AN/FPS-24 Radar Tower, Mt. Umunhum, Los Gatos, CA, 2024.
Most of the pixels, none of the TV interference, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53796724938
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this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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This is a stitched imaged made from two captures with the Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR-Digaron-W lens, Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50), and a Cambo WRS 1250 camera, shifted left/right 15mm, producing a 230MP final image.
Note that the full resolution version isn't currently up on flickr due to a bug preventing the upload of very large images there. Currently a large (but reduced size, 100MP) version occupies a placeholder there.
From 1958 through 1980, this incongruous four story monolith was the centerpiece of the "Alameda Air Force Station", a long-range radar site that was part of NORAD's SAGE early warning system. The blast-hardened concrete building served as the platform for an FPS-24 radar system, a massive 120 foot wide reflector that emitted a 5 megawatt VHF pulse, continuously rotating at 5 RPM.
Notoriously, the signal disrupted TV and radio reception throughout the San Jose area.
It's unclear if the SAGE system would have actually been effective in detecting incoming bombers, which presumably would have employed radar jammers. Fortunately, we never found out.
The antenna was removed shortly after the site's decommissioning in 1980, but the building, a prominent local landmark visible from downtown San Jose, has been preserved.
I have mixed feelings about these cold war relics. On the one hand, they're artifacts of what was perhaps humanity's most dangerous folly to date, locking the world in a deadly game where the stakes only went up with each round. This doesn't seem like something to commemorate or celebrate.
On the other hand, these objects, many now destroyed or decayed, serve as visible evidence of just how close to oblivion we are willing to go. And looked at from the right angle, they have stories to tell.
@[email protected] So was there a big rotating antenna on top of that, then?
@[email protected] Yep. They removed that right after it was decomissioned.
@[email protected] There used to be a big Voice of America station near the dumb little town I grew up in, a fenced-off field of giant transmission towers, isolated out in the middle of a vast expanse of tomato fields.
While it was there, it always fleet like a chilling reminder of the stakes & the magnitude of the Cold War; but after it got taken down, I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic for it.
@[email protected] Jamming WAS particularly effective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wx6npt421c
@[email protected] For more on SAGE, see https://www.ll.mit.edu/about/history/sage-semi-automatic-ground-environment-air-defense-system
@[email protected] I'm reminded of the Russian Woodpecker that used to appear in short-wave bands back in the day (I had no idea what it was when I was a kid playing with a radio with a SW band).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar
@stacey_[email protected] yeah, the Duga site has long been on my list to visit, but that’s definitely impractical these days.