THE HAIKU OMEGA AID TO NAVIGATION STATIONHaiku Valley, located near Kaneohe on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii, is a horseshoe-shaped caldera of the extinct Ko'olau volcano, boasting vertical walls extending 2800 feet above sea level. The valley and its ridges are highlighted. The parallel red lines outline the area where six valley spanning antenna cables stretched a distance of 1 1/3 miles across the valley. The red & yellow insert displays - (And points to) - the transmitter building that housed the Omega Aid To Navigation equipment. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]1986 insert by Steve Malavolti

PHOTOS OF EIGHT OMEGA NAVIGATION STATIONS - WORLD WIDE

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David Jessup > Overview Of The Omega Aid To Navigation System Located at 8 stations around the world. 1.The Timing & Control center at each station developed five VLF radio signals, timed by Cesium clocks, and sent them to → 2. a 150,000 watt transmitter whose output, in turn, went to one of → 3. five 14 foot tall variometer coils, each controlled by a six foot relay: The relay output went to → 4. a huge 25 foot tall, 12 foot wide, helix coil that fed either → 5. 1400 foot tall towers at six of the stations, or → 6. valley spanning antenna cables over a mile in length at 2 stations. OMEGA was the primary means of radio navigation, world wide, from 1976 to 1997. .[NEXT SCREEN] ORReturn Home → Ω

David Jessup > A draftsman's conception of the Omega station at Haiku. Included are the looping wires interconnecting all the valley spanning cables at the point the vertical element connects to spans #2 & #3. The double wire at the right (rising at an angle from the valley floor) indicates that initially it was planned that the north hoist would be retained. However, it was removed after the station was established. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]

David Jessup > The lower portion of the vertical element of the Omega antenna can be seen rising from the top of the Helix room of the transmitter building. Civilian contract employees began experimenting with the Omega Navigational Aid system at Haiku in 1971. Coast Guard personnel took over the program February 1973. One death and several serious injuries occurred before the completion of the Omega antenna system in 1974. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]1986 Photo by Steve Malavolti courtesy of Dr. Ronald Hillstrom

David Jessup > The Navy added the single level building extension, shown on the right side of the transmitter building, in 1948 to house the second Alternator. The Coast Guard installed the top floor about 1973. Upon completion of the Omega antenna system, large red balls were placed on the cables crossing the valley to warn aircraft. The first activation of the Omega transmitter caused the balls to explode into flame. A brave man in a tethered balloon removed the remains. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]1986 Photo by Steve Malavolti

David Jessup > THE AN/FRN-30 TIMING & CONTROL PANELThis panel created, formatted and timed the five Omega signals.From here the signal went to one of two 150 Kw transmitters. The second transmitter remained on standby. See Timing & Contol Panel detail Photos → Ω [ BACK ] . . . . . [ NEXT ]Photo by Steve Malavolti - 1986 - Courtesy of Dr. Hillstrom

David Jessup > Transmitter A of the twin AN/FRT-88 transmitters. The transmiters sent 150,000 watts to the antenna. But the ERP (Effective Radiated Power) from the antenna only measured about 10,000 watts. Even the help of the Helix coil and the capacity hat (MORE ABOUT THESE TWO ITEMS LATER) could not totally compensate for the vast difference between the physical length of the antenna and the long transmitted wave length. [ BACK ] . . . . . [ NEXT ]Photo by Steve Malavolti - 1986 - Courtesy of Dr. Hillstrom

David Jessup > OMEGA HAIKU TRANSMITTER B - 1990Four transmitter building tours with great photos! The Transmitter Room Tour is essential for appreciation of the Omega system. Transmitter Room (IMPORTANT new photos) → Ω
Emergency Generators (At five Omega stations)→ Ω Office space tour photographed in 2009 → Ω Dummy Load Room & Second Deck → Ω [ BACK ] . . . . . [ NEXT ] Photo by Steve Malavolti - 1986 - Courtesy of Dr. Hillstrom

David Jessup > See great photos of Antenna Matching transformer componentsfrom other Omega stations → Ω [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]

David Jessup > Each Omega station had their own idea as to how to add nitrogen to the RF coaxial cables. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]

David Jessup > Introducing the variometer coils (Yellow insert) that received the five signals (sequentially) from the antenna matching transformer room. The variometer coils passed their signals to the Helix coil (Red insert). These coils filled the outlined areas from floor to ceiling! This building and the coils were HUGE! [ BACK ] . . . . . [ NEXT ]Photos by Annette Lancaster 2007 & Steve Malavolti - 1986

David Jessup > New Photos Tour Variometer rooms → Ω The building housed six variometer coils, in six shielded rooms. Each coil stood about 14 feet tall with a diameter about 4 feet. Five coils were active. One acted as a spare. The varometer inner coil (shorted upon itself) moved up & down inside the outer coil to help maintain tuning.The RF output of each variometer to the helix coil was controlled by a six foot stack of three huge and noisy vacuum relay cells connected in series. Robert Lancaster remembers, "I can still hear the pounding relays in my dreams. They went off with a BANG every second or so - 24-7!" [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]Photos by John Flanigan & Annette Lancaster

THE HAIKU OMEGA AID TO NAVIGATION STATIONHaiku Valley, located near Kaneohe on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii, is a horseshoe-shaped caldera of the extinct Ko'olau volcano, boasting vertical walls extending 2800 feet above sea level.
The valley and its ridges are highlighted.
The parallel red lines outline the area where six valley spanning antenna cables stretched a distance of 1 1/3 miles across the valley.
The red & yellow insert displays - (And points to) - the transmitter building that housed the Omega Aid To Navigation equipment. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]
1986 insert by Steve Malavolti

David Jessup > THE HAIKU OMEGA AID TO NAVIGATION STATIONHaiku Valley, located near Kaneohe on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii, is a horseshoe-shaped caldera of the extinct Ko'olau volcano, boasting vertical walls extending 2800 feet above sea level. The valley and its ridges are highlighted. The parallel red lines outline the area where six valley spanning antenna cables stretched a distance of 1 1/3 miles across the valley. The red & yellow insert displays - (And points to) - the transmitter building that housed the Omega Aid To Navigation equipment. [ BACK ] . . . . [ NEXT ]1986 insert by Steve Malavolti

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