Former Cape Henrietta Maria Mid-Canada Line Communications Site (Site 415) | abandoned / shut down, tropospheric scatter station, former air force base, early warning radar

 abandoned / shut down, tropospheric scatter station, former air force base, early warning radar

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The southernmost site on the Mid-Canada Line (MCL) of early warning radar sites built across Canada, MCL Site 415, also known as Cape Henrietta Maria, was a dual-use facility which served as the main communications center for the entire Mid-Canada Line as well as a functioning as a Doppler radar Detection Site.

Linked to the NORAD Command Center at RCAF North Bay by means of a series of three Southward troposcatter shots, the first of which covered 177 miles to the next relay site at Fort Albany, Ontario, the station received, processed and transmitted all radar and communications from the Western portion of the Mid-Canada Line. A sister station located at Cape Jones on the opposite shore of Hudson Bay performed a similar relay role for data coming from the Eastern portion of the line by means of a 107-mile troposcatter shot to Cape Henrietta Maria. A twin pair of 60ft antenna operating at 10kW were utilized for each of the shots.

Co-located with Doppler Detection Site 415 and the nearby Site 416, the station also operated as part of the low-altitude "trip wire" defensive radar line built to detect low-flying Soviet aircraft in the event the Cold War went hot.

Remaining operational through the life of the Mid-Canada Line, both the Tropo mission and radar detection mission carried out by the station came to an end in April of 1965 when the Eastern Sector for the MCL was formally shut down. Essentially abandoned thereafter, the site was remediated in the 2010s.

lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/scs400.htm
campingcdn.blogspot.com/2013/11/mid-canada-line-site-41...