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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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] 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.