Camp Hero and the GATR

I took a trip out to Montauk this week, and visited Camp Hero again, the first time in three and a half, four years. The base has not changed very much over time. It is a very attractive state park now, with some plain looking buildings. The real attractions are the bunkers and the radar. There were plenty of new signs, so it is a much friendlier lloking place as well.

The day I went was very cloudy and foggy. I did not spend alot of time at the base, as I have seen it all before and was quickly able to check out a couple of things that I was interested in. For one thing the signs of vandalism were not there. Whoever had been breaking into the bunkers is no longer doing so. Also the radar has not pivoted from what I could see, it looks in almost the same exact position it had been in.

Here is a shot of the radar from down the road. It was very eerie. I was by myself and the base was deserted, except for the woman who took my $6 and gave me a map at the gate.



Here it is a little closer. Sorry that none of this is terribly interesting, but I like taking pictures!



Here is one of the bunkers. As I said, apparently no vandalism. You can see where they have patched it up in the past, but it didn't look too recent.



There was one small hole that I could see. On one hand it looks like it may just be a combination of cheap construction material and water. On the other hand I wondered if our vandal was tired of chipping at the cement, and was making holes in harder to get places. That is just too much speculation on my part though.



Here is another bunker. The paint job is fresh. As a side-note it was huge. And it was also a bit unnerving. It was totally deserted, and the fog gave an air of uncertainty about the place.



Now it was on to the GATR. The GATR (Ground to Air Transmit and Recieve) has eluded me for years. It is an array of directional antenna's, plus one big antenna that I don't have a clue what it could be. The GATR has been implicated in mind control, time travel, you name it. It is interesting also that it is located in a different area of Montauk rather than on the base itself. With the help of somebody here I was finally able to locate it. Here is a screen shot from Google maps. You can see the shadows of the antenna's, as well as the shadow of the square one.



Look at the big road leading right to it. In fact, if you ask Google, they will even give you directions right to the place. Here it is on Google maps:



So I was pretty confident that I was going to be able to get on the ground there, and see if there was any activity of any kind. I was to be disappointed. The closest I could get was on some peoples property right before the tree line.



Now, I would not be too suspicious if it is being used. I mean, why shouldn't they use it if it is useful? But I was left with more questions than answers I am afraid. Here is another shot that I took, again I was on private property. There is that big square antenna? Does anyone know what it is? Look at the size of the cable running up it. It's huge.



The mystery for me is why they dont want anyone getting close to this place on the ground. Through a process of elimination, I went up every road, every path that might lead to the array. I was left with only one option, an unmarked road that looked like a driveway. Here is what I found.



I apologize for the reflection. The road is marked private property, no tresspassing. But I have no doubt in my mind that this is the road shown on the satellite photo. Why is there a private road leading to it? I was disappointed, but also a bit curious. I did not however, trespass on this gate. My instincts said not to.

Here is a close up of the symbol at the top of the gates.



So thats about it. I am guessing that the GATR is active, and for some reason they do not want people seeing it. I guess you could try and walk through the forest to get there, but it is a bad deer tick season. Lyme disease isn't a joke. Anyhow, I might try again in the winter, this time approaching through the state park to the east.

Well somebody is feeling better eh? Up and about and back to your old trick WOS? Good to see.

Nice pics, I love the Camp Hero mythos but stop short of jumping on the Montauk band wagon but certainly believe the CIA with the help of the military (back in the glory days) were involved in some very interesting experiments there.

Interesting stuff, nicely done.

Glad to see your up and about.

On the bunker with the fresh paint, could it simply be an attempt to cover up grafiti? Though I wouldn't be suprised if it weren't

Spiderj

Yes, thanks I am feeling a ton better. Nothing like a few days at the beach to melt stress away.

I wasn't too concerned with the paint job on the bunker, it could be grafiti like you say, or even just routine maintenance. What really piqued my curiosiity is why the antenna array is protected by a private road the way it is. Is it possible that someone bought it?

Yeah it is possible someone bought the land but I too find it odd. Wasn't the whole dang thing supposedly turned into a state park?

Would or has the military or government ever sold off a parcel of state/national park land to a pirvate owner?

Plus from the pics the equipment looks better than it does in older photos.

I would think night time is the right time for observation at hero.

Nice shot of the big radar array by the way.

As for this:

The mystery for me is why they dont want anyone getting close to this place on the ground.

Well of course the public statements have been about safety of visitors but I do believe they didn't used to be that strict about access and wasn't there a time when they didn't seem to care at all?

Never actaully been (I'm a west coast guy) but I've read up on it alot.

Spiderj

Oh and glad your feeling so much better.

I really don't think they could have sold the land the array is on. Those antenna masts are really tall. There was nothing to put them next to for scale, but I would estimate they were at least 70 feet tall, if not more. I am hesitant to add this, because I did not have time to take a photo, but we did see military helicopters while we were there. They were black, but I wont swear they were unmarked. But they were definitely military. My impression is that they are using those antennas, but ... who knows? Could there be EM or radiation issues? (I should have brought a geiger counter!)

Sorry you missed getting snaps of the choppers. Are you planning another trip?

Spiderj

I would like to go back this winter. Even if just for the day, to try and get my boots on the ground and see if there is activity near the array. It would be a real kicker if we found helicopters landing there...

I must say that I had never heard of Camp Hero until I started reading the post that you had placed here several years ago, and you have got me doing some research on camp hero. I have no clue what the square antenna is but that is some heavy gauge cable running to that breaker bar there. -muzz

WOS, you made my mouth drop open with the first shot of the antenna down the road. It really gives you a sense of scale, the that thing is holy HUGE!

And yeah, that place does seem to be more than just some old military base. The fact that you could not access the base/transmitters/things from any road but that 'no trespassing' one made me suspicious. If you ask me, it sounds like the whole place is elaborately designed so as to appear derelict, but in actual fact there is still something going on there . . .

Oh, and that big square antenna with the massive cable really is something, huh? Who on earth needs a cable that big!?

Yes, it is quite odd that they are blocking access to the array in this manner. As I said, I can't think of any reason for this other than they are being used and they don't want anyone wandering around, for some reason. The foliage is so thick, there are so many bushes, I dont know if you could get to it other than on a path. It is the same way at the base, you have to stick to the roads, its impossible to travel any other way. The road leading to the array has an entrance like a ranch, but it definitely is not military. But the array was definitely owned by the Air Force, so who can figure that. Maybe there is some mundane explanation why you cant get to it on the ground without tresspassing on private property, but I would be interested to know what that reason is.\

That square antenna really has me curious as well. I am looking for other examples to try and see what it is.

Edit to add: Here are some old pictures of the array, you cant really see anything, but I get the impression from the next picture that the facility was abandoned at the time they took the photos. The square antenna is not visible...

www.fortunecity.com...#

[edit on 7-14-2006 by William One Sac]

This here is a picture of a GATR array. I'm not sure, but I seem to remember that 'Pine Tree Line' was a line of EWR/BMEWS stations in North America. Anything overtly suspicious in the pic?

The antenna's look similar, however that square one is missing. I wonder what it could be?

Hey Sac,

I'm going blind looking for antennas that match. I think my problem is that I know next to nothing about electronics and antenna arrays.

But it just struck me that it could be two monopole antennas that have been joined together (the three "tiers") with what appears to be a cable jury rigged to it.

Could it be that we wont find it because it's a specific/unknown type of tower made from readily available materials.

I would assume it's possible, but to what end I do not know.

Still combing through pages and pages of tower information.

Spiderj

Edit to add: actually it looks more like six tiers/connections.

[edit on 7/14/2006 by Spiderj]

[edit on 7/14/2006 by Spiderj]

Well I'm gonna take a break but here's a site about US military shortwave that has a "similar" tower configuration and I do use similar very, very, very loosely:

members.tripod.com...

Pic is about two thirds of the way down one of those same but completely different types of situations.

Also here's a little paranoid free thinking. Perhaps that array you took pictures of is a decoy. Look pay attention over here to these odd looking towers. Meanwhile, it's the trees themselves being used as towers.

Here's a link about fake trees (with pic) being proposed to hid cell phone towers, makes sense fake trees could be used for other types of towers:

the.honoluluadvertiser.com...

Pic is on page and clickable.

Well, gonna go make a new tinfoil hat before the premiere of stargate this evening...ah what a nerdalicous evening I have planned.

Spiderj

The big 'cable' could be a waveguide, with
whatever was on the business end missing.

What's the black thing on top? I can't tell from the photo.

I was able to find 2 pictures with a little more detail on that square antenna and crop them. I have no idea what the thing is...



Spiderj, I have no clue what could be going on there. Maybe that is the entrance to an underground city for all I know! In all seriousness though, you have a pretty large military facility guarded by a privately owned road. If I was a bit younger (I almost said alot ) I might have made a run for it up there.

The picture on that page:

members.tripod.com...

does look similar, but is missing the cross beams. On the Camp Hero ones they look like they might be for support, but the first and third ones definitley look like they serve some kind of purpose.

It could be that it is unique, but in a way that gives the people who buy into the conspiracy theories more fodder for the fire.

Muzz: I am glad I got you interested in the base. Camp Hero is what got me interested in alot of the subjects covered here on ATS.

You know, as look at this pic more and more, I can't help but think that that might be a cable conduit, heavy piece of steel pipe that is all on section to ensure that there is no water leakage into the pipe. I know that is what we use where I work, to transport fiber optic cable, of course there is shielding and cushoning inside. -muzz

WOS: I started looking here like while searching, like I'm sure many others did, the infamous Area 51.

[edit on 7-15-2006 by muzz]

The more I look at that picture, the more I'm thinking waveguide.

A lot of times (all the time for microwave, a lot of the time for VHF radar, esp higher power outputs) you don't use coax or something to get the signal there and back, you use a pipe called a waveguide. This is often a square or rectangular tube, but can also be round, depending on the wavelength and polarization.

I'm betting there was some sort of vertical-firing antenna up there fed by the waveguide that's since been removed.

Climb up there next time and get me a picture and some dimensions on the end of the cable looking thing, I'll tell you what frequency it was.

It could also be an ionospheric height measurement radar, it's sometimes handy to know this in order to diddle the transmitting frequencies of HF units.

It could be that it is unique, but in a way that gives the people who buy into the conspiracy theories more fodder for the fire.

Yeah, me included. The close up pics are good, as for the purpose of the first and third tiers I have no idea what purpose they would serve but you are right, they're different than the others.

Yep, pretty odd and I'm totally with you. If you were younger I'd ask you to take a run at em too

I come from a long and proud line of cowards. But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to volunteer you for some dangerous shenanigans.

Edit to add: and Tom I have no idea what any of what you said just means...except diddle which says a lot more about me than anything else. But it certainly sounds good.

Spiderj

[edit on 7/15/2006 by Spiderj]

I think the third tier is just a pair of platforms for the poor sap to stand on that's servicing the antenna feed.

The top plate there has a hole cut in it to let the antenna feed pass through, and looks maybe like it's a support structure for an antenna that's not there now. Maybe some sort of vertical horn.

ps

While you guys are looking for similar towers, look at other SAGE and DEW installations, also for Lincoln Labs' radar installations. It might help narrow it down.

[edit on 15-7-2006 by Tom Bedlam]