contributed by Larry Jones

[The Montauk tropo site received radar data from Texas Tower No. 3 (TT-3)]

In 1958 I returned from Higashi-Fuchu (5AF Hq) and go to microwave radio school at Keesler AFB, MISS. The equipment was the Philco CMT-4 and CLR-6. We were required to take an additional 3 weeks of fundamentals on radar, because the microwave equipment used waveguides, the frequency, etc. When I got to `sets` I also received my assignment, to the Tropo Site at Montauk. I learned that the 773d did not have microwave. So, I tried desperately to get some additional tropo training while at Keesler. I ever volunteered to do it on my own time -- but those in leadership positions just didn`t want to bend the rules! Doesn`t this sound familiar?

Incidentially, there was a high attrition rate on trainees in the basic electronics course -- the 3 week radar fundamentals blew a few out of the water.

Home to Florida for vacation and then north to LI -- I arrived on July 4th or 5th, 1959. So I started training at the tropo site in equipment I had never seen. And remember I was new to electronics. The 10 KW amplifiers were easy -- did not require much maintenance. We also did a major modification and this helped us all to quickly learn the transmitter group. All of us were very weak on the Lenkurt (sp) 45BX2 carrier equipment. Early on I was making some signal level checks with a fellow on T3 and I told him I was new and he would have to talk me thru the alignment/test. Unfortunately, I cant remember his name -- a really fine guy who told me he was a man of color. That didn`t bother me at all! He taught me the carrier equipment over the maintenance circuit (order wire) -- I went from being the `dummy` in the section to being the `expert.` What an experience for me. That fellow on T3 will never know how much I appreciated his patience as he trained me across the ocean miles from T3 to Montauk. The TROPO was definitely two way communication -- I was also schooled later on the ACE HIGH system (NATO) and spent 3 months south of Rome, Italy going to tropo school. Lets see: Marconi transmitter, french carrier equipment, etc. This was also a very interesting assignment.

FPS-35 Spurious Signal

Another story about the Tropo Site and the AN/FPS-35 radar. As the Sperry engineers were doing their final checks, they noticed a spurious signal on their radar....where I don`t remember. I was on duty when two engineers visited the site and wanted to know about our 4 exciters, did we have the RF shield covers on, etc. I took them to the exciter bay and told them that when the REL engineers originally installed the equipment the RF shield covers were left. We put the covers back on per the request from Sperry. Guess what? The interference went away. It amazed me that such a small signal (milli or microvolts) could cause problems a few thousand yards away.