DYE-5 / NARS 41 Troposcatter Communications Site

 demolished, tropospheric scatter station, closed / former military

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Constructed in the mid-1950's as a dual-purpose Troposcatter radio relay site, this facility served as a vital communications link for both the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line and the North Atlantic Radio System (NARS) through its 1992 closure.

With its two Eastern-facing billboard antennae operating with the NARS system and providing a direct 50kw troposcatter link to Site 42 at Höfn AS, Iceland via a 235mi/379km shot, the NARS 41 Site was the Westernmost NARS station which ended at RAF Fylingdales in the UK.

The two Western-facing billboard antennae served the communication needs of the DYE-5 DEW Line station at Rockville Air Force Station, Iceland, a Long-Range Radar site which served as the Easternmost point in the early warning radar line that stretched across Greenland, Canada and Alaska to its terminus at the COB-1 site at Nikolski, Alaska. As part of the DYE Sector, the two antennae provided a 50kw troposcatter link to the DYE-4 radar site at Kulusuk Island, Greenland via a 440mi/708km shot.

Operating in unison for their entire careers, both sites served as a communications interchange point between their respective systems and were eventually formed into the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) based at RAF Fylingdales before being made obsolescent by the advent of satellite communications. Razed in the late 2000's as part of the drawdown of NATO and American forces from Iceland, today the concrete footings for the four billboard troposcatter antennas still visible.

lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/dye5pics.htm
radomes.org/museum/acwgrnland.php