To the right of the bridge, in the foreground of the photo, were the electronic modules. This was the kingdom of the radicians and the raison d'etre for the whole show. There were 7 modules in total, all of which were larger than the standard modules. Just inside the 8 windows you see on the photo was a hallway that ran from one end to the other. Walking down this hall from left to right there would be 7 doors at intervals on your left, one for each equipment room. To gain access to this hall you had to punch in a security code on a key pad to open the hall door. The only personnel who usually came in to this area were the radicians and the military controllers.
Starting from left and proceeding to the right the rooms were:
Rowley Island was located about 50 miles slightly N of E of Hall Beach. It was the location of the Aux Site, FOX 1. This was the only location (I think) on the DEWline where two Aux, or an Aux and a Main site, did not have an I-site in between - there was only water in between. So the geography of the location demanded a slightly different configuration of equipment than usual. As I mentioned earlier, the I-sites usually housed the Doppler transmitters and the adjacent M or A-sites would house the corresponding receivers for each link. The solution arrived at in this instance was to keep the configuration at the A-site standard, ie, two receivers, and Fox Main would substitute for the missing I-site and house the transmitter. Hence the reason for this kit in the TTY repair room.
One final note before finally leaving Photo 1. If you look at the photo, just to the left of the radome and on the far side of the electronic modules, you will see a a vertical pole about 30' high. This was the LF Beacon antenna transmitting UX on 239 khz. This pole was also 68-45-25N 81-13-35W, the geographic coordinates designated as Hall Beach in 1961.
You might think the description of this photo has been a bit windy but it will save a lot of time later as I can now just make reference to all these things without having to explain.
Now for some more detailed familiarisation. I have another shot like this in another set where I will fill in some more detail but this one will do for starters.
THE SCENE
This is the Surveillance Room and, directly behind the console, separated by a light proof curtain, is the Data Centre occupied by the duty military controller for the FOX Sector. The first thing that you have to imagine is that this is in total darkness bar the scope and the indicator lights all over the console. Unfortunately my skills were not up to taking a lengthy time exposure and so I had to rely on the flash which rather destroys the eerie atmosphere.
The pose you see me in was typical of a Sunday night shift during my 4 hour stint on the console -ie, no traffic, commercial or military.
THE CONTROLS AND THEIR FUNCTION
HAMMERLUND SP600 RECEIVER
Above my head is a Hammerlund SP600 multiband receiver. It was there primarily for our pleasure but could be used as a backup receiver if necessary. During the quiet moments we would listen to the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Moscow etc and compare and contrast coverage of the same events. An interesting study in what would now be called 'spin' if ever there was. The BBC seemed always to tread the middle ground and was, ipso facto, our station of choice. In the winter months we could also pick up commercial radio stations from down south -Chicago, Winnipeg etc.
One night when Winnipeg was coming in well I went into the Communications Centre and sent a TTY message down to our gal in the hangar in Winnipeg and put in a request for a song. I can't recall what it was but she rang the radio station with the request and, a few minutes later, the DJ is saying that he has this request from some guys up in the NWT north of the Arctic Circle and can't believe it - not only that we are listening to them but that there was anybody up there at all! He played the song. Good fun.
One other station we picked up during the winter months really puzzled us the first time we heard it on the broadcast band (MW). It was playing all the latest rock and roll, the DJ was definitely American and the station was booming in - yet we hadn't heard it before. When the station identification was made this answered the question. 'This is KOLD, Thule, Your Tower of Power in the Far North'. We only picked them up in the dark period of winter Dec - Jan. If you haven't gathered already, the general rule was that the lower the transmission frequencies came in much better in the when not interfered with by sunlight.
Once I grew accustomed to the selectivity, sensitivity and controllability (if there is such a word) of receivers like the Hammerlund and the Collins 51N2B in the ham room, it really was frustrating, when back down south, to have a radio with just one tuning knob. Once you get used to tuning 2 RF, 1 IF and an Audio stage not to mention squelch control and sundry other little items, trying to tune in a weak station with only one control is infuriating.
TRACKING LOG TTY
Under the Hammerlund is an RO (Receive Only) TTY with a narrow roll of paper in it. This was activated whenever I submitted a 'track' to the data centre and used as a log for all console traffic to the data centre. It was in a semi sound proof enclosure so the clatter would not interfere with our air-to-ground traffic. More in a bit.
WEATHER INSTRUMENTS
To the left of the Hammerlund are the weather instruments. The three smaller circular instruments at the top are, from left to right, temperature, wind speed, wind direction all remoted from a thermometer and anemometer on top of the building. The larger circular instrument beneath them is the barometer. Above the lot and blanked out in the flash is a plastic sheet to record any requests for aviation weather by aircraft. It took about 30 sec to work up what was necessary if requested. I can't for the life of me recall what was behind the little glass door next to the barometer.
COMMUNICATION CONTROLS
Below the weather instruments the sequence of switches 2-11-1 from left to right, each with an indicator light (receive above and transmit below), were the remote controls for all the air-to-ground and ground-to-ground transmitters and receivers - HF, VHF, UHF, Mobile etc. When an aircraft called on 122.2 mhz, the civil VHF frequency, I would hear them on the speaker (I think it was on the other side of the console) and the indicator above the corresponding toggle switch would light. I would then pick up the hand set (when we were busy we could use it as a headset), depress the transmitter switch which would mute the speaker, put out the receive indicator above and light the transmit indicator below and respond through the handset. Etc for all of the others in this row. The single switch on the right activated the telephone if I wanted to call within the station, make an announcement over the PA system or call any other station on the DEWline.
ASIDE - COMMUNICATIONS FUN AND GAMES
Using the telephone and the lateral communications system you could ring any station E or W of you and beyond. We all knew this and frequently had occasion to dial 61 for CAM Main 500 miles to the W or 60 to ring DYE Main 500 miles to the E. One night I thought it would be fun to really test the whole system.
I dialled 61-61-61-61. The first 61 gave me CAM Main which gave me a dial tone enabling me to ring any extension on the site. I then dialled 61 again which gave me PIN Main and a dial tone etc. The 4th 61 gave me POW Main in Point Barrow, Alaska. At POW there was a rearward operator for whom we had the extension. I dialled that and asked for Elmendorf AFB near Fairbanks. I then asked the Elmendorf operator for McCord AFB near Seattle. I then asked the McCord operator for NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs. I then asked the NORAD operator Northern NORAD in Montreal. I then asked the NN operator for RCAF Goose Bay. I asked the Goose operator for Resolution Island (just S of Baffin Island in Hudson Straits. I then asked Resolution to patch me through to Brevoort Island just E of Baffin in Davis Strait. I then asked the Brevoort operator to patch me through to DYE Main.
When I got the DYE Main dial tone I dialled 61 which gave me the FOX Main dial tone. I then dialled the extension of the military controller in the next room. He knew what I had been doing and was waiting for the call. Hi, this is the console! Superb connection albeit about 10000 miles in length. It proved a point but although I am not sure what it was I had fun doing it.
Back to the console:
I am not sure now about the middle row of toggle switches, 6 + 3, but I think they were just more of the same, but I don't recall for sure.
At the bottom you will see two pairs of toggle switches surrounded by four lights and four buttons on each side. One switch of each pair was a transmit switch and the other a receive switch. Each of the 4 button/light pairs on each side of the pair of switches corresponded to a dedicated line to the console operator of each site in the sector or the data centre in the next room. It was, essentially, a big party line dedicated to the consoles of the sector. Using it the controller could talk to all of us at once. Individual console operators would use it to advise the adjacent site of a lateral flight about to enter their space.
If I wanted to talk to the console at FOX 1 I would depress the transmit switch and press the button corresponding to FOX 1 and a buzzer would ring and light a light at his console - and vice versa.
I don't recall what the four controls on the vertical panel to the left of the weather instruments and comm controls were for.
THE TAPE RECORDER
Below the 'desk' and under the Comms panel in vacant space was a Telefunken 8" reel to reel tape recorder. This was before cassettes had appeared on the scene. The idea was that this little beast would recall any conversations over the hand set for future reference. It was a glorious pain in the backside. Nobody was trained to fix the thing and it was continually jamming. Some of the more experienced guys had a go and it would then work for a while until it decided enough was enough and pack up again. When everyone else had given up I even spent several hours in the workshop with it one night to see if I could figure out what was going wrong. I figured I couldn't do any harm to it and treated it as yet another opportunity to learn something new. I met with no better success than the others. There was no backup unit for this and it was, in essence, disregarded by one and all. If it worked - fine. If not - fine. It was not on the schedule of reportable equipment (preventive and corrective maintenance log) and was just left to do its thing if it felt like it. This was to result in a certain amount of embarrassment at one point in the future, more of which later.
THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CONSOLE
Although not in shot, this was identical to the right with one exception. The space where the Hammerlund receiver is on the right was occupied by the electro sensitive pen apparatus which sprung to life if any aircraft were penetrating any of the E-W Doppler 'gates' between CAM-F and FOX Main or FOX Main and FOX 1. As I mentioned earlier, it didn't have to light up and ring a bell, as it did, because the smell was enough to get anybody's attention.
THE CENTRE OF THE CONSOLE
The layout in the centre was designed for two operators to work simultaneously, the one on the left on the upper beam and the one on the right the lower beam. We seldom did this as the lower beam was sufficient to cover most everything. Therefore, except when training a new guy, 99% of the time there was only one console operator per shift. The two guys on the shift each did 4 hours on the console and 4 hours doing preventive maintenance on their assigned kit and split the shift up as they felt best.
ABOVE THE UPPER PANEL
A later photo covers this better and I will go into detail then. We kept the equipment maintenance logs, GO-NO GO message pad, and one-time code authentication pads up here.
THE UPPER PANEL
In the centre is the station clock. Once each day we would 'hack' or synchronise the clock with the WWV time signal that was continually broadcast on 5, 10, 15 and 20 mhz by the US National Bureau of Standards. Then, whoever was on shift at 0800 would make an announcement over the PA at 0758 that all personnel on the station assigned the task should stand by for the daily time hack. Count down would begin at 0759 and 50 sec, by second, with 'hack!' announced on the hour. Keeping all station clocks synchronised was a priority item, especially in the communications centre.
Either side of the clock are two standard oscilloscopes which repeat any signals received on each beam of the radar. Any such signal would appear as a spike on base line across the diameter of the scope at a distance from the left corresponding to the target distance. These were not used for surveillance per se but handy when calibrating the main scopes.
I have delved into the recesses of my memory but I have had no response as to what the key hanging on the ring might have been for.
THE MAIN PANEL
The principal features here are, of course, the two surveillance scopes, left - upper beam, right - lower beam. Directly beneath each are a set of controls for focus, range, radalarm display, counter measures etc.
In the centre panel at the top was the IFF system (Identification Friend or Foe). This was replaced by a more sophisticated version towards the end of my tour with SIFF (Selective Identification Friend or Foe). It slotted into the same space but had a lot more features built-in, none of which I recall. What I do recall is that the SIFF box was the first transistorised unit anyone had seen and it was the subject of much examination during installation. This was the only transistorised kit at FOX Main when I left in May 62.
Below the IFF unit in the centre panel were the controls for elevating and depressing the antenna and switching to manual control of rotation from the standard speed of 1.25 rpm = 48 sec/sweep. For example, if the right, or lower beam went u/s for some reason, we could lower the angle of the upper beam, shift over to the left of the console and carry on while the guy on maintenance sorted out the problem. Whenever something like this happened - 2 or 3 times while I was there, NORAD had to be notified instantly as well as the adjacent AUX sites. The sector military controller did the former via his TTY and the IS-101 system. Like wise when the problem was solved and coverage back to normal.
As I mentioned earlier, operating in manual mode was a very, very delicate operation and, once on manual, the rotation speed would be controlled by the big knob to the lower right of the scope. The key was to get the knob (and hence its remote servo motor) turning at as close to 1.25 rpm as possible before switching to manual and then speed up or slow down - very gently. The image of a Greyhound bus directly overhead and under your control served to concentrate the mind greatly.
On the extreme right vertical panel you will see 6 bulbs at the top. These would light up if the radalarm system was turned on. I mentioned earlier that we usually had it turned off unless we had to turn away from the scope for any reason. If we did we turned the radalarms on. On the scope would appear 6 concentric rings, equally spaced from the centre to the outer rim of the scope. Any target penetrating one of these would light the corresponding light and ring a bell. As we were usually 'eyeballing' the scope all the time we seldom used this facility except when training a new guy. I don't recall what the bits and pieces on the lower part of this panel were for.
THE LOWER PANEL
This refers to the row of 14 knobs (3 to the left are obscured by my boots) on the narrow panel just above the flat surface of the 'desk' and below each scope. Whenever a target was detected on the scope, after 3 sweeps to determine range, speed and track, a report had to be sent to the Sector Controller - in the case of a Main Site this meant the next room. These 14 knobs were used to do this.
TARGET REPORTING
The display area of the scope was overlaid with lines of latitude and longitude and these are distinctly visible in the other console photo in Set 2 - photo 2-1.
The centre of the scope was 68-45-25N and 81-13-35W. If you look at Photo 2-1 , the latitude lines you see correspond to 66N just off the bottom of the scope, then 67N, 68N, 69N just above the centre, 70N and 71N. The lines of longitude range from 76W to the right (E) over to 87W to the left (W).
While the overlay was a convenient way of identifying the actual location of any target, using lat and lon was clumsy when trying to report this location. Therefore, while the overlay corresponded to lat and lon, an alphabetic 'georef' system was used to identify each rectangle bounded by two lines of lat and two of long in lieu. The whole of the arctic was divided up under this georef system and each rectangle of space on the scope could be identified by 4 letters. Within the rectangle two further digits would be used, much as on Ordnance Survey maps, to indicate E-W location and N-S location within the rectangle. So, with 4 letters and 2 digits a target's location could be pinpointed to within a mile or less.
When a target appeared the convention, as I mentioned above, was to wait for 3 x 48 sec sweeps and then submit a track report to the Sector Controller. Such an initial report would look as follows:
| @@XX | Station ID - automatically sent |
| ABCDXX | Target georef |
| 30 | Minutes past the hour |
| SW | Heading |
| 1 | Qty of target(s) |
| 1 | Altitude - in this case 10000' (a guess) |
| 2 | Speed - 200 knots |
| X or F | X = Initial, Amending or Follow-up report F = Target Faded |
The 14 knobs on the Lower Panel were rotated to indicate the requisite information. The first 6 knobs were for the georef, the next two for the time, etc. Once all the knobs were in position the transmit button to the right of the knobs was depressed and the message was sent to the Sector Controller with a copy printed on the RO (Receive Only) TTY to my right.
Hidden within the console was a whole mass of TTY type equipment and hundreds of relays. The whole process of message transmission was entrusted to this electromechanical maze which I undertook to figure out later on - more later.
When the controller received an initial tracking report he would then contact the reporting site on the party line to request further reports at 5 or 10 min intervals depending on the traffic type. He would have to-hand all civil and military flight plans, filed prior to departure with NORAD, for all aircraft intending to penetrate the DEWIZ - Distant Early Warning Identification Zone in any direction, N-S or S-N, and then correlate reported targets with the flight plans.
All aircraft planning to penetrate N-S had to do so within 10 minutes and 15 miles of their planned penetration. If they failed to do so, and did not refile en route, they would be reported to NORAD and rude words would be exchanged with their companies, or something like that. For all civil flights and MATS (Military Air Transport Service) flights the relevant flight plans were sent via TTY direct to the Sector Controller. For the SAC (Strategic Air Command) B-52 flights the flight plans were sent encrypted and therefore yours truly had sight of them before the controller. This was the only case when a console operator knew in advance of the time and penetration point of a flight. Otherwise we were all 'blind' which meant - pay attention my son.
THE 'DESK'
On the flat surface in front of me is the log in which I would enter all conversations and track reports during my shift. Examples of these are in my training course binder. I also had purchased a long stemmed Churchwarden pipe as well as a real monster with a 2' long stem and huge bowl. I could fill this up and, quite comfortably rest the bowl on the desk while puffing away.
HERE ENDETH CONSOLE LESSON 1
You will be relieved to hear that that ends your tour of the console - for the moment. When I come to Photo 2-1 I will add a few more bits and pieces which are more clearly visible on that shot.
Directly behind me in the Surveillance Room was the Master Patch Panel. This was a manual way of rerouting any of the lateral voice and TTY circuits to spare channels should we have a failure. We seldom had to use this as the FRC-45 was very reliable. The top of the two horizontal boxes to the right of the MPP was the equipment alarm system with an indicator for each equipment room. Each equipment room had its own alarm panel for all the kit installed therein. If a unit failed it would activate the corresponding alarm on the panel at the entrance to that room and the light and buzzer for the room on this unit. The console operator would then page the maintenance radician telling him to go to the faulty room. Upon entering he would check the room alarm panel which would identify the faulty kit, cancel the alarm, switch over to the backup kit, notify the console operator and then get on with sorting out the problem. All of this would be meticulously logged every step of the way - maybe this is where I picked up the 'logging' virus?! I can't recall what the lower unit was for but I think it was for voice communication with each of the equipment rooms.
PHOTO 1-13 THE SECTOR CONTROLLER
There were 7 military officers at the Main Site. 5 were RCAF Flying Officers and Flight Lieutenants and two were USAF liaison - Captain George Nicoloff shown here was one of the latter. Their boss, an RCAF Squadron Leader (one of the 5), didn't stand shifts in the Data Centre except if one of the others was ill.
George had been a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra before taking up flying C-124 and C-130 cargo aircraft. I was never clear as to how that transformation came about or how he came to be posted to the DEWline.
He is seated in the data centre which is located just beyond the surveillance room in the same module and separated by a sliding opaque screen to keep the light out of the surveillance room.
On the table under his left arm is a map of the entire FOX Sector with all the georef coordinates superimposed. He would keep track of all traffic by making notes on the plastic over the map. The three large dark circles beyond his arm represent CAM-4, CAM-5 and FOX Main. FOX-1,2,3 are off to the right of shot. The RO TTY behind him is where the tracking reports would appear when sent from any of the sites in the sector. The other two TTY's to the left of shot were his rearward communications with NORAD via the IS-101 system. This is where the clear text flight plans would arrive. The panel on the wall that looks like the comms panel on the console is just that. It is his equivalent and enabled him to talk with all consoles in the sector.
PHOTO 2-1 ANOTHER BUT CLEARER VIEW OF THE CONSOLE
As you are now an expert on much of what you are looking at I will concentrate on the few things I didn't cover on Photo 1-11.
CORRECTIONS/ADDITIONS TO PHOTO 1-11 NARRATIVE
First, a few things that have come to mind since. I think I have remembered what was behind the little glass door to the right of the barometer and my head - it was a barograph. Essential for barometric pressure record keeping and reporting on all sites without a DOT Weather Station but optional here. We dutifully changed the paper roll every 24 hours but I don't recall what we did with the recording.
Also, the 3 toggle switches to the left of the telephone (fully visible in 1-11 but here all but obscured by my right shoulder) I think were for driving the Telefunken recorder but I am not sure. Finally, the plastic sheet above the weather instruments for recording aviation weather is now legible with the aid of a magnifying glass. Note also, the tissue wadded up in the right handle of the lower beam scope. We would write aircraft ID and the like on the scope in grease pencil and erase the scribbles with this when no longer required. Now to the main differences on this photo as compared with 1-11 - the 'stuff' on top of the front of the console above the clock.
EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE DOCUMENTS
The binder on the right is the Equipment Release Log. An entry was made in this whenever any equipment taken off line for preventive or corrective maintenance and the backup units switched into prime mode. Another entry was made when full service was restored. The white rectangular book to the far left contained blank DEWline C&E Reports. One of these was filled in whenever PM or CM was done on piece of equipment identifying the fault, if any, and the parts used to correct it. These were left for the Lead Radician to process at the end of each shift. In this way every piece of equipment had a log of its entire service history. This, in turn, would indicate any trend towards repeated malfunction and possible need for major overhaul or replacement.
Now for the interesting bit.
DR. STRANGELOVE AND THE 'GO' - 'NO GO' MESSAGE
The Background
As I mentioned earlier, all SAC B-52 flight plans arrived in the Comm Centre encrypted and, whenever this happened, I had to drop everything (or get roused out of the sack if I was off shift) and get them decrypted ASAP. These flights originated from various SAC bases around the US but, in our area, most of them came from Westover AFB near Springfield, Mass. In the parlance, Westover was Nose Control and all the flights were designated Nose xx. All these SAC B-52's had the bomb on board and their mission was to fly up to one of several points north of Baffin Island and over Ellesmere Island (77N latitude roughly) and spend the bulk of their 12 hour flight orbiting this point awaiting instructions before being replaced and returning to base.
The Noah's Ark Message
Once every 24 hours all the military controllers at the 6 Main Sites on the DEWline would be given a coded message by NORAD to be broadcast by all the sites in their sector. The target audience was any B-52's in the area. The message would be sent to all 6 controllers simultaneously. They in turn would get on the party line to all the consoles in their sector, give them the message and standby for confirmation from each console.
Each console operator would grab the plastic covered message sheet (above the clock in Photo 2-1) and write the message in crayon on the long line at the top of the sheet and also about 2/3 the way down the sheet in the broadcast section. In this case it was 'Silver Cup Charlie'. He would also write, in the top section of the sheet, the Date-Time Group (DTG) given to him by the controller in the format: ddhhmmZ - day-hour-minute and the Z meant Zulu time or GMT which all military installations used. In this case it was 180610Z. Finally he would write in the authentication code given to him by the controller, in this case 'KP' or kilo papa.
He would then grab the grey book (behind the C&E Report book on the left top of 2-1 - the one with 'KA' just visible. In it were the KAA-29 one-time pads of voice authorisation codes. There was a two letter alphabetic code for each 1 min period of time covering about 3 months. He would check 'KP' against the DTG or 180610Z and, if ok, verify to the controller that he has accepted the message.
Once all 29 console operators had received and accepted the message the next stage was for each, starting in the west and working east, to broadcast this message blind for the benefit of any B-52 traffic in the area.
Transmission would begin in POW Sector and the station furthest west, LIZ-2, would be the first to go. The POW controller would be on the party line with all his consoles following proceedings very closely. When LIZ-2 had completed transmission he would buzz the LIZ-3 console and LIZ-3 would transmit, then POW Main, POW-1 etc to POW-3.
When POW Sector had finished the Military Controller would pass the ball to the BAR Controller at BAR Main who would repeat the process for his sector, from west to east, and then transfer to CAM Sector, then the same again and on to FOX Sector and, finally DYE Sector. There was some sort of 'lottery' among the military controllers to be won by the sector that completed their transmissions quickest. FOX won on more than one occasion.
When he knew it was about to be his turn, each console operator would enter the current Date-Time Group (in this case 180628Z) in the broadcast or lower section of the message sheet. Then, for that minute of that hour of that day he would consult the KAA-29 sheets for the two letter authentication code and enter that on the message sheet below the DTG, in this case 'TA' or tango alpha. He was now ready to transmit blind when his turn came. When, sitting on the console at FOX Main, the Controller would alert us to a forthcoming Noah's Ark message and the console operator would do as I outlined above. When he received the buzz from CAM-5 accompanied by 'Over to you FOX' the message transmission would begin on UHF frequency 236.6 mhz - the one used by military traffic. To save your eyes, the actual message on the message sheet in photo 2-1, the most recent blind transmission to have been made, is the message on the lower part of the sheet after 'A' and is as follows:
'Skyking, Skyking this is Staghound this is Staghound, do not answer do not answer, break, break - Silver Cup Charlie - Time is 180628 Zulu - Authentication is Tango Alpha (TA)
Then he would repeat all of the above again and sign off with 'Out' at which point he would buzz FOX-1 and say 'Over to you FOX-1'. Et cetera as above and, when DYE Sector had finished, the broadcast of the Noah's Ark Message was complete.
THE MESSAGE FORMAT
The 'NO-GO' message, as you have seen, was in the format of two random words and an alphabetic character phoneticised. Although, happily, I never saw a 'GO' message I understood that its format would be three phoneticised letters.
THE 'MESSAGE' AND NORMAL B-52 TRAFFIC
Although I was in the unique position of knowing roughly when the northbound B-52's would appear it was still always a bit of surprise because, quite often they would call in before appearing on the scope. The UHF receiver lamp would light up and a voice, usually with a heavy southern accent but rendered hollow sounding and rasping due to oxygen masks, would come over the speaker and the exchange between us would run something along the following lines:
I would then climb onto 236.6 again and transmit a slight variation of the previously broadcast Noah's Ark Message:
HB: Nose 42, Nose 42 this is Staghound, this is Staghound - message is Silver Cup Charlie - Time is 180628 Zulu - Authentication is Tango Alpha (TA)
Then, as with the broadcast message, I would repeat the entire message and authentication again and close with 'Out'. After a pause of a few seconds a response would come back along the lines of:
OTHER MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC - PLUS FUN AND GAMES
MILITARY
We would frequently get Military Air Transport Service (MATS) aircraft, usually out of Dover, Delaware, northbound for Thule. These would be C-124's or C-130's carrying cargo and personnel. These guys were the 'truck drivers' of USAF and a lot looser than their SAC counterparts. We would chat quite a bit with them.
Bob Hope
On one occasion when I was on the pilot said they had Bob Hope and an entertainment troupe on board. I said I didn't believe him. He said, wait a minute. He got Bob to come to the cockpit and I had the pleasure of matching wits with the best in the business for about 3 minutes. I managed a bit of repartee but soon dissolved into laughter at his remarks. Flt. Lt. Finch (I think it was he) was on duty in the Data Centre that night and I shouted to him to come into the console room while they were fetching Bob. He couldn't believe it either. Let's say that, if it wasn't him talking to us, it was a damn good impersonation. It was all a bit of light relief on an otherwise quiet night.
Phone Calls Home
On several other occasions when I was talking with the pilots I indicated that I came from New Jersey and would they mind making a phone call to my home when they got back to Delaware. No problem. My mother received at least two such calls that I can remember informing her that Number 1 Son was thriving in the arctic. She was quite taken aback on the first one wondering why a USAF officer might be calling her. On the second one she had the drill down pat.
COMMERCIAL
We had quite a few commercial flights passing through at regular intervals. When you came on shift you pretty much knew, after a while, that such and such a BOAC or KLM flight en route to Los Angeles or Edmonton would make an appearance. On Photo 2-1 I happened to be handling one such flight - a BOAC DC-8 from London, via Greenland, to LA. They all operated on VHF (122.2 mhz) and, with the kit they had on board, would boom in over the speaker when they made their DEWIZ penetration report inbound or were just calling for a position check outbound. Generally we would make a deal with them that, in return for 10 min position fixes they would bring one of the stewardesses into the cockpit to have a chat with us. On one evening, Glynn was having a quiet time in the Comm Centre so came down to the console for a bit of diversion. A KLM flight from Edmonton to Amsterdam was overhead and I prevailed upon the Captain to do the usual. Glynn was going out on R&R shortly and would be passing through Amsterdam en route to Vienna. When chatting with the stewardess he said he would meet her for coffee in Amsterdam the following week - and he did! So much for amusing interludes in the arctic night.
UNKNOWNS
I only ever had one peculiar track that I could not account for. With nothing going on one night shift, a faint target paint appeared in the SW on the lower beam. I checked the upper beam and the target was more distinct. Then another paint indicating the target was heading NE at about 500 mph. Then one more faint paint on the upper beam and nothing. I reported this to the Data Centre. The controller had no flight plan that corresponded to such a flight. It was coming from the S so no great problem - but what the hell was it? After discussing it for a few minutes we guessed it might have been a U2 climbing to 60000', well above airways and at the limit of our capabilities. They never filed flight plans to my knowledge as they flew so high and we assumed he was on an 'air testing' mission sampling the upper atmosphere after Russian nuclear tests. All guesswork on our part though.
TRAINEES
Unbeknown to the new guys that arrived on site, in the Data Centre was a simulator used to paint targets on the scope of the console and give the guys practice in tracking and reporting. We were all introduced to it in the same way. You'd be sitting there watching the lower beam on a quiet shift, usually your first official one, accompanied by one of the more experienced radicians. He would take to wandering around, going in to the Data Centre to chat with the Controller or whatever. The point was that his occasional absence was not worthy of note - he was there or thereabouts should he be required for advice.
Then, during one of these absences, a paint would appear on the northern part of the screen above the DEWIZ. OK, no problem, the new guy would make a report after three paints as per his training. But then the second paint would appear and its distance from the first would indicate a speed of circa 1000 mph. The experienced radician and the controller would just be sitting in the Data Centre waiting for the shout to go up from the console. It was fascinating how different guys reacted. I certainly shouted for his nibs to return when he did it to me. The problem was that the Controller was in on the whole thing demanding 2 minute tracks and making comments like 'possible bogie' etc. It would really get the juices flowing for the new guy. I soon caught on to the scam, as all the others did, but it didn't reduce the pleasure of inflicting the torment on the next new guy to arrive!
Here DOES endeth the lesson on the console - I'm sure you'll be happy to hear. Now for a quick look at the radar room.
PHOTO 2-2 THE FPS-19 RADAR ROOM
In this shot I am in the Radar Room adjacent and immediately to the E of the Surveillance Room. What you see is the actual radar receiver for the lower beam but the big scope, which is remoted to the console, is covered by a hood. The lower beam transmitter is to my far right and the corresponding units for the upper beam behind me.
As I mentioned earlier, we could, if required, take a picture of the radar scope at intervals of 1-10 sweeps as desired. The black box attached to the top of the hood is the camera and hence the need for the hood. To peer in I simply flip a lever to open the viewer and see exactly what appears on the console.
The multiple units to the lower right are the radalarm units. As I also mentioned, if these are switched on six concentric circles at increasing distances from the centre appear on the scope. Any target penetrating one of these circles triggers both a an audio and visual alarm to get the console operator's attention. Seldom used as we were always eyeballing the scope.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
THE FPS-19 RADAR TRANSMITTER CABINET
Please forward your comments to Paul Kelley at" kelley@lleine.fsnet.co.uk
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Paul, you mention in several places that you fail to remember what some of the console switches were for. I've included (to the best recollection of my rapidly failing memory) some comments about these switches as they were configured in the Alaska Sector:
1. The plastic panel next to the barometer originally contained a pen recorder that functioned with the fluttar radar going east. There was an identical panel on the left console for the fluttar radar going west. It is very possible that after deactivation of the I-sites, a pressure recorder was mounted inside. Since we had a US Weather outpost at Barter Island, we were not required to have local recorders in Alaska.
2. The controls (starting on the bottom) on the slim panel to the left of the barometer are: a. Main A-C circuit breaker for the console!! It was fitted with a long slender bolt which held it in the ON position. This was added after it became obvious that accidental console shut-downs would continue to occur without it.
b. Power switch for overhead room lights (on the left console, I think this was the overhead U-V light power switch).
c. The top two knobs were dimming controls for console indicator lamps and for console indirect room lighting.
3. The 2-11-1 channel switch row was evidentally configured differently in Alaska: The first two were for mobile radio channel, only the first was used. The next 11 were all the UHF/VHF/HF channels. The single one to the right was the LF Radio Beacon channel.
4. The 6-3 row of channel switches, in the 3 group, the left was the PBX, the center was the station P.A. and the right was the on-station order wire system. Each equipment room, plus several selected locations (chow hall, hangar, runway apron shack, etc.) had a handset on an on/off hook cradle. No dial was included.
The order wire system allowed anyone at the selected locations to lift the handset and automatically be connected to the console operator. An additional feature was that the console operator could manipulate the console channel keys such that the caller would be patched into the mobile radio channel or an air/ground radio channel. The caller then used the PTT switch in his handset to do a two-way conversation with an aircraft or mobile unit.
5. As Paul stated, the bottom pairs of toggle switches were the party lines East and West with a signaling button for each site in the sector and the data center. The black buttons keyed a selective tone generator which would signal only one of the many sites tied into the common party line voice channel. Exception: One of the buttons keyed all sites. However, in Alaska we shut down the data centers early in the game, about 1962-63 time frame, and the Alaskan Norad Control Center (NCC) at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage took over data center duties. Because of this the party line switches were configured so that the left set (only the left switch of the two, and upper left button were used) would signal all sites in the sector to the west of you. The right set (only the left switch of the two, and lower right button were used) would signal all sites in the sector to the east of you, including the NCC.
6. In Alaska, the key ring hanging on the knob was for night access to the supply facility which was only manned during the day.
7. On the panel containing the six vertical radalarm lights, the inverted "U" device was a synchro indicator that showed radar beam elevation. Directly below that you see two lamps with a toggle switch under them. The switch selected either "pencil" or "cosecant" radar beam antenna configuration. It is this switch that caused movement of the antenna vanes that interleaved with the fixed vanes on the lower 25% of the antenna reflector up in the radome. The lamps indicated either pencil or cosecant selection.
