Saint Albans Air Force Station
Saint Albans Air Force Station (1951-1979) - A Cold War Air Force Radar Station first established in 1951 on Bellevue Hill near Saint Albans, Franklin County, Vermont. Initially named Belleview Hill Air Force Station it was renamed Saint Albans Air Force Station after the nearby town. Initially assigned a Permanent ID of P-14, later a Sage ID of Z-14. Abandoned by the Air Force in 1979, a portion was retained by the FAA and is now [[ ]] with an FAA ID of QHB.
History
Established in 1951 and became operational in September 1951 as Belleview Hill Air Force Station manned by the 764th AC&W Squadron. The station initially had both a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and early warning mission. The early warning mission involved tracking and identifying all aircraft entering their airspace while the GCI mission involved guiding Air Force interceptors to any identified enemy aircraft. Controllers at the station vectored fighter aircraft at the correct course and speed to intercept enemy aircraft using voice commands via ground-to-air radio.
Initial equipment included two CPS-6B search/height-finder radars. In 1958 a single FPS-6 height-finder radar replaced one of the CPS-6Bs and a second FPS-6 was installed in 1959.
This configuration established the basic requirements for the transition to SAGE System operation.
SAGE System Transition
The transition of the manual GCI system to the automated SAGE system began with the installation of the FST-2 coordinate data transmitter and search radar upgrades. The FST-2 equipment digitized the radar returns and transmitted the digital returns to the SAGE direction center. Under the SAGE System, interceptor aircraft were directed to their targets by the direction center computers and controllers, greatly reducing the need for local controllers and equipment at every radar station.
The FST-2 was a very large digital system using vacuum tube technology. Over 6900 vacuum tubes were used in each FST-2 requiring 21 air-conditioned cabinets, 40 tons of air conditioning, 43.5 kva of prime power, and usually a large new addition to the operations building. The FST-2B modification added two more cabinets but with newer solid-state (transistor) technology to process coded responses from aircraft transponders.
SAGE System Operation
| Assigned | Direction Center | Sector | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 15 Aug 1958 - 1 Aug 1962 | Topsham SAGE Direction Center DC-05 | Bangor Air Defense Sector | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 Aug 1962 - 1 Apr 1966 | Stewart SAGE Direction Center DC-02 | Boston Air Defense Sector | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 Apr 1966 - 19 Nov 1969 | Hancock SAGE Direction Center DC-03 | 35th Air Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19 Nov 1969 - 29 Jun 1979 | Hancock SAGE Direction Center DC-03 | 21st Air Division
The site began operation as a SAGE System site in 1959, initially feeding the Topsham SAGE Direction Center DC-05. The search radar was upgraded to one FPS-7C in 1962 and one of the FPS-6 height-finder radars was replaced in 1963 by a FPS-26A. On 1 Aug 1962 control was shifted from Topsham SAGE Direction Center DC-05 to Stewart SAGE Direction Center DC-02. On 1 Apr 1966 control shifted from Stewart SAGE Direction Center DC-02 to Hancock SAGE Direction Center DC-03 where it remained until the site closed. Early in the 1970s the FST-2 was replaced with a more up-to-date coordinate data transmitter, the FYQ-47 Common Digitizer. Gap FillersSaint Albans AFS was responsible for the maintenance of two remote unattended gap-filler radar sites. The unattended gap filler sites were placed in locations where the main search radar lacked coverage. These sites were equipped with short range FPS-14 or FPS-18 search radars and FST-1 Coordinate Data transmitters that sent digitized radar target data to a SAGE direction center and to the main radar site. Both the radar set and the FST-1 were dual channel to increase site up time. Maintenance teams were dispatched for regularly scheduled maintenance or when fault indicators on the FSW-1 remote monitoring equipment suggested the site had problems. The FSW-1 also allowed remote operation of specific functions such as channel changes for the radar and for the FST-1, it also allowed remote operation of the diesel generators at the gap filler site. The Saint Albans AFS gap-filler radar sites were located at Blue Mountain Lake, NY, and Bangor, NY.
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