Ham Radio - The giant Collins HF discone antenna at the Titan Missile Museum.

Correct. They were not informed as to target. The vast majority of targets were subterranean command complexes and the 9-MT warheads were designed to seismically collapse the overburden and crush the bunkers.

 

Keep in mind that the 1960s era SIOP was designed to run over 4 to 5 weeks according to USAF General Curtis LeMay. ICBM strikes, SLBM strikes, and medium to heavy bomber strikes in the strategic venue had to be carefully timed as scheduled to provide warhead/bomb damage assessments, refueling and rearming of strike packages, losses of personnel reassignment of aircraft basing throughout the US and foreign bases, involvement of UK nuclear forces and their operational cycling, etc.

Counterforce v. countervalue targeting was a factor as well.

 

I still have the card! It was an American Eagle on a cool grey faux leather paper. Classy card, classy station!

 

Great antenna. Used it many a time during alerts for SSB on Giant Talk.

 

Were you ever stationed at a missile near Center Hill, just west of Searcy? In the late 70s I went to a catholic boarding school that was located about a mile from a missile silo. If memory serves, you could see the discone from the highway... & the road to the silo was clearly marked; passed by it anytime we traveled into town. We heard all these stories that years later I thought were a bunch of made up teenage boy crap... until I went to the museum there near Tucson and found out, NO! it wasn't bull crap at all, it was all true! I went there in 2018... the road to the old silo isn't even marked any more. Just a gate put up, but I did find the old markers. All around it are fracking sites now. You would never know the silo was ever there if you didn't have foreknowledge. And after what happened in 1980 at Damascus AR with the near detonation... Wow, lucky I/we are still alive. (If anyone reading doesn't know the story, check out the PBS documentary Command And Control. )

 

Here is the spare popup vertical at the Titan II Museum... (please forgive the low pixel rate... took this in 2003, back before the new museum building was even built)


And I'm not sure what this is, but this may be a picture of a second one:


And here are some dish type devices that were one of the things I heard about growing up near a silo that I thought was made up bull... these were radio/microwave(?) beam detectors that created a perimeter around the silo itself. If anyone passed between a set of these and broke the beam, it would set off an alarm in the silo and summon security police from the neighboring air force base to the site.


Break the beam and you would likely soon be seeing this:


By the way, here is the current museum building back then while it was under construction...


We were told at the time that in addition to the grant mentioned in the sign above, money received from Paramount(?) for filming in the silo went towards the construction... If you don't know, the silo scenes with Picard & Data from Star Trek: First Contact were filmed here. When we were there in 2003, we went on to Las Vegas and visited the Star Trek Experience... while in line for that, we shared all this with other guests in line and they oohed and aahed over the pics.

Look familiar, Star Trek fans?


And no, I didn't have a radio with me when we were there in 2003... and I was told at the time that the antenna was inoperable anyway; short in the cable, I think... since repaired. - Hope you enjoyed the pics... 73, Kevin N4UFO

 

Video too much face time, not enough antenna pics.

 

I was navy nuclear loading and delivery (attack) qualified patrol plane navigator/communicator. After the initial introductory briefings the nuclear war nightmares only lasted a few nights. After that, I learned to love the bomb.

 

Fascinating discussion...found this place on a map when vacationing in Arizona. That giant 80-foot tall discone antenna was quite an impresssive site just by itself.

The Titan Museum's website actually welcomes Ham's to use the antenna when they are open to the public. That is great!

I highly recommend visiting the site. Wonderful museum, lots of amazing facts are learned and their staff is highly knowledgeable (e.g. many of whom formerly assigned to the silo back in the day.)

 

Bravo Zulu, you did your job. What aircraft did you fly? I know the P-3A/B/C was nuke capable... not sure about others.

 

I went in and asked about it. I had already seen the note on the coax box. They were pleased to see me there, I think, and told me to have fun.

 

You learned to love the bomb? Did the bomb the same for you? Thats all strange and not better than the ending of Dark Star.

 

Awesome museum, I get to Tucson for work a good bit but have only ever taken the FT-817 along once and used the antenna there to make a few contacts...was way too hot to spend much time sitting in the car on the radio hihi.

 

A local ham KB7RVV Craig was a radio tech there, he had been in that silo a few days before the explosion.

 

All the Titan sites save for the one in Arizona were destroyed. Not because of the accident but because of SALT.

I pulled many an alert as a SAC Missile Combat Crew Member at the site you are talking about... 373-4, the good, old GHOST SITE.