Welcome to Area 51

CIA-RDP90B00184R000100040001-4.pdf

Crude Area 51 map on page 30. At the bottom of the page is a notation for "LF Marker". I don't believe this exists any more. This probably refers to a navigation air marker. Not NDB (nondirectional beacon), but a runway marker to indicate when you are over a specific location.

originally posted by: gariac
CIA-RDP90B00184R000100040001-4.pdf

Crude Area 51 map on page 30. At the bottom of the page is a notation for "LF Marker". I don't believe this exists any more. This probably refers to a navigation air marker. Not NDB (nondirectional beacon), but a runway marker to indicate when you are over a specific location.

Link here
I see "FAN MARKER" and "LF BEACON"

a reply to: FosterVS

Not sure how I screwed up the link. Probably best for a pilot to chime in, but the marker beacons, at least LF, are old school. Supposedly the 75MHz markers are still used. LF is hard to localize. I've recorded the old Mercury MCY NDB from the bay area.
www.lazygranch.com...
This page isn't meant for general consumption, hence the lack of instructions. You can click on the waveform to download a wave file of the audio. Probably the recordings are from the early 2000s.

a reply to: openyourmind1262

Partly correct, I think. As I understand it, the "Area 51" designation comes from an old military map in which the Groom Lake vicinity was labeled "area 51," the map having been divided into several such "areas" (part of the Atomic Energy Commission numbering system). It's possible the "area" in question was actually numbered 15.

a reply to: Byff70

Arrrrggghh! Please stop perpetuating this myth. There never was any sort of old military grid map with the number 51 near Groom Lake.

The numbered areas in Nevada originated with the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission's nuclear proving ground in 1950, which came to be known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS, now renamed the Nevada National Security Site). Various testing, administrative, and buffer areas were given numbers between 1 and 30 in no particular geographic order. It was not based on any sort of map grid. These areas come in different shapes and sizes.

Several areas were added adjacent to the original NTS boundary including Area 13 (site of the Project 57 safety experiment in April 1957), Area 31 (a buffer zone adjacent to the western edge of Area 25 near Yucca Mountain), and Area 51 (the boundary of which was established in 1955 when the CIA built Watertown Airstrip at Groom Lake, but which was not added to the NTS as a numbered area until 1958).

The name "Area 51" was not even assigned until 1959, when a radar signature measurement range was built at Groom Lake under the designation Project 51. That project number was chosen by an accountant who simply needed a designator when filling out the paperwork for the construction project.

Tonopah Test Range has been listed in official documents as Area 52. The Central Nevada Test Area (CNTA) in Hot Creek Valley was designated Area 58.

Some area numbers have been changed over the years. Area 25 of the NTS used to be split into Area 400 and Area 401. To add confusion, Tonopah Test Range is also subdivided into areas with some numbers duplicating those at the NTS (Area 2, Area 10, etc.). Also, some people confuse Air Force range numbers (such as Range 61, etc.) for area numbers but there is no correspondence. The geographical placement of the assigned areas has no basis in logic, common sense, chronological order, or geography. It appears to be entirely random.

a reply to: gariac

I love the fact that in those documents it states there is a barber onsite. Imagine coming up through barber school or whatever it is and then get the post there as a barber lol

originally posted by: pigsy2400
a reply to: gariac

I love the fact that in those documents it states there is a barber onsite. Imagine coming up through barber school or whatever it is and then get the post there as a barber lol

You can also sling hash* at Groom Lake.

*= work in the base cafeteria