Aerial view of the HAARP site, looking towards Mount Sanford, Alaska (Source: Wikipedia)
(Source: ARRL)
Let the conspiracy theories resume! Alaska’s High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility will reopen in 2017. The sprawling facility now is under the ownership of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and the UAF Geophysical Institute is preparing HAARP for a new sponsored research campaign that’s set to begin early next year, UAF Researcher Chris Fallen, KL3WX, told ARRL.
“This involves, for example, reinstalling the vacuum tubes in each of the 10 kW amplifiers — eventually 360 in total — that were removed by the US Air Force [the facility’s former owner] for warm storage in the main facility,” Fallen said. He later clarified that’s just one-half of the 720 tubes required to equip all of HAARP’s transmitters. “For the first campaign we will only be bringing half of the array online, as we will only have half the tubes installed,” he explained. “It’s a long process and we have limited resources.” He noted that the transmitter shelters have been unheated since the previous campaign in the summer of 2014. “The five generators — approximately 3 MW each — have recently been tested individually and are verified operational.”
“removing and storing”360 tubes? 2 things come to mind. Theft? who would want to steal just tubes? The other more plausible reason is it must get terribly cold and the glass would shrink different rates than the brass fret seals causing them to crack and loose their vacuum. they must have been stored in a heated building.
How very surprising to read this Saturday morning.
HAARP was just spoken about on BBC Radio 4’s programme “Punt PI. There’s a kind of hum”. Broadcast at 10:30 local (09:30 UTC). It’s towards end. http://bbc.in/2bdzlii
Enjoy