Ground Air Transmit Receive (GATR) control sites were the radio stations of a Burroughs 416L SAGE Defense System of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. They were deployed to automate

ground-controlled interception Ground-controlled interception (GCI) is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircraft to an airborne target. This tactic wa ...

using crewed

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...

. Generally located near or, in some cases, on an Aerospace Defense Command radar station, a GATR site was used for the Ground to Air Data Link Subsystem to communicate

command guidance Command guidance is a type of missile guidance in which a ground station or aircraft relay signals to a guided missile via radio control or through a wire connecting the missile to the launcher and tell the missile where to steer to intercept its ...

via HF/ VHF/

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

voice and TDDL to vector F-106 Delta Dart and other suitably equipped aircraft (image of entrance sign with arrow: "Bangor North American Air Defense Sector") that had been dispatched by teams in Weapons Direction rooms of SAGE Direction Centers. Maintenance was done by the 304x4 Ground Radio Maintenance career field, with initial technical training at Keesler Air Force Base. The sites included the RCA AN/GKA-5 Time Division Data Link ( TDDL) equipment, that fed a two-channel AN/FRT-49 Electronic Guidance Signals Transmitting Set, employing Varian

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequenci ...

s to deliver 20 kilowatts output power (early sites used the 100 watt, single-channel AN/GRT-3 instead. The aircraft receivers were either Hughes AN/ARR-60 or SLI AN/ARR-61 Airborne Radio Receivers of the Hughes MA-1 Fire Control System. Most GATR/SAGE sites are now Formerly Used Defense Sites (e.g., the site supported by Oakdale Air Force Station, Pennsylvania) that were closed by the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

Sites

The San Francisco Z-38 (Mill Valley) site differed from Manual Air Defense Control Centers that networked Permanent System radar stations, NORAD Control Centers had simpler C³ equipment (e.g., for the "austere SAGE area" in the Zone of the Interior) than the Direction Centers' AN/FSQ-7s such as the General Electric AN/GPA-37 Course Directing Group with AN/GPA-67 Time Division Data Link equipment through transmitters to the AN/ARR-39 "SAGE Datalink Receivers" used in the F-86L Sabre Interceptor, which was the SAGE variant—an F-86D Sabre Dog with equipment for day/night/all weather operations. For example, by 1965, " Hamilton AFB and Richards-Gebaur AFB…operated as Remote Combat Centers (Hamilton had remote input from Reno Sector and Richards-Gebaur from Sioux City Sector)".

References

{{Reflist Military radio systems of the United States Air defense Equipment of the United States Air Force Cold War-related lists