did use a Pusher.
No he didn’t… it’s in the most recent video of the series
Seems I jumped the gun because here we go with the silver strand :) the last of its kind built.
We have a smaller version that appears to be active in Lake County Florida located on private property in the middle of a cow pasture on an isolated dirt road that does have power lines. The government paid the land owner a very large sum of money for the permanent rights to keep the antenna there. No one knows who is using it nor for what purpose.
Very interesting video. Thank you!
Somethings ringing a feint bell. A circular array based on the east or south coast of England. But the control centre was away from the antenna circle, outside it. Built by the US. Anyone know what I might be remembering?
You may be thinking of GCHQ Bude. Lots of various types of antennas there, but don’t think they have a CDAA.
Back during the height of the Cold War, just photographing that would have landed one under arrest and an FBI raid of home and work
Good video. Thank you.
Even Uncle Sam can't control sunspot activity.
Besides, with satellites and trunked systems, the old ways become passe'.
Anyone grab some of these leftover goodies at a surplus sale?
Very interesting. I did not know these existed. I only know the vdf antennas at airports tuned to the vhf airband so the controllers see a bearing of the speaking airplane on their screen.
As the world's militaries are taking a renewed interest in HF comms I wonder if there's a smaller equivalent to these DF antennas around?
I remember growing up in Michigan in the.'70s, the military (one branch or another, if not all) was wanting to set up an ELF station in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but the "treehuggers" (Dad's name for them) didn't want it built. Don't recall hearing about it getting approved, and if so, is it still there?? I think it'll be an interesting visit!!!
Yes ELF was active for a few years. Control was on K.I. Sawyer A.F.B.. Transmitter was outside of Republic MI. I has been deactivated since the early 1990's. KI Sawyer AFB closed in 1995.
@@thederangedwartomato5383 i've got a cousin not too far from Sawyer AFB!!!
ROAD TRIP!!!!
That site in gander looks to be larger than two stories. It locks more like 4 stories. But, I can't go and check it because I'm half a continent away.
I was posted there in the mid nineties, can confirm it was a two story building, although the first floor had quite a ceiling. The Gonio room was very high, so the building is pretty tall for only two floors.
@@dakohli that makes sense. On average, one story is 10-12 ft, depending on the type of structure. However, commercial buildings could be two story's with 20ft ceilings, depending on what they're used for. Using "story" as unit of measurement would not be a standardized measurement.
CTR and a plank holder at NSG Rota.
My dad was CO of 6917th at San Vito, Italy in the 80’s. I think that was a FLR-9 but you can see the outline of it on Google Earth.
I was there then.
@@lorilm8 were you a dependent or in the military?
I worked at Sabana Seca in the late 90's. In 1979 a bus load of USN sailors were ambushed by Los Macheteros - a Puerto Rican independence terrorist group. Two sailors died. I believe they were on their way to/or returning from a shift at the "Elephant Cage".
Yes, the bus which traveled between the base and elephant cage for shift changes was ambushed by ‘macheteros’. Memories of the attack remained fresh. Most personnel had already rotated out before my arrival. I worked inside the elephant cage from 1983-1986. Best job I ever had. Go Navy.
Hello everyone!
I’m sure 4000 years from now archeologists will find the ruins of these and label them temples because that’s the only thing archeologists can ever come up with. It’s a temple. Everything is a temple.
Nice video 👍
Thanks!
I did some research on these things years ago! Really interesting!
An excellent video, as always. It does bring one question: What is the US military using in its place?
These antennas were only for HF signals in the 3-30 Mhz range. Now, most military comms are much higher frequencies or satellite based, so there isn't much need for HF direction finding anymore.
FWIW: I was living in northern Dade County, Florida when Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992. The city of Homestead is located in southern Dade County.
Going through a Hurricane is similar to how a US Navy recruiter once described boot camp to me:
*_"It's not an orgasmic experience."_*
Just remember lewis you get nothing for two in the bed.general jim bowen,have a good week sir
😂👍🏻
Great research. Very interesting.
i wish they could have just kept these places up as a monument or something instead of demolishing them i also find it odd how canadians still use their stuff compared to america
Agreed
today a network of network based software defined radios are used
What was the one at NSGA Kamiseya Japan
Generations of SEAL candidates would run from BUDs in Coronado down to and around the elephant cage in Imperial Beach.
Gee how would you like to hook up with full us legal power 1500 watts for a contest to one of these
Would be great to know what kind of Hf receivers they are currently using for SIGINT purposes, any pics available somewhere? Thanks for these videos!
I was wondering the same thing. Probably racks of R390As then later R1051s? It would be amazing to have access to an array like that.
Most of the newer receivers are SDR and modular, I have been out of that business 20+ years so I am pretty dated as well. Pretty much what we see today, in the civilian world, had its roots in the technological developments funded by DARPA, NRL and the NSA.
Do all these decommissions equal a loss in capability and coverage or is there simply better means now?
3:15 Sonic fence from the TV show " Lost " .
Are you going to do a video on the smaller replacements, the AN/AX-16 PUSHER?
Augsburg is still active according wiki for BND
The elephant cage is not active