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By
Louis C . Hochman
InfoAge Learning Center
Director Fred Carl knows a lot
about former U .S. Army Base
Camp Evans, and the landmark
radar and communications tech-
nologies developed there during
the 20th Century.
As the head of a museum set to
open at Camp Evans later this
year, Mr. Carl has spent years
researching the former use of the
area known as the Project Diana
site. He can speak endlessly about
the Television Infrared
Observation Satellite [TIROS]
project, the advancement of radar-
related sciences and the experiments
that made communications
around the world possible .
But despite his research, until
recently, Mr. Carl had no idea
exactly where the large communications
dish at the Project Diana
site came from.
"Nobody could tell us anything
about the manufacturer," Mr . Carl
said .
That changed in November,
when Mr. Carl bought a book
about satellite tracking systems in
an online auction. The book had
been published in 1961, and was
out of print for several years .
"It had a photo of a dish just
like ours - including the manufacturer
and model number," Mr.
Carl said .
The manufacturer, Radiation
Inc ., now trades under the name of
Harris Corporation and is based
out of Florida .
"To my surprise, they were still
in business, and they had a repre- sentative at Fort Monmouth," Mr.
Carl said.
Harris helped Mr. Carl assemble
information about the historic
piece of technology, and helped
him contact retired scientists who
helped develop the dish .
The dish was apparently built in
the late 1950s, and many of those
responsible later moved on to jobs
with NASA.
Before learning about Harris'
connection, "it was tough to track
all of them down," Mr. Carl said .
Now, Mr. Carl said, he knows
the InfoAge center was under
some misconceptions about the
dish .
Mr. Carl and the rest of the
InfoAge staff had believed the
dish was built for use with the
TIROS I and II projects - early
experiments to see if satellites
could be used to study Earth .
The director said he now knows
the dish was originally built for
Project Mercury - the United
States' first successful manned
space flight program . It was later
repurposed for TIROS .
It has been years since the
Project Diana site dish was used
for communications experiments.
But at roughly 80 feet in height, it
is still an obvious presence at
Camp Evans. .
Mr. Carl said as Wall Township
continues negotiations to acquire
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most
of Camp Evans from the
U.S . Army, he's been making
plans to see the dish restored .
To that end, a structural engineer
from Harris visited the dish
last week .
"The engineer told us that it's in
good structural shape," Mr. Carl
said .
The dish and its tower had been
built to withstand winds as high as
70 mph, Mr. Carl said . Because of
that, the basic structure has
remained intact over time .
"Because it's so heavy, and the
corrosion is just at the surface
level," Mr. Carl said .
But there has been some aes-
thetic deterioration. Portions of
the dish have rusted, for instance,
Mr. Carl said .
"There are definitely some
things that need to be cleaned up
and welded," he said .
Mr. Carl has asked Harris to
help with the restoration, and the
structural engineer, Michael
Hoffman, is expected to make a
presentation to his company on the
subject next month .
A spokesman for Harris was
researching the matter this week,
but was unable to provide comment
on the request by press time .
However, Mr. Carl said he has
received "positive indications"
from the company that it would
like to help, if possible .
Mr. Carl said he, the InfoAge
staff and volunteers would be able
to do some of the aesthetic repair
on their own, if need be . But
Harris' expertise can improve that
effort, he said .
"They could help us beyond
what we can do ourselves," he
said .
The largest challenge is brought
about by the tower's height, Mr.
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Carl
said .
"We'd have to lease or rent
some equipment to get that high
up," he added.
So far, Mr. Carl and others have
been able to repaint portions of the
tower as high up as 35 to 40 feet .
But they're hoping to reach even
higher to restore a dish once used
to look to the stars .
Mr. Carl said he hopes the tower
can see some work in the next few
months, but he doubted it could be
completely restored in time for the
opening of one of the InfoAge
buildings in June.
"That would be nice, but our
main goal right now is getting the
building itself open," Mr . Carl said
of the facility, which will house
exhibits from NASA .
Mr. Carl said he's hopeful
Harris will be eager to help preserve
"what might be one of their
oldest pieces around "
During the structural engineer's
examinationn of the dish, he found
a piece of equipment with the serial
number "001 ."
"That's definitely pretty old,"
Mr. Carl said .
InfoAge is continuing to seek
volunteers who can help paint and
restore other parts of the Project
Diana area .
Recently, it received aid from
Eagle Scout Josh Foxton, who
helped fix up a former guard shack
at the area's entrance. The Wall
Kiwanis Club painted the exterior
of one building . Wall's public
works department helped clear
away trees as work in the area pro-
gressed.
"Between the town and the
Kiwanis and the Scouts, this has
been a real community effort," Mr .
Carl said.
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