In the late 80's it was decided to add a tactical,
transportable radar, enclosed in its own radome. This was to be the Type 93, which was a 3D
radar, capable of finding range, bearing and height with a single head, doing
away with the need for a separate height-finder. During construction the Type
93 radome collapsed twice, in Jun '89 and again in Sep '89. The "golf
ball" was completed in 1990 but the
new radar was not ready for delivery to Unst.
As many of you will know Shetland and particularly the radar
site suffered severely in the gales at New Year 1991/92:
http://ahistoryofrafsaxavord.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/storm-new-year-199192-part-1.html
The only operational search radar at the
time, the S649, was badly damaged and its 65' diameter radome was a total write
off. Pictures from before and after the gale:
The wind also totally destroyed the 110' diameter radome
which had been erected to house the, as yet undelivered , Type 93. Saxa Vord, a
major link it the NATO air defence chain was non-operational.
With the cooperation of the civilian authorities, a number
of operations personnel were detached to Sumburgh Airport on the Shetland
Mainland, where spare Air Traffic facilities were used to provide some radar
cover in Saxas area of responsibility. In the meantime, senior officers,
engineers & contractors got together to see what could be done to permit
the Unit to resume its full operational role.
On the plus side the Type 93 radar would be coming, though work on
building a radome for it would have to
start again. In January 1992 probably few realised it would be nearly 2 years
before the Type 93 would be operational.
In order to provide a search radar as quickly as possible it
was decided to recover the S649 without
a radome. The damage to the E/F Band side of the radar was so severe it was
agreed not to repair that part of the equipment but to concentrate all efforts
on making the D Band radar operational. The main Contractors (Marconi) and RAF
personnel had a busy time before the S649 became serviceable again in November
1992, ten months after the storm.
For a year, until November 1993 when the Type 93 was
accepted, the S649 enabled the Unit to
meet its NATO commitment. A new radar on site - surely time to retire the old
equipment? Unfortunately, new equipment frequently has teething problems and
personnel can take a while to get used to new technology. It wasn't until April 1995 that the S649 was
finally decommissioned. The contract for removing the radar and it's plinth was awarded to Malakoff
& Wm Moore Ltd, a Lerwick based company which had been in the engineering
business for around a hundred years.
In the summer of 1995 Maurice Henderson, a Shetlander, got a
job with Malakoff in his University holidays . He was one of a small number of
people sent to Unst to demolish the S649
and, fortunately for us, he took his camera with him. It would be best to let
him tell the story in his own words:
"We spent almost 6 weeks
taking down the radar. Much of that was waiting for calm enough weather
to use the crane on top of the hill. Danny Arthur, Harry Ratter, Sydney
Sinclair and myself were based up there. Michael Jacobson came up near
the end with a digger to use the rock breaker to chip out the base
blocks. The stone was incredibly hard and said to be bomb proof
concrete. We also had a second crane hired from OIL at one point to do a
tandem lift to take out the heavy gear box. About 8 or 9 tonnes if I recall
correct.
The huge bottle screws were a
couple of hundred weight each that held on the dish bit of the radar and Danny
Arthur walked along the top of the pipe cutting them as he went the whole
structure shaking under his feet when the cut through. He was harnessed
on but I wouldn’t have fancied it. I remember it quite dramatic at night,
I had the escort van tied on to the
corner to keep the strain against the wind. Felt a bit like being in a
thunderbirds episode ha ha!
It
ended up we had to get another crane up the hill and do a tandem lift for the
gear box and motors, which were much heavier than estimated and at quite a
reach for the crane. It took a number of weeks to get a day when the wind
dropped to a safe level to remove the large bits of the structure.
We
had to get in a JCB rock breaker to chip away the last of the concrete base
which seemed to be particularly tough, bomb proof they said. Made from
special stone shipped in from near Inverness, and a serious lot of
reinforcing. Whether that was true or not it was a tough pick even for
the JCB rock breaker, our pneumatic windipicks were of no use. We took the
whole structure down and left the place with a clean concrete base.
The centre pipe went to Uyeasound where someone was hoping to use
the sections to build a bit of a pier - not sure if he did or not. We got
a few folk looking to scran stuff but the wave guides and a lot of the
materials were some fancy alloys that did not cut easily (Note: up in Shetland
Scran means to acquire cast-off materials, unlike some parts where it's another
word for food - particularly in the Royal Navy)
We stayed with Nancy Hughson at Ordale and were extremely well
catered for, and all put on a fair bit of weight! Never seen grub like
it. A fantastic time we had in Unst a very memorable job, got to know the
island quite well. Still one of the most enjoyable
summers I have spent, loved it in Unst."
The following pictures all belong to
Maurice and they illustrate his summer perfectly:-
I would
like to thank Maurice for allowing ne to use his anecdotes and excellent
photos. Before finishing, a couple of notes:
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