Elephant Cage – The USA's Worldwide Listening Ear

22 Comments

1. Classic Bullseye – The US Navy's Ears On The World

   https://youtu.be/zVKy6g0YQdU

2. I deeply respect your engagement work! All hail the Algorithm! 😄

3. Your german is spot-on, mate! 👍

4. That last picture (chicksand) does show another outline offset from the main array and with it's own building in the center. Was that site reused for another DF array? Sure looks like it judging by the picture.

5. We used to call one similar in Gander 'the turkey farm'.

6. Thanks for presenting that interesting history. It brings back some great memories for us Cold Warriors. ASA Lives!

7. Super interesting, thanks!

8. There was a similar structure near silver strands beach in Coronado California (navel base). Three concentric rings of very tall fences with a concrete bunker in the middle. According to Google earth, the fences have since been removed but the circular outline and bunker remains.

9. I should love to take my IC-7300 and a amp. at 1KW and connect to one of this biiigg loops! That would be very fun to try out! The best from LB1NH 🙂 🙂

10. You're totally off base. It's not a listening post at all. I used to use it. Its nothing more than a directional HF antenna.

11. The last US AN/FLR-9 at Elmendorf AK was decommissioned in 2016.

12. 71thru74 worked there in Turkey most accurate antenna, was a ww2 german sub antenna system we updated and used

13. Completely demolished and the bunkers apparently filed with concrete. It's now British Military intelligence. A fireing range occupies the site of the fairy ring. I used to deliver there daily. One of our drivers got a bullet through his car as his girlfriend was stationed there. He was drunk and drove through the barrier. Fortunately they hit the passenger seat!

14. Woo Hoo Field Station Augsburg! 4:33

15. I lived at Karamursel in 1971 1972 and noticed the array. When I flew for the USAF later, I saw them or what remained on them all over the world.

16. Great video, truly enjoyed watching it. I was stationed at San Vito in 1977/78 working as a medic in the base clinic. I was friends with many people who worked in the ‘cage’. They were primarily single, just out of high school or in their early 20s and had backgrounds with various foreign languages. they would sit at a terminal for eight hours a day, just typing in whatever they heard on their headphones. It was all very monotonous as there was no decision making or dramatic real-time secret mission stuff, everything was typed in and transmitted to other locations for analysis. We had a very large mental health department – imagine sitting there doing that eight hours a day… San Vito was this small American city in the middle of an Italian olive grove, on the ‘heel’ of the Italian Adriatic coast. It was located in the Italian farming region and was filled with vineyards and olive groves. It was pretty remote, with Naples being the nearest large city three hours away. It had all the bare necessities with the BX/post office, the dining hall, the clinic, NCO club and the dormitories. I remember, shooting skeet beside the “elephant cage“ and passing the time at the local MWR gun club. It was a great tour for me but the sole mission was always to support the elephant cage.

17. Worked at one near Tori Station in Okinawa, Japan. I think it was dismantled in 1986

18. We got the idea from Germany in WWII days… used to one in Imperial Beach(CA), and another at Skaggs Island (SF Bay Area)

19. Do you think this might be a bit unfair in 14Mhz DX contests.

20. there's also one in the Queen Charlotte islands, Canada

21. Imagine you lived in Bedford, imagine Russia is going to nuke the uk. Thanks a lot mate. Clever clogs Bravo 🎉 ❌

22. Why are they decommissioning them? Do we not have enemies with radios anymore?

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