[MRCA] Airport Beacon

[Robert Flory]

An additional detail:  It is one-sided, which is to say that it is red
only, nothing on the other side.  

Rob


> [Original Message]
> From: Al Klase <al at ar88.net>
> To: Military Radio Collectors Association <mrca at mailman.qth.net>
> Date: 8/5/2009 10:35:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [MRCA] MRCA Mini Meet Photos
>
> Hi Tom,
>
> We, that is Infoage, would like to get a handle of the beacon.  I'd 
> assumed it was an airways beacon, but Breck observed that one side is 
> red rather than green, making it an "airport" beacon.
>
> The Infoage folks have indications that it was erected in the WWII era 
> and that there was a second one at the AT&T test site in Deal, NJ a few 
> miles away.
>
> Infoage (http://www.infoage.org) is at the former U.S. Army Camp Evans, 
> as in Evans Signal Laboratory, the Army's center for radar development 
> from 1942 onward.
>
> We do know that they flew Hueys into this site to install radar in the 
> 1960's, but believe the beacon predates this by at least 15 years.
>
> If someone can check old records or aeronautical charts, we'd appreciate 
> hearing the results.
>
> The beacon is slated for demolition by the community college that 
> controls that part of the site.  Infoage is free to move it to a save 
> location, but it's hard to muster the resources to do that.  It might be 
> different if we better understood it's historical significance.
>
> Anybody have a 100-foot crane?
>
> Al
>
> Clarke, Tom AIR4.0P NATOPS wrote:
> > Hi Breck,
> > 
> > Sure looks like you guys had a great time!
> > 
> > Regarding the airport-less rotating beacon - This was probably left
over from the old pre-WW2 "Lighted Airway" system. These were replaced by
the four course radio beacons, and then the currently used VOR system.
> > 
> > See
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/navigation/POL13.htm
> > 
> > I just returned from a trip through Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana,
Idaho and Utah and saw several of those towers out in the middle of the
prairie.  Some still had the rotating beacon and course alignment lights
(green spotlights that aligned with the airway) and some were just lonely
towers.  There is only one actually in operation, and it is maintained for
historical purposes.  It is in Great Falls, Montana.  Another has been
restored in Oak Ridge, TN, but I don't think it is lighted.
> > 
> > That's probably more than you wanted to know!
> > 
> > 73 de Tom/W4OKW
> > Across the Bay in Southern MD.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
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> -- 
> Al Klase - N3FRQ
> Jersey City, NJ
> http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/
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