The AN/FPS-35 frequency diversity radar was a long range

search radar This is a list of different types of radar. Detection and search radars Search radars scan great volumes of space with pulses of short radio waves. They typically scan the volume two to four times a minute. The radio waves are usually less than a ...

used in the early 1960s. It was one of the largest air defense radars ever produced, with its antenna and supporting structure mounted on one of the largest

rolling-element bearing In mechanical engineering, a rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing,ISO 15 is a bearing (mechanical), bearing which carries a load by placing rolling elements (such as balls, cylinders, or cones) between two concentric, Groove ...

s in the world (with a ball pitch of 12 ft 7 inches in diameter.). In accordance with the

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

(JETDS), the "''AN/FPS-30''" designation represents the 30th design of an Army-Navy electronic device for fixed ground search radar. The JETDS system also now is used to name all

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

electronic systems.

Overview

Sperry Corporation Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs ...

built 12 long range radars (picking up objects 200 miles away) in the 1960s to succeed existing

Semi Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of mainframe computer, large computers and associated computer network, networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image ...

(SAGE) to provide enhanced electronic countermeasures (ECM). The systems operated at 420 to 450 MHz. The antennas weighed and had numerous problems. The concrete tower bases were high, with 5 floors, and square in side dimensions. The prototype was developed at the Thomasville Aircraft Control and Warning Station in

Thomasville, Alabama Thomasville is a city in Clarke County, Alabama, Clarke County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 3,649. Founded as a late 19th-century railroad town, it has transitioned over the course of ...

. The enclosed radar towers that supported all 12 of the FPS-35 antennas were prominent landmarks. All these radar towers were of the same basic design with 10 made primarily from concrete and two based on a steel frame structure (Baker and Finley). Only the radar tower at Baker has been demolished. The 23 radar towers used by the AN/FPS-24 and the AN/FPS-35 radar sets were of similar designs (concrete or steel frame) and were designed under the direction of the Rome Air Development Center (RADC). The radar tower at Thomasville has an RADC plaque next to the one from the Sperry Corporation. Only the AN/FPS-35 tower at Baker included a radome to protect the antenna. This radome was attached to a separate steel tower called a Radome Support Structure (RSS) that surrounded the radar tower to its full height of . With the antenna, the structure's total height is .

Montauk tower

All of the radars have been dismantled except for the one at Camp Hero State Park on the eastern tip of

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Montauk, New York Montauk ( ) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in East Hampton, New York, East Hampton and Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 Un ...

. It was the last to operate (January 1981) and the radar tower is the only one that still has an antenna on the roof and contains some of the radar set equipment and cabinets. The antenna was repaired with parts from the Sault Ste. Marie station after it closed in October 1979. The Montauk antenna is very corroded and can not be rotated. The structure was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2002. ''Note:'' This includes and Fishermen on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

and

Block Island Sound Block Island Sound is a marine sound in the open Atlantic Ocean, approximately wide, separating Block Island from the coast of mainland Rhode Island. On the west, it extends to Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, as well as P ...

lobbied to save it since the massive

radar tower A radar tower is a tower whose function is to support a radar facility, usually a local airport surveillance radar, and hence often at or in the vicinity of an airport or a military air base. The antenna is often continually rotating. In additio ...

was a better daytime landmark than the

Montauk Point Lighthouse The Montauk Point Light, or Montauk Point Lighthouse, is a lighthouse located adjacent to Montauk Point State Park at the easternmost point of Long Island in Montauk, New York. The lighthouse was the first to be built within the state of New Yor ...

. The 150-foot tower dominates the environs and can be seen from as far away as

Charlestown, Rhode Island Charlestown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 7,997 at the 2020 census. History Charlestown is named after King Charles II, and was incorporated in 1738. The area was formerly part of the town ...

, to the east (22 miles) and

Orient Point, New York Orient is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, United States. The CDP's population was 743 at the 2010 census. ''Orient'' and ''Orient Point'' are used almost interchangeably. However, Orient Poin ...

(20 miles) to the west. The Montauk radar has worked its way into an

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

that it was used in time travel experiments called the

Montauk Project The Montauk Project is a conspiracy theory that alleges there were a series of United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York, for the purpose of developing psychological warfare t ...

List of towers

* AL Thomasville * CA Boron * MI Sault Ste. Marie * MI Selfridge * NV Fallon * NY Montauk * ND Finley (steel tower, present) * ND

Fortuna Fortuna (, equivalent to the Greek mythology, Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Religion in ancient Rome, Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular thr ...

* PA Benton * VA Manassas * WI Antigo * OR Baker (steel tower, demolished)

References

External links

FAS.ORG list of radars
{{DEFAULTSORT:AN/FPS-035 Montauk, New York Ground radars Military radars of the United States Radars of the United States Air Force Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Suffolk County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, New York Military equipment introduced in the 1960s Military electronics of the United States

Overview

Montauk tower

List of towers

See also

References

External links