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AN/FPS-24 Radar Tower, Mt. Umunhum, Los Gatos, CA, 2024. (fedia.io)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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AN/FPS-24 Radar Tower, Mt. Umunhum, Los Gatos, CA, 2024.

Cold war era pixels, no longer likely to interfere with your TV reception, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/53796724938/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (14 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (12 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (9 children)

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] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

@[email protected] once as a teenager, I went camping at Rickett's Glenn state park, near Benton Air Force Communications Annex, part of the nuclear detection and reporting system.

Curious, my friend & I hiked through the woods to photograph the cool dome. Then we heard a voice from inside the fence: "should I arrest you... or give you lunch?"

The lone staffer in the facility invited us up and showed us how all the systems worked, along with decommissioned cold war equipment.