Kinda sad...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:iYELf.796015$_o.666924@attbi_s71...
snip

Go visit your FSS soon -- if it's like ours, it's about to go the way of NDBs and radio ranges...

I stopped by KGAG on the way back from the county seat yesterday. Gage once was an auxiliary airbase for Liberal,
Ks. It had an FSS up until the '70's IIRC. The reason I stopped by was that behind the derelict FSS buildings and
the modern ASOS that took its place, buried in knee high Bluestem grass is an old beacon. A fellow EAA'er told me
about it and his description intrigued me. This relic sits on about a 3" pipe approximately waist high. The light
housing is non-adjustable and stationary. It points within a few degrees of straight up in the air. The lens is
about 12 inches in diameter and the filament is about 2" long and very heavy duty. The reflector is a very highly
polished mirror and there is what appears to be a heating element inside the housing. The metal tag on it was
stamped Crouse-Hinds WSO 700. I searched the net for an hour or so last night and found nothing that resembles it.
I thought it was an old airway beacon but the ones I came across on my search looked like you could aim them and most
if not all were colored. Why would anyone want to point a stationary non-colored beam straight up in the air like
that? Anyone have any clues? Was it for the military base or the civilian FSS or what?

I wish someone would salvage one of these old FSS's and set the equipment up in an airplane museum. Can you imagine
what our great great grandkids would think of the old vacuum tube radios.

BTW, your description of the farm economy echoes that of what is happening here. We are on an accelerated time scale
as this was what would be considered by many to be mostly marginal farm land to begin with. In our day though, our
family farm raised seven kids, employed two hired hands, and put five of us kids through college. Most of the small
towns are down to one school and a convenience store / get & go. The CRP (Conservation Reserve Program) that all of
the tree huggers rave about caused the majority of the Farmer's Co-ops to go under. Now the mid sized towns that
have the Wally Worlds are hurting as the kids move away to find jobs. Americana as we know it is dying an agonizing
death in the heartland.



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