Landmarks, Memorials, Buildings and Street Names of ... - CECOM

The Deal Test Area was often in the news in the late 1950s and 1960sbecause of its excellent facilities and performance in monitoringsatellites. It was, for a period, one of the prime tracking stations of theNorth Atlantic Missile Range. When Sputnik I was launched in October1957, the Deal area was the first government installation in the UnitedStates to pick up and record the Russian signals. An elaboratemonitoring facility was set up in time to monitor Sputnik II. Onceagain, Deal was the first American station to receive the signals.Space achievements followed rapidly. All satellites, both American andRussian, were monitored and logged continuously by Deal personnel,as were all missiles launched from Cape Kennedy. The Deal Area wasthe communications center for COURIER, the first large capacityactive communication satellite, which had been developed atFort Monmouth.It was also instrumental in the TIROS I and II weather satellites. Itsspace availabilities dropped off gradually as NASA and the Air Forceset up their own monitoring and tracking facilities.In compliance with Army and DoD directives to abandon excessleased real estate, ECOM terminated their lease with the site ownerseffective 30 June 1973. The Deal facilities and personnel were movedto the government-owned Evans Area. cxxviiiiDiana SiteA large, dish-type antenna just south of theMarconi Hotel in the Evans Area marks the site ofthe Diana Project. Here, in January 1946, SignalCorps scientists successfully bounced a signal offthe surface of the moon and proved the feasibilityof satellite communications. The Diana antennaresembled a pair of bedsprings on a tall mast,reminiscent of early RADAR antenna design.Diana Radar SiteThe dish type antenna now on the site is not the Diana antenna.However, it has a history of its own. The Signal Corps erected it in the1950s as America was preparing to launch its first communicationssatellites, which were also being developed at Fort Monmouth. Whenthe Soviet Union launched SPUTNIK I in 1957, Signal Corps engineersused this antenna to track the Soviet satellite and monitor its signals.Landmarks and Place Names at Fort Monmouth