Texas Tower
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Texas Tower
The Texas Towers were a set of three radar facilities off the eastern seaboard of the United States which were used for surveillance by the United States Air Force during the Cold War. Modeled on the offshore oil drilling platforms first employed off the Texas coast, they were in operation from 1958 to 1963. After the collapse of one of the towers in 1961, the remaining towers were closed due to changes in threat perception and out of a concern for the safety of the crews. Planning Upon re-formation of the Air Defense Command in 1951 to oversee the nation's developing surveillance radar network, there was concern that shore-based radars along the east coast provided insufficient warning time. A 1952 report from MIT's Lincoln Laboratory looked into the possibility of extending radar coverage by building platforms in the Atlantic using offshore oil drilling technology. They concluded that a set of such platforms, equipped with radars, could extend coverage several hundred miles o ...
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Texas Tower 2
Texas Tower 2 (ADC ID: TT-2) was a former United States Air Force Texas Tower General Surveillance Radar station, first operational in 1955. It was located east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in . The tower was closed in 1963 and dismantled. Located on Georges Bank, Texas Tower 2 was one in a series of manned radar stations that were so named because they resembled the oil-drilling platforms of the Gulf of Mexico. Air Defense Command (ADC) estimated that the Texas Towers would help extend contiguous East Coast radar coverage some seaward. In terms of Soviet military capabilities, this would provide the United States with an extra 30 minutes of warning time in the event of an incoming bomber attack. History Texas Tower 2 began construction in 1955 at Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. In June 1955, it was successfully floated and towed to its site east of Cape Cod. Beginning in December 1955 enough of the structure was complete that one AN/FPS-3 search radar and two ...
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Air Defense Command
Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inactivated in 1950, reactivated in 1951, and then redesignated ''Aerospace'' rather than ''Air'' in 1968. Its mission was to provide air defense of the Continental United States (CONUS). It directly controlled all active measures, and was tasked to coordinate all passive means of air defense. Air defense during World War II Continental United States air defense forces during World War II were initially under the command of the four air districts – Northeast Air District, Northwest Air District, Southeast Air District, and Southwest Air District. The air districts were established on 16 January 1941, before the Pearl Harbor attack. The four air districts also handled USAAF combat training with the Army Ground F ...
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AN/FPS-3
The AN/FPS-20 was a widely used L band early warning and ground-controlled interception radar system employed by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command, the NORAD Pinetree Line in Canada, the USAF CONAD in the continental United States, and a variety of other users. The design started life as the Bendix AN/FPS-3 in 1950, was upgraded to the FPS-20, then spawned over a dozen different variants as additional upgrades were applied. The FPS-20 formed the backbone of the US air defense network through the early Cold War with over 200 units deployed. Most FPS-20 sites were replaced by modern equipment in the late 1960s, although a number were turned over to the FAA, modified for air traffic control use, and became ARSR-60s. The first AN/FPS-3 arrived in December 1950, slated for installation at Eniwetok Atoll to control aircraft involved in the atomic bomb tests of early 1951. Over the next few years, 48 FPS-3s were installed to replace older systems in the Lashup Radar Network ...
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762d Radar Squadron
76 or Seventy-Six may refer to: Common uses * 76 (number) * One of the years 76 BC, AD 76, 1776, 1876, 1976, 2076 Places * Seventy Six, Kentucky * Seventy-Six, Missouri * Seventy-Six Township, Iowa (other), several places Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Seventy-Six'' (novel), an 1823 American novel by John Neal * ''76'' (album), the debut album of Dutch trance producer and DJ Armin van Buuren * 76'' (comics), a 2007 comic book limited series by Image Comics * 76'' (film), a 2016 film starring Ramsey Nouah and Rita Dominic Brands and enterprises * 76 (gas station) 76 (formerly Union 76) is a chain of gas stations located within the United States. The 76 brand is owned by Phillips 66. Unocal, the original owner and creator of the 76 brand, merged with Chevron Corporation in 2005. History The Union O ..., gas station chain in the United States See also * * List of highways numbered {{Numberdis ...
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Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S. As defined by the Cape Cod Commission's enabling legislation, Cape Cod is conterminous with Barnstable County, Massachusetts. It extends from Provincetown in the northeast to Woods Hole in the southwest, and is bordered by Plymouth to the northwest. The Cape is divided into fifteen towns, several of which are in turn made up of multiple named villages. Cape Cod forms the southern boundary of the Gulf of Maine, which extends north-eastward to Nova Scotia. Since 1914, most of Cape Cod has been separated from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal. The canal cuts roughly across the base of the peninsula, though small portions of the ...
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Georges Bank
Georges Bank (formerly known as St. Georges Bank) is a large elevated area of the sea floor between Cape Cod, Massachusetts (United States), and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (Canada). It separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean. The origin of its name is obscure. The 1610 Velasco map, prepared for King James I of England, used the name "S. Georges Banck", a common practice when the name of the English patron saint, St. George, was sprinkled around the English-colonized world. By the 1850s, it was known simply as Georges Bank. Physical environment Georges Bank is the most westward of the great Atlantic fishing banks. The now-submerged portions of the North American mainland are comprised in the continental shelf running from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to Georges. Georges Bank was part of the North American mainland as recently as 12,000 years ago. Roughly oval in shape, Georges Bank measures about 149 miles (240 kilometres) in length by 75 miles (120 kilometr ...
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New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, fifth smallest by area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, tenth least populous, with slightly more than 1.3 million residents. Concord, New Hampshire, Concord is the state capital, while Manchester, New Hampshire, Manchester is the largest city. New Hampshire's List of U.S. state mottos, motto, "Live Free or Die", reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its state nickname, nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is well known nationwide for holding New Hampshire primary, the first primary (after the Iowa caucus) in the United States presidential election ...
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Parabolic Antenna
A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or parabolic dish. The main advantage of a parabolic antenna is that it has high directivity. It functions similarly to a searchlight or flashlight reflector to direct radio waves in a narrow beam, or receive radio waves from one particular direction only. Parabolic antennas have some of the highest gains, meaning that they can produce the narrowest beamwidths, of any antenna type. In order to achieve narrow beamwidths, the parabolic reflector must be much larger than the wavelength of the radio waves used, so parabolic antennas are used in the high frequency part of the radio spectrum, at UHF and microwave ( SHF) frequencies, at which the wavelengths are small enough that conveniently-sized reflectors can be used. Parabolic antennas are u ...
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Microwave Transmission
Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by electromagnetic waves with wavelengths in the microwave frequency range of 300MHz to 300GHz(1 m - 1 mm wavelength) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Microwave signals are normally limited to the line of sight, so long-distance transmission using these signals requires a series of repeaters forming a microwave relay network. It is possible to use microwave signals in over-the-horizon communications using tropospheric scatter, but such systems are expensive and generally used only in specialist roles. Although an experimental microwave telecommunication link across the English Channel was demonstrated in 1931, the development of radar in World War II provided the technology for practical exploitation of microwave communication. During the war, the British Army introduced the Wireless Set No. 10, which used microwave relays to multiplex eight telephone channels over long distances. A link across the English Channel allowe ...
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Tropospheric Scatter
Tropospheric scatter, also known as troposcatter, is a method of communicating with microwave radio signals over considerable distances – often up to and further depending on frequency of operation, equipment type, terrain, and climate factors. This method of propagation uses the tropospheric scatter phenomenon, where radio waves at Ultra high frequency, UHF and Super high frequency, SHF Frequency, frequencies are randomly scattered as they pass through the upper layers of the troposphere. Radio signals are transmitted in a narrow beam aimed just above the horizon in the direction of the receiver station. As the signals pass through the troposphere, some of the energy is scattered back toward the Earth, allowing the receiver station to pick up the signal. Normally, signals in the microwave frequency range travel in straight lines, and so are limited to ''Line-of-sight propagation, line-of-sight'' applications, in which the receiver can be 'seen' by the transmitter. Communicat ...
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Radome
A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna (radio), antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna electronic equipment from view. They also protect nearby personnel from being accidentally struck by quickly rotating antennas. Radomes can be constructed in several shapes spherical, geodesic dome, geodesic, planar, etc. depending on the particular application, using various construction materials such as fiberglass, polytetrafluoroethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-coated fabric, and others. When found on fixed-wing aircraft with forward-looking radar, as are commonly used for object or weather detection, the nose cones often additionally serve as radomes. On aircraft used for airborne early warning and control (AEW&C), a rotating radome, often called a "rotodome", is mounted on the top of the fuselage for 360-degr ...
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Height Finder
A height finder is a ground-based aircraft altitude measuring device. Early height finders were optical range finder devices combined with simple mechanical computers, while later systems migrated to radar devices. The unique vertical oscillating motion of height finder radars led to them also being known as nodding radar. Devices combining both optics and radar were deployed by the U.S. Military. Optical In World War II, a height finder was an optical rangefinder used to determine the altitude of an aircraft (actually the slant range from the emplacement which was combined with the angle of sight, in a mechanical computer, to produce altitude), used to direct anti-aircraft guns. Examples of American and Japanese versions exist. In the Soviet Union it was usually combined with optical rangefinders. Radar A height finder radar is a type of 2-dimensional radar that measures altitude of a target. The operator slews the antenna toward a desired bearing, identifies a target ec ...
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