DEWline Composition

The DEWline was a continuance of surveillance radar stations across the arctic, with the capability of instant communications between DEWline stations and military forces of both the United States and Canada. Two types of radars were installed, long-range and short-range. The long-range radar antennas are encased in large brown geodesic domes, which are quite noticeable in the pictures. The long-range radars provided the primary surveillance capabilities. The purpose of the short-range radars was to detect any effort to fly under the long-range radars, which was a remote possibility especially in the mountainous areas. These short-range radars were called 'Flattars'. In the attending pictures, these are the tall towers (300 feet). Ever try to climb a 300 foot tower? It's a short on energy, white knuckle effort.

Long-range communications in the northern hemisphere was very difficult. In those days there were no satellite communications, just HF (High Frequency) communications. HF was famous for its unreliability, and especially so in the arctic. A new mode was developed which was much more complicated than HF, but more feasible for the DEWline application. It was called scatter communications. This mode used high-powered transmitters, ultra high frequencies, and multiple highly directional antennas, in diversity operation. These antennas will be noted in some of the included pictures. They are large, black, square or round and always in staggered pairs, or threesomes.