"Little activity was sustained at this site from the end of the Korean War to the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam era, Camp Roberts once again bustled with activity, though not on as grand a scale as World War II or the Korean War. The installation was not officially opened, and thus earned the title, "most active 'inactive' post in the U.S." Camp Roberts supported a variety of operations, including the construction of a satellite communications station as part of a worldwide strategic communications network (the first station of its kind in the world). Additionally, the Army's Combat Development Experimentation Command (CDEC) used the site for weapons testing, and the Navy used one of the live-fire ranges to train gunners for river patrol boats. Camp Roberts was officially closed by the Army in April 1970. On 2 April 1971, the California Army National Guard received control of the site, under a license from the Army, to establish a Reserve Component Training Center. The site continues to operate in this fashion today,and while reserve component units have priority under National Guard management, military forces from all service branches (and some foreign countries) have trained there.The qualities in the original Army Corps of Engineers study still serve the training needs of the military today, and will continue for the foreseeable future."

			At the time of the BFEC contract (mid-60's) only the 60 Ft. dish seen at the left in this photo existed. It was connected to the operations area via a covered cable run and walkway. The system, the AN/FSC-9, operated in the X-Band range with state of the art satellite communications equipment using spread spectrum technology, including a cryogenically cooled parametric amplifier on the front end. Hughes Aircraft had built the spacecraft and also the highly secure terminal equipment, i.e. receivers, etc. On the transmitt side a 20KW Klystron was used.

You can check out the Camp Roberts web site at the below link: http://www.militarymuseum.org/campbob.html Camp Roberts in Post Cards

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