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Kotzebue WACS Site

USA / Alaska / Kotzebue /
 tropospheric scatter station, closed / former military
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Constructed in 1957 and going active in 1958, the Kotzebue White Alice Communications System (WACS) site, callsign OTZ, was a tropospheric scatter telecommunication transmitter and receiver site in the United States Air Force telecommunication network. Located atop a small hillock on the shoreline of the Kotzebue Bay just North of the Kotzebue Air Force Station, the site was was linked to the Air Force Stations at Granite Mountain to the South and Cape Lisburne to the North via 107 and 167 mile shots respectively. Shots to Granite Mountain were accomplished via a pair of 30ft round parabolic dishes operating at 1KW while the Cape Lisburne shot utilized a pair of 60ft antennas transmitting at 60KW.

Operational through 1979 under USAF control, the site was transferred to the ownership of AT&T Alascom and saw no further use as a troposcatter communications station. Following the automation of the Air Force Station in 1983 and the construction of a new Alascom station in nearby Kotzebue, the site was shut down and abandoned before being demolished along with the rest of the Air Force Station infrastructure in 1998.

www.whitealice.net/

Site Photo:
www.kadiak.org/wacs/kotzebue.jpg
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   66°50'50"N   162°36'32"W
This article was last modified 8 years ago