Walnut Ridge AFS, AR


contributed by Marv Franz.

I remember that the GEEIA team and site "folks" moved the MPS-11 antenna and tower by "laying" the antenna down, still attached to the tower, onto the bed of a dump truck. The tower was made of tubular aluminum (I remember it had a "AB-" something nomenclature but that escapes me as well). Being a young sergeant at the time and interested in getting the job done, some of things that were done during this move were really not the best of practices. I remember the move rather vividly in that we tied a hand dolly to the tower base and was part of this dump truck, antenna, and tower "convoy" moving toward the concrete pad where the MPS-11 would be relocated. The individual manning the dolly did the steering of the tower base into place. Oddly enough, it got the job done but this unusual practice did not find its way into the T.O. 31Z-series Standard Installation Practices (SIP).

The FPS-6 was located on a short temperate tower, of the structural galvanized steel variety. The antenna was not in a radome. The FPS-6 radar was in an enclosure on the deck below the antenna. Again, this antenna tower had a nomenclature but I can`t remember its "AB-" number. In trying to remember whether the FPS-6 was relocated as well, I do know that as a team, we did a lot of cable laying and pulling in the wooden cable troughs that were on site leading into the operations building. We also put on a lot of connectors on these cables for both the radars. With that, one could assume that the FPS-6 was also relocated at that time.

Sorry about not being more specific. Thirty-seven years is a long time ago.

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