Interesting Places- Interesting Bases-

There are thousands of covert/secret, lesser known/unknown installations just here in the USA. Most can be seen in plain view on google earth or any other satellite mapping program.

I'm starting this thread in an effort to catalog lesser known government/military/scientific installations that I find interesting. I hope this will be an ongoing research project. Feel free to add your own but please include pictures, coordinates, and a description of function.

It's interesting to know where these places are, but my curiosity lies in what they do. What is their function? Well, that information is not always going to be obvious or easily available. Lets research these places and discuss. Therefore, I present this thread. What better place than ATS?

I will start with installations close to home and work from there.

Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex- Millstone Hill Haystack Observatory
Westford, Massachusetts
42°37'23.09"N 71°29'15.50"W
Google Maps Link

Owned/operated by
United States Air Force
Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology






"The Haystack" is not a single installation, but at least four separate installations clustered close together. There is a fascinating new installation being constructed, but I have not yet discovered what it is.

It was initially built by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory for the United States Air Force and was known as Haystack Microwave Research Facility. The site comprises three major radars –

The Space Surveillance Complex (LSSC) Millstone Deep-Space Tracking Radar (an L-band radar). A deep space/atmospheric sciences research center.

Haystack Long-Range Imaging Radar (X-band), Like Millstone, contributes to the U.S. Space Surveillance Network.

Haystack Auxiliary Radar (Ku-band). gh-power L-band radar, is used for tracking space vehicles and space debris and plays a key role in the national deep-space surveillance program.

What are those crate grates? That looks weird.

Originally posted by Manhater
What are those crate grates? That looks weird.

That is the D1 Array used to detect deuterium at radio wavelengths. There are 24 stations, each with 24 crossed dipoles.

This array has been designed to make a sensitive search for the 327 MHz spectral line of deuterium. . Since almost all the RFI comes from the horizon, the station array has parasitic directors added to the dipoles to reduce the response at the horizon. An RFI monitor with 12 active Yagi antennas pointed every 30° in azimuth provides a way of determining the direction of the RFI and yields information on frequencies and time spans that need to be excised from the array data.

Very technical stuff! Unfortunately I'm not a scientist. Hopefully the science "geeks" take some interest and attempt to better explain the technical aspects.

Cape Cod AFS Air Force Space Command PAVE PAWS
Bourne, Massachusetts
41°45'7.57"N 70°32'18.46"W
google maps link






Here is another military space program facility. The PAVE PAWS is an extremely powerful radar. The antennas operate at a frequency of 420 to 450 MHz. and has a range of over 3,000 Nautical Miles. PAVE PAWS squadrons are their own separate group in the Air Force with their own chain of command and security.

And since this is ATS I have to mention that there are massive dolphin beachings in this area. Are they connected? I don't know, just speculating.

PAVE PAWS is an Air Force Space Command radar system. The radar is used primarily to detect and track sea-launched and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The system also has a secondary mission of Earth-orbiting satellite detection and tracking. Information received from the PAVE PAWS radar systems pertaining to SLBM/ICBM and satellite detection is forwarded to the United States Space Command's Missile Warning and Space Control Centers at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, CO. Data is also sent to the National Military Command Center and the US Strategic Command.

The phased array radar incorporates nearly 3,600 small, active antenna elements coordinated by two computers. One computer is on-line at all times and the second computer will automatically take control if the first fails. The computers feed energy to the antenna units in precise, controlled patterns, allowing the radar to detect objects at very high speeds since there are no mechanical parts to limit the speed of the radar sweep. The PAVE PAWS radar can electronically change its point of focus in milliseconds, while conventional dish-shaped radar may take up to a minute to mechanically swing from one area to another.

Federation of American Scientists

I'd love to see if you stay dedicated to this thread. Wouldn't mind subscribing to it, as long as you keep it updated. I may even help a bit if that was okay. S+F

There is another Pavepaws at Beale AFB.
39° 8'9.81"N 121°21'2.53"W

The Sugar Grove dishes are at
38°30'56.15"N 79°16'47.88"W

The late Harry Helms "Top Secret Tourism" lists all sorts of "secret" bases.
www.amazon.com...
I gather much of the book was just composed with internet searches rather than on-site visits. Still it is worth $10.

While this thread is of some interest, I don't think it will be very useful since it will just be a list of bases that probably already have their own individual threads on ATS. I could probably rattle off two dozen of these "secret" bases, but what's the point? I mean, who hasn't heard of Mount Weather, Raven Rock, etc. There must be a dozen COG (Continuity of Government) facilities. My point is each base should have its own thread rather than just a mash up.

The Cobra Dane radar at Shemya Island looks alot like PavePaws.

www.fas.org...


Sugar Grove was some awesome duty. I spent 6 months there. It's a nice little base and an outdoorsman's paradise. And some serious rural living if you live off base.

You do realize that most of the installations are absolutely normal and there is nothing unusual and mysterious about them, they are just the average milirary bases the ones you posted.

And as being normal, what would you possibly find worth looking at? Other than the interesting architecture of some structures.

Is HAARP approachable?

reply to post by bg_socalif


Sugar Grove is so secret it has only shown up once on the Discovery Channel. ;-)

Continuing on with this thread of very well known secret facilities, here is Lawrence Livermore Labs Site 300:
37°38'1.17"N 121°30'5.13"W
This is where you enter. The base is in the hills towards the north. Like the rest of these secret bases, it has an official website:
wci.llnl.gov...
They blow stuff up at Site 300. Just high explosives.

Speaking of the Discovery Channel, here is Camp Parks, a facility where the Myth Busters like to blow stuff up:
37°43'27.15"N 121°53'59.82"W
And of course their website:
www.parks.army.mil...

Nestled in the Sierras is the Marines mountain warfare training center:
38°21'30.18"N 119°30'45.42"W
www.mccsmwtc.com...

I found this link a while back and made a thread on it....

check it out..

n5lp.net...

here is my old thread..

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by baddmove


You have a typo in the link. Here is the corrected link:
n5lp.net...
It is an excellent find, especially since it concerns N196D, a frequent visitor to Base Camp.
www.lazygranch.com...

reply to post by METACOMET


The PAVE PAWS array has caused MASSIVE issues with amateur radio operators over the years since it was first introduced. It's frequency falls right next to the 70cm amateur radio band (430.000 MHz - 440.000 MHz) When in operation it completely destroys weak signal satellite work that I do as it's transmitter is so broad-banded and powerful that it causes serious inter-modulation up and down the 400mhz spectrum, even on a high end amateur transceiver like a Kenwood TS-2000. I was in voice contact with the ISS a couple years ago when this god damn thing fired up and it completely obliterated the ISS's voice signal and CW transmissions that I was copying. I was so upset because not only does the ISS not pass over ones house directly overhead very often, but you are also competing against other amateur operators within a 500 mile radius that are trying to make contact with the space station as well.

As bad as the U.S. Air Force PAVE PAWS system is, it's no where close to being as bad and disrupting as the infamous Russian Woodpecker transmitter and massive antenna array. When that thing fires up on the HF frequency that it does, you might as well move to another band because the Woodpecker destroys it, and on purpose so I've been told.

Good info, thanks for posting it.

reply to post by Jocko Flocko


I use you are not from the US. PAVEPAWS is the primary user of that frequency band based on the NTIA Redbook. Amateur is the secondary user. Post 9/11, they upgraded the system. I don't recall if they use stronger RF, but they are definitely listening for weaker returns. In areas around PAVEPAWS systems, the DoD has mandated that amateur repeaters lower their power to levels where they are nearly useless.

Very interesting thread, thanks for starting it. Look forward to more!!

reply to post by gariac


Having been to Sugar Grove, in Brandywine, WV, join the Navy see West Virginia Family is all I will say about that installation should check out Kenoehe Bay, HI, which is most def an echelon site and SUBGRUPAC COM post.

29INFDIV

Dear Government, don't shoot the messenger I haven't divulged any of MY secret information.

reply to post by 29INFDIV


The problem with Echelon these days is most signals go over fiber optic cables rather than over satellites. While these listening posts are still useful to gather foreign satellite telemetry, they aren't all that useful in monitoring telecom and datacom. That was why Bush had the NSA tap the fiber optic cables. I'd have to dig though my copy of Bamford's "Shadow Factory", but he lists a few places where the fiber optic cable has been tapped. Of course, there is the infamous Room 641A as revealed by a whistle blower:
en.wikipedia.org...

Not mentioned in the wiki, but the hardware to tap the fiber optic cable is made by an Israeli company. Nobody knows if there is a "back door" to the box. While the warrant-less wire tapping is illegal, it was fool hardy to use equipment provided by a foreign company in such a sensitive location.

Two Rock Ranch in Petaluma was a former satellite interception site, dating back to the ASA (Army Security Agency), which was their own sigint outfit. It is now used by the US Coast Guard. No sigint gear is on the site.

reply to post by gariac


I'm up in Canada, just north of Toronto by about 70 miles on the shores of Georgian bay. Most of the time it's only an issue when I am working a horizon propagation path to the south-west with my arrays. I currently use a HyGain 216 SAT Oscar array for 144-148mhz and a HyGain 7030 SAT Oscar array for 432-438mhz. All four antennas are mounted 75 feet in the air.

Then we have Sugar Grove's sister station on the west coast...NSA's Yakima Research Station in eastern Washington. It has the perfect protection, it's out in the Army's Yakima firing range.

cryptome.org...

seattletimes.nwsource.com...

James Bamford's books on the NSA are excellent reads!