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. MStatiRake-Like Antenna Stretch Across Delta Farmland Picking Uplt; Satellite SignalsAssociated PressnISatellitesGREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Thegreen sign along Mississippi 1 south Greenville supports thepp ■ ■block letters “Spasursta” and an arrow pointing to a narrow blacktop road andwhat appears to be the world’s longest clothesline.“We’ve had some pretty funny comments about what we are doing out here,” said Reese Howard, manager of the Naval Space Surveillance Station -r part of a listening network Uncleincludes' whitewashed blockbuildings housing monitoring in-(Ihedgerow of spindly‘ if Dolesoam uses to keep tralt; other man-made items orbiting theearth.The station, off limits to the generaltoppedantennae arranged in a leaf-rake pattern.The longest section of antenna poles stretches for four-fifths of a mile over the flat Delta land.Howard explained that while farmers in the sparsely populated Delta area have had 23 years to acquaint themselves with the station, tourists attracted by the unusual sign on the highway sometimes stumble onto theunusual arrav of antennas in the miH.die of nowhere.I understand from the air this place looks like a landing strip but so far we haven’t had a cropduster try to land on us,” Howard said. We did have one lady who said she didn’t know what we did here but that we would handle a mighty big washing.”The station, the first Naval space tracking facility to be given command status, is part of a Virginia-based network of nine stations along an east-west path from Ft. Stewart, Ga., to San Diego.Howard said the primary reason a satellite tracking station ended up inthe Delta was that the area fell about equidistant between two other trackingpositions.The nine-man civilian staff oversees sensitive listening equipment around the clock, keeping tabs on an estimated. 4,400 orbiting objects with the 98 acresof antennas.When we opened in 1958 there wasomy one satellite orbiting,” he said.“Since then, its really gotten busykeeping up with all the man-made items in space. ’ ’In addition to the 4,600-foot stretch of antenna, the station has patches of 400-foot antennas.Senate To Weigh1
Newspaper Details
Laurel Leader Call
Laurel, Mississippi, US
Thu, Feb 26, 1981
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Travis R.
AL, USA 06 Jun 2022
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