WHITE ALICE

[Gil Boyd]

You guys in Canada will know all about White Alice, probably go to one or all of the features on your holidays.
I watched it on Abandoned Engineering last night on TV fou8nd it fascinating, although we knew NORAD had a system up there in the frozen parts of Alaska. Trucks and DUKS left up there. What a feat of engineering in the coldest parts of the planet in the day 1956.

Radio for Defense: Down the Rabbit Hole with White Alice

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[browningautorifle]

I remember when guys took temporary duty at the radar sites...later getting a bar on our general service medal for that duty. No way I wanted any, like doing a six month tour of duty in a single OP overseas.

[Surpmil]

Considering the sail effect and the likely winds in the area, the ground-anchoring system must be quite something.

[BillPredeaux]

There was an identical set of these antenna on a mountain in Scotland just above the radar site where I served in the 60's. We were looking for "Bears" coming over the north pole. We knew it as Ace High forward scatter. Don't know about being manned by 20 men, ours was looked after by two RAF Chief Technicians!

[BEAR]

Attachment 113177Attachment 113178Attachment 113179Attachment 113180Attachment 113181Attachment 113182Protection of the DEW Line sites in Alaska was part of the Airborne units mission. My unit made a jump onto the DEW line site on Barter Island on the Arctic coast of Alaska in 74. I have no idea how we were to protect it. Its flat, barren with no cover or concealment. We would have been sacrificial pawns if the SHTF. Here's some pictures:

[bombdoc]

We used to use Tropo Scatter to run the military communication channels between UK and Germany between the late 50s and the 80s. I remember the huge dishes on the hill behind Dover.. everyone thought they were Radar, but they were only used for comms. The system gradually improved in performance over the decades due to the quantity of space junk in the troposphere increasing the reflection.

They dragged the Tropo gear out of storage for GW 1 to bridge the gap between Saudi and Kuwait. It all got refurbished, but it was not needed as satcom combined with tactical trunk networking with Ptarmigan was good enough! The growth of digital comms during GW 1 was exponential!

[browningautorifle]

Here's some pictures:

I had almost forgotten what it looked like up there, thanks for that. The hanger pictured was probably where I first came to ground in that frozen land... You'd likely have been descended on by Russian paratroops too...Jumpers, you know what they can be like.

[30Three]

You'd have thought they would give them white tent's to blend in. Probably be better off in an Igloo!!

[browningautorifle]

white tent's to blend in

We used parachutes to cover and cam them. They also were used in forest and if you can imagine a stark white tent in green forest...it's easier to break up the green in white background. In the case above, there's no hiding anyway.

[Gil Boyd]

Saw the two DUKW's sat there. Wonder if anybody has checked them over with a fresh battery?