science

Sugar Grove Station

Sugar Grove Station is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sugar Grove Station rather than just read about it. In short: Sugar Grove Station is a National Security Agency (NSA) communications site located near Sugar Grove, West Virginia. According to a 2005 article in The New York Times, the site intercepts all international communications entering the Eastern United States.

Key takeaways

Sugar Grove Station belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sugar Grove Station to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sugar Grove Station from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sugar Grove Station is a National Security Agency (NSA) communications site located near Sugar Grove, West Virginia. According to a 2005 article in The New York Times, the site intercepts all international communications entering the Eastern United States. Activities at the site previously involved the Navy Information Operations Command (NAVIOCOM). In April 2013, the Chief of Naval Operations ordered that the NAVIOCOM support base be closed by September 30, 2015, as "a result of the determination by the resource sponsor National Security Agency to relocate the command's mission." As of 2017, the naval base is being repurposed as a privately owned healthcare facility for veterans, while the NSA listening station, to the south, continues to operate.

History

The station was built by the Naval Research Laboratory in the early 1960s for a 600 ft (180 m) fully steerable radio telescope, intended to gather intelligence on Soviet radar and radio signals reflected from the Moon, and radioastronomical data from outer space, but the project was halted in 1962 before the telescope was completed. The site was then developed as a radio receiving station. Naval Radio Station Sugar Grove was activated on May 10, 1969, and two Wullenweber AN/FRD-10 Circulary Disposed Antenna Arrays (CDAAs) were completed on November 8, 1969. Numerous other antennas, dishes, domes, and other facilities were constructed in the following years. Some of the more significant radio telescopes on site are a 60 ft (18 m) dish (oldest telescope on site), a 105 ft (32 m) dish featuring a special waveguide receiver and a 150 ft (46 m) dish (largest telescope on site). The site was part of the ECHELON communications network operated by the United States and its allies to intercept and process electronic telecommunications. The network operates many sites around the world, including Waihopai Valley in New Zealand, Menwith Hill in the United Kingdom and Yakima, Washington. Sugar Grove is located in the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, which covers 13,000 square miles (34,000 km2) in West Virginia and Virginia. The zone was established by Congress in 1958 to facilitate Sugar Grove's mission and that of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, located 30 miles (48 km) away at Green Bank, West Virginia. Since 1984, a Quiet Zone administrator in Green Bank has overseen the NRQZ on behalf of both sites for all unclassified assignments. On July 26, 2016, it was reported that the online auction for Sugar Grove Naval Station concluded on July 25 with a winning bid of $11.2 million. The transaction later failed and bidding was reopened that September. In 2017, the second auction resulted in a $4 million purchase by an Alabama-based investment group with plans to convert the base into a healthcare facility for active-duty military, veterans, and their families.

Notes

References

External links

Eyeballing Sugar Grove Echelon Station – Many maps, diagrams and large, high-quality satellite and aerial photographs of the site Sugar Grove History And Its Two CDAAs declassified Echelon file on Sugar Grove at the GWU's National Security Archive Satellite Photograph of Sugar Grove at Google Maps Navy Information Operations Command Sugar Grove Official Site (archived 2011)

Further reading Bamford, James, The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-006748-5. Bamford, James, The New York Times, December 25, 2005: "The Agency That Could Be Big Brother".

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sugar Grove Station

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sugar Grove Station claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sugar Grove Station before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sugar Grove Station ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sugar Grove Station

In research: Sugar Grove Station appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sugar Grove Station in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sugar Grove Station is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Communications and electronic installations of the United States Navy, Earth stations in the United States, National Security Agency facilities, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sugar Grove Station outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sugar Grove Station in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sugar Grove Station means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sugar Grove Station out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sugar Grove Station in simple terms?

Why does Sugar Grove Station matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sugar Grove Station?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sugar Grove Station.