Moving The Antenna

Contributed by Larry D. Whitten

When I arrived in Dec. 1957, we had an MPS-7 for a search radar and a TPS-10D for height finder. During the late spring of 1958, We changed from the MPS-7 to a GPS-4 search radar. We used the same antenna, and used the truck frames that the equipment was mounted in. We put the frames inside the radar maint shop, end to end. We hired a Libyan construction firm to build the antenna supports and to move the antenna from the rear of the Ops building around to the front. They used to cranes on treads to move the antenna and the cranes were so small they had a hard time moving the antenna. They dropped it when they picked it up off the supports, the would pick it up, move about 5 feet, then drop it and get another grip and move a few feet again. It took 2 days to move the antenna around to the front. When they tried to lift the antenna and put it on the new support pillars, it was a scary maneuver. Those little cranes barely had enough power to get the antenna up. But finally they made it.