Message posted by Ron Milione on December 07, 2011 at 9:59:18 PST:

The Opana Radar Site is a National Historic Landmark and IEEE Milestone that commemorates the first operational use of radar by the United States in wartime, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.It is located off the Kamehameha Highway just inland from the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, south of Kawela Bay. It is not open to the public.

History:

In December 1939, the U.S. military established an Aircraft Warning Service (AWS) using radar to defend American territory. It employed the SCR-270 radar, the first United States long-range search radar created at the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, circa 1937. The radar's operating frequency was 106 megacycles, with a maximum range of 150 miles, or greater if the equipment was at an elevated site, and was suitable for detecting aircraft propellers.

Under the command of Col. Wilfred H. Tetley the AWS established six mobile radar detector sets in Hawaii at Kawaiola, Wainae, Kaawa, Kokohead, Schofield Barracks, and Fort Shafter. On Thanksgiving Day in 1941, the Schofield Barracks radar set was moved to the Opana Radar Site, a location 532 feet above sea level with unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean. The set comprised four trucks carrying the transmitter, modulator, water cooler, receiver, oscilloscope, operator, generator and antenna.

Today

Today, a modern Navy telecommunications station occupies the top of the Opana Hill adjacent to the site. Since the 1941 radar was a mobile, there is no physical evidence of the historic unit at the site. There is a commemorative plaque on the grounds of the Turtle Bay Resort at the foot of Opana Hill.

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