Posted: Mar 18, 2010 2:17 pm
The entracte:
In September 1983, after the shootdown of KAL007 by the Soviet Union, tensions between the USSR and the US were quite high, as some may remember. At that time, I was stationed at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, assigned to the 2148 Communications Squadron, a tenant unit supporting the 28th Bomb Wing and the 44th Strategic Missile Wing. I was a ground radio maintenance technician, working in the Missile Radio shop.
We were responsible for maintaining three of the command and control radio systems in the Minutman I Launch Control Capsules. An HF (2-30 MHz) receive-only system (except at the three missile squadron command post LCFs, which also had 1.5 Kw HF transmitters), a UHF (225-400 MHz) transceiver, and an LF (14-60 KHz) data receive-only system.
We had to do quarterly, semiannual, and annual preventive maintenance inspections (PMIs) done on each of these systems. The annual PMI cycle was the most intensive, and usually took most of a day to do three radios at one Launch Control Facility. We had to do most of this work inside the accoustical enclosure of the LCC. It helps to understand how an LCC is built. Imagine a damned big, thick, concrete and steel egg, buried 90-120 feet down, with a long box suspended in the middle of that egg on four damn big shock isolators, with roughly a meter clearance between that box (the accoustical enclosure) and the walls of the capsule itself. This box is big enough to have a row of six foot tall equipment racks down each side, with an aisle down the middle maybe 4 feet wide. It's probably 20 feet long. If you know what you're looking at, the LCCs that are briefly shown in the movie Wargames are pretty accurate.
The door to the LCC is on one end of the capsule, and you walk over a hinged walkway to get to the accoustical enclosure. There is a small catwalk that is welded to the capsule wall to the right of the hinged walkway for access to a room that contains all the electrical surge arrestors for every wire coming into the capsule.
The missile crew commander's console is at the far end of the accoustical enclosure. The deputy's console is halfway down on the right hand side of the aisle. Here's a link to a picture of the inside of the launch control center, accoustical enclosure:
You can see the HF reciever above the commander's head, it's a grey box with the five big black knobs. On the side of the accuostical enclosure, you can see the printer for the LF system is right in front of the deputy's face. It's the green box with the two black handles and the yellow cap over the alarm enounciator.
The stage is set...
In September 1983, after the shootdown of KAL007 by the Soviet Union, tensions between the USSR and the US were quite high, as some may remember. At that time, I was stationed at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, assigned to the 2148 Communications Squadron, a tenant unit supporting the 28th Bomb Wing and the 44th Strategic Missile Wing. I was a ground radio maintenance technician, working in the Missile Radio shop.
We were responsible for maintaining three of the command and control radio systems in the Minutman I Launch Control Capsules. An HF (2-30 MHz) receive-only system (except at the three missile squadron command post LCFs, which also had 1.5 Kw HF transmitters), a UHF (225-400 MHz) transceiver, and an LF (14-60 KHz) data receive-only system.
We had to do quarterly, semiannual, and annual preventive maintenance inspections (PMIs) done on each of these systems. The annual PMI cycle was the most intensive, and usually took most of a day to do three radios at one Launch Control Facility. We had to do most of this work inside the accoustical enclosure of the LCC. It helps to understand how an LCC is built. Imagine a damned big, thick, concrete and steel egg, buried 90-120 feet down, with a long box suspended in the middle of that egg on four damn big shock isolators, with roughly a meter clearance between that box (the accoustical enclosure) and the walls of the capsule itself. This box is big enough to have a row of six foot tall equipment racks down each side, with an aisle down the middle maybe 4 feet wide. It's probably 20 feet long. If you know what you're looking at, the LCCs that are briefly shown in the movie Wargames are pretty accurate.
The door to the LCC is on one end of the capsule, and you walk over a hinged walkway to get to the accoustical enclosure. There is a small catwalk that is welded to the capsule wall to the right of the hinged walkway for access to a room that contains all the electrical surge arrestors for every wire coming into the capsule.
The missile crew commander's console is at the far end of the accoustical enclosure. The deputy's console is halfway down on the right hand side of the aisle. Here's a link to a picture of the inside of the launch control center, accoustical enclosure:
You can see the HF reciever above the commander's head, it's a grey box with the five big black knobs. On the side of the accuostical enclosure, you can see the printer for the LF system is right in front of the deputy's face. It's the green box with the two black handles and the yellow cap over the alarm enounciator.
The stage is set...