Chirikof Island Radio Range Station

 Second World War 1939-1945, weather / meteorological station, radio beacon, United States Navy, historic ruins

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This station was built in 1940 for the Civil Aeronautics Authority by Morrison & Knutsen, building contractors. Operations were taken over by the U.S. Navy in 1942.

To establish an airway southwest from Kodiak to the Aleutians, a navigation facility was commissioned 170 miles away on the north end of Chirikof Island in December 1942. The station included a radio range, radar beacon, and a weather observation station operated by 11 Navy enlisted men and one officer living in difficult, isolated conditions. The range operated continuously with identifier “NCF,” broadcasting weather information and radio beams with bearings toward the station at 37°, 130°, 223°, and 310°. Six wood-frame structures sheltered personnel and equipment—an electronics operations/communications building, a power building with two generators, two storage buildings, and two quarters buildings. The facility was decommissioned following the war and abandoned in 1946.

kadiak.org/chirikof/index.html
www.nps.gov/aleu/learn/historyculture/upload/the-flying...
www.faa.gov/about/history/media/WWII_CAA_NAV_RANGES.pdf
flyingthebeams.com/what-it-was