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Old 04-06-2011, 05:07 PM
 
Location: Barrow, Alaska
3,539 posts, read 7,648,963 times
Reputation: 1836

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42 View Post
Is that a White Alice tropospheric antenna right under the sun in the sundog picture? I know the tropospheric antennas were these huge things that looked like barrels, at least from one side, and that's what that looks like in that picture.
I can't quite conjure up "barrels", but... :-)

Hmmmm.... it occurred to me that you and others might enjoy reading the message archives, and maybe even more so looking at the photo archives of the WAorderwire group on yahoo.com. It's at,

White Alice Orderwire Yahoo Group

There are many photos of various sites at different times in the life of the system, including some of Bethel when it was virtually brand new. There is also a fun game that one moderator has been playing for a long time now... where he comes up with a photograph of a site, posts it as a Mystery Site, and the rest of the folks guess at which site it is. Number 41 was the most recent site, and was a beautiful shot of the red and white checkered antennas at Aniak glistening in the evening sun.

Just one warning though. The moderation on that group is nothing at all like it is on City-Data. It's exceeding effective.
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Old 04-06-2011, 08:12 PM
 
Location: Manhattan Island
1,981 posts, read 3,844,856 times
Reputation: 1203
Barrels... I got that image from this photo of a couple of tropospheric antennas on Barter Island:



Taken from the Wikimedia Commons, which is freely available to use, so no copyright issues here.

But yeah, until you realize that the other side is a big, concave antenna face, they look like barrels from the back. At least, to me they do.
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Old 04-06-2011, 09:37 PM
 
Location: Barrow, Alaska
3,539 posts, read 7,648,963 times
Reputation: 1836
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42 View Post
But yeah, until you realize that the other side is a big, concave antenna face, they look like barrels from the back. At least, to me they do.
Fascinating! See, there's a world of difference in perspective.

To me those are specifically parabolic reflectors. What I see is exactly the same thing I see looking a somebody's satellite TV antenna. Really!

The one's at Barter island were for a 50Kw Tropo shot, and were of course part of the DEWLINE as opposed to White Alice. The other end of that shot was at Fort Yukon, which was White Alice. There were also 50Kw shots at Shemya and Adak. The difference is those antennas are 120 feet across and high.

The "standard" tropo antennas such as at Bethel were for 10Kw shots, and are 60 footers. The are build on a 15 foot concrete foundation, so the top is 75 off the ground. Most of them were "enclosed", as at Bethel, and had metal walls. Inside were a pair of huge forced air heaters that were originally expect to be needed to prevent ice build up on the antenna surfaces. Turned out that wasn't necessary, which was a very good thing because the cost of fuel, even back in the 50's and 60's, to run those heaters in an uninsulated structure that was all metal and 75 feet high and 60 feet wide was phenomenally expensive!

There were also 1Kw tropo shots, and the antennas for those were 30' dishes, but they looked much more like the 30' satellite antennas in use today, just round and not so huge. That is what the DEWLINE here in Barrow used, and they are still standing. Very few of the 60 footers are still up (Bethel had 6 and that one was kept because it is a local landmark used by everyone for navigation), and I don't think any of the 120 footers are still in existence (I could be wrong about that too).

Incidentally, the one at Bethel is the only enclosed 60 footer that I ever climbed to the top of. I was also at the top of one of the open antennas at Aniak.
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Old 04-06-2011, 09:46 PM
 
Location: Bethel, Alaska
21,368 posts, read 38,109,972 times
Reputation: 13901
Bethel's White Alice



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Old 04-07-2011, 09:16 PM
 
Location: Valdez, Alaska
2,758 posts, read 5,284,996 times
Reputation: 2806
It's snowing.

Driving to work wasn't bad


Had to brush off the truck to go home


Driving home it was coming down harder


Egan, the main street in town, was kind of a mess.


Stopped to get my mail. Big flakes coming down.


My street needs to be plowed. I'm sure they'll get to it someday.


Plowing the driveway's hard work.
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Old 04-07-2011, 11:15 PM
 
Location: Bethel, Alaska
21,368 posts, read 38,109,972 times
Reputation: 13901
Yesterday's blizzard is today's meltdown!



Small boat harbor. This storms south winds brought the water up here.






It's all fun until you sink it and the ambulance has to be called.
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Old 04-07-2011, 11:22 PM
 
Location: Seattle, Washington
3,721 posts, read 7,821,978 times
Reputation: 2029
Fabulous photos!!!
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Old 04-08-2011, 12:29 AM
 
Location: Bethel, Alaska
21,368 posts, read 38,109,972 times
Reputation: 13901
The road across H-Marker lake is getting bad...

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Old 04-08-2011, 01:12 AM
 
Location: Homer Alaska
1,055 posts, read 1,868,064 times
Reputation: 854
Great pictures Warptman! I had visions of every mother in Bethel hollering at her kids as they head out the door "And stay away from the puddles!" I can't tell you how many boots were filled with icy water over the years or lost getting sucked into the mud as spring thaw progressed.
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Old 04-08-2011, 08:07 AM
 
Location: Bethel, Alaska
21,368 posts, read 38,109,972 times
Reputation: 13901
It cooled off and snowing now...
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