West Ford radar and microwave equipment

The ground stations used in the West Ford experiment, one in California and one in Massachusetts, can transmit and receive CW X-band communications signals simultaneously. In addition, each station can be changed within minutes to a radar capable of tracking and measuring the characteristics of the dipole belt and other satellites. The high performance of these stations also permits other scientific experiments. New radio and radar techniques and components such as high-power X-band klystrons, low-noise masers, and high-performance waveguide devices are used at these stations. The operation of the stations and the microwave components and techniques are described in this paper.