The OMARC Amateur Radio presence at the Diana site is part of the InfoAge Learning center, which from a historic perspective we are very honored to have had bestowed upon our club.
The Diana site has a past that is very much worthy of note, although not the original antenna used back just after World War II, the most striking physical item of note when arriving at the Diana site is the large parabolic antenna just within the main gate to the grounds.
This is not the first antenna of significance at the Dina site, the original Diana antenna resembled a pair of bedsprings on a tall mast, reminiscent of early RADAR antenna designs of the World War II period. The later Diana antenna of the early 1950 was a more modern 50 foot Parabolic design and the existing 60 foot antenna named "Space Sentry" was installed in 1957.
The US Army Signal Corps performed an experiment just after the second World War at Camp Evens, Wall Township New Jersey on a cold night in January, 1946. The code name was "Project Diana", named for the moon goddess of ancient legend. This semi unofficial experiment changed the world.
The famous Diana Project transmitted a signal to the Moon in January 1946, the official start of the Space Race, the first time anything from the Earth entered outer space.
In late 1945 a number of scientists at Fort Monmouth's Camp Evans began working on a way to pierce the earth's ionosphere with radio waves, a feat that had been tried just before the war without success and which many thought impossible. Project Diana, named for the goddess of the moon, was designed to prove that it could be done. Begun on an almost unofficial level by Evans radar scientists awaiting their Army discharge, the project was headed by Lt. Col. John DeWitt. Operating with only a handful of full-time researchers, the project scientists greatly modified a SCR-271 bedspring radar antenna, set it up in the northeast corner of Camp Evans, jacked up the power, and aimed it at the rising moon on the morning of January 10, 1946. A series of radar signals were broadcast, and in each case, the echo was picked up in exactly 2.5 seconds, the time it takes light to travel to the moon and back.
For a detailed description of the techniques underlying the first recorded radio transmission through outer space click here.
To hear a recording of the original 1946 WOR radio broadcast of the Project Diana 'moon shot' of Col. John DeWitt and a WOR reporter from the InfoAge web site Click Here.
Newspapers thru out the world recorded the almost unbelievable scientific achievement, and millions of persons looked with expectation for the clearing up of many astronomical mysteries. The importance of Project Diana cannot be overestimated. The discovery that the ionosphere could be pierced, and that communication was possible between earth and the universe beyond, opened the possibility of space exploration that previously had been only a dream in adventure films and comic books.
Just as Hiroshima opened the nuclear age in 1945, Project Diana opened the space age in January of 1946. It would take another decade before the first satellites were launched into space, soon followed by manned rockets, but Diana paved the way for all those achievements.
It even initiated the tradition of naming such projects after ancient Greek and Roman gods, like Mercury and Apollo. For Fort Monmouth Project Diana was a pivotal event that built on World War II expertise, but pointed the way to the future. In the next few years beaming radar signals o the moon became a common occurrence. However, insufficient funds made it necessary to give up the experiments, and a giant tower that was used was ripped down.
To read the QST article in May of 1946 on "A DX Record: To the Moon and Back How the Moon-Radar Feat was Accomplished" By Herbert Kaufpman, W20QU click here
Later the Signal Corps erected the 50 foot parabolic Diana antenna in the 1950's as America was preparing to launch its first communications satellites, which were also being developed at Fort Monmouth. Below is a closeup newspaper photo of the new Diana antenna showing how it was connected to building 9116 for its control and signal cabling.
When the Soviet Union launched SPUTNIK I on October 4, 1957, Signal Corps engineers used the Diana antennas to track the Soviet satellite and monitor its signals. The Project Diana area was turned over to the Astro Observation Center and the Diana Site tracked Sputnik I in 1957 as scientists at Camp Evans in Wall Township and Deal Test site in Ocean Township labored marathon hours tracking this ‘invader’ from the Soviet Union in TOP-SECRET. Using the tracking equipment at Diana Site on Marconi Road and antennas at Deal they characterized the Sputnik. Later they tracked most space flights from NASA. Improvements in radar, radio, satellite, telephony, and other forms of communications were all developed right here at the Diana site and Camp Evans.
Sputnik I, was the world's first artificial satellite, it was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. Tracking this object was a new challenge that the Diana antenna and team of scientists quickly mastered.
For telemetry of Sputnik as it passed overhead Click Here
The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard. Its size was more impressive than Vanguard's intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets' ability to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3, Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.
Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. As a simultaneous alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work on the Explorer project.
On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The Explorer program continued as a successful ongoing series of lightweight, scientifically useful spacecraft.
The Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (commonly called the "Space Act"), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.
The current parabolic antenna which exists today is a direct descendent of the historic Signals Corps antenna hat bounced man's first radar signal off the moon in 1946 from the same Camp Evans, Fort Monmouth site. The new dish, originally designed for Passive Moon Relay experiments, a.k.a. moon bounce research after the radar tests was a valuable installation in the U.S. space tracking network for years beginning with the U.S. Pioneer-V space probe in March of 1960. Scientists at the U.S. Army Signal Research and Development Laboratory, Fort Monmouth, tracked the U.S. Pioneer-V space-probe to a distance of 1.6 million miles with this hugh antenna. The antenna was used to participate in all U.S. space probe launchings and was the only station in the country to track Russia's Lunik-II rocket.
Below is a snap shot of a photo hanging on the wall of the Diana site when there were both the Diana and Space Sentry parabolic antennas on the site.
Here is the photo stand alone:
The large 50-foot Diana dish-antenna which was employed to keep track of the early satellites and received signals from Europe that had been bounced off the moon was joined by a 60-foot dish, known as the “Space Sentry,” built in 1957 and also employed to track satellites. The Space Sentry bounced signals from the moon insuring close tracking of satellites.
In March of 1960 the new Diana antenna was used to track the Pioneer-V space probe million of miles into space. Pioneer V was launched to measure radiation and magnetic fields between Earth and Venus and to communicate over great distances.
Launched on March 11th, by March it had transmitted radio signals that were received from a distance of more than 409,000 miles, a new communications record.
By March 18th it reported on command at 2 a.m. from 1,002,700 miles away and transmitting seven kinds of scientific data readings.
By March 25th Pioneer-V signals were received from a distance of 2 million miles into space.
By April 17th Pioneer-V transmitted telemetry a distance of 5 million miles from earth.
On April 23rd, NASA announced that Robert E. Gottfried of GSFC had successfully repaired a faulty diode in Pioneer-V (5.5 million miles from earth) by reworking of telemetry.
On May 8th the 150-watt transmitter on the Pioneer-V interplanetary spacecraft was commanded at 5:04 a.m. EDT, and operated satisfactorily while it was 8,001,000 miles from earth, another communications record.
Finally, on June 26th, a six-minute message received by Jodrell Bank, England, was last communication received from Pioneer-V, then 22.5 million miles from earth, establishing a new communications record while moving at a relative velocity of 21,000 mph. Since March 11 when launched, Pioneer-V it would fly closer to the sun than any manmade object previously launched.
To learn more about the Pioneer-V space probe check out the following sites:
For site 1 Click Here
For site 2 Click Here
For site 3 Click Here
In April of 1960 the first televised weather satellite photos from the Tiros-1 satellite, developed under the technical supervision of the Fort Monmouth Laboratories, sent TV and Infrared Observation Satellite images on a global scale from 450 miles above earth returning 22,952 cloud cover images received by giant 60 foot "Space Sentry" antenna at Fort Monmouth the first televised weather photographs of the earth's cloud cover and weather patterns. Below is the first image received from Tiros.
The TIROS Program (Television Infrared Observation Satellite) was NASA's first experimental step to determine if satellites could be useful in the study of the Earth. The agencies participants were: NASA, US ARMY Signal Research and Development Lab, RCA, US Weather Bureau, US Naval Photographic Interpretation Center. TIROS-I was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida on April 1, 160 and was operational for only 78 days completing 1,302 orbits, but proved that satellites could be a useful tools for surveying global weather conditions from space. During its flight, on May 19th the TIROS I weather satellite spotted a tornado storm system in the vicinity of Wichita Falls, Tex.
It was followed by Tiros-2 through Tiros-10. If it hadn't been for TIROS and the TIROS experiment, there would be no GOES images today
To learn more about the TIROS program check out the following sites:
For site 1 Click Here
For site 2 Click Here
For site 3 Click Here
Satellite operations at Fort Monmouth began to wind down in the early 1960s as the Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) took over the Army’s role in the space race. Many scientists left Fort Monmouth to work for NASA, and soon communications satellites were overshadowed by manned space flights. The Deal Test Site, home of the Astro Observation Center, was particularly hard hit; the Army would relinquish its lease in 1973. The Institute for Exploratory Research hung on until the mid-1970s, when it too was disbanded.
Because members of the Diana team were Radio Amateurs in their off-duty hours, it was inevitable that some of them would contemplate the use of our celestial neighbor as a passive reflector, to facilitate two-way communications between widely separated terrestrial points. Today we call this mode of communications EME, for the Earth-Moon-Earth path.
The Diana Antenna Tower and other select facilities on the Camp Evans, InfoAge Learning Center grounds are listed on the New Jersey State Historic Register. The InfoAge Learning Center has plans to restore the massive Diana Site Space Sentry 60-foot dish antenna to operation once again.
OMARC is very honored to be in the position to have an Amateur Radio presence at this location and looks forward to educating all persons interested in the history of the Diana site and Amateur Radio.
Below are links to other web sites which provide additional historic and technical information on the Diana site.
Southwest Museum of Engineering, Communications and Computation
