tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56020292017180020852024-03-15T21:09:31.085-04:00Camping CanadianMy rambling stories of my trips to, travel plans, and research of, Cold War related sites, mostly in Canada.Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-25224501093018559632016-08-10T22:43:00.000-04:002016-08-10T22:43:01.696-04:00The Earnest Harmon Air Force Base (nuclear) Weapons Storage Magazine, in Stephenville, NL
Back in the 1950s the United States had several very large military bases operating in Canada as refueling bases, reconnaissance bases, and long range aviation bases with rotating bomber wings;
Earnest Harmon Air Force Base was one such base.
Stephenville Newfoundland was chosen by the USAF for "Harmon Field" as it was initially called; provided to the United Stated from the British Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com4Stephenville, NL, Canada48.5479718 -58.58153529999998548.4638653 -58.742896799999983 48.632078299999996 -58.420173799999986tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-62036529884172286322016-05-24T22:21:00.001-04:002016-05-24T23:01:51.333-04:00Aэродром Воздвиженка | Vozdvizhenka Aerodrome and nearby РТБ в/ч 23477
Location: 43°54'28.9"N 131°55'21.8"E
The Vozdvizhenka Aerodrome is located a couple of hours by road North of Vladivostok, and from 1953 to 2009 was a heavy bomber airfield, first with the Soviets then the Russians. The 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment was based at the Vozdvizhenka Aerodrome (Aэродром Воздвиженка). The famed nuclear-weapon capable Tu-16K, Tu-22M3, as well as Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com4Vozdvizhenka Aerodrome43.8977621 131.9337353999999343.8062271 131.77237389999993 43.9892971 132.09509689999993tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-29232929053374386102016-05-02T18:00:00.000-04:002016-05-02T18:00:16.332-04:00Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy-54; a former Soviet Navy submarine base in Russia's far-East
Location: 53°15'46.7"N 159°46'51.4"E
Picture taken in 1994 of the Bay from the volleyball court"вид на бухту со стороны волейбольной площадки.На противоположном берегу видна дорога к гарнизону ракетчиков Шипунский"Photo Credit: UnknownSource: here
This is just a stub blog post with what I've found so far, and I'll add to it as I learn more. I doubt this is a place I'll ever have the Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-53876947894428567602016-04-11T08:37:00.000-04:002016-04-11T14:34:21.948-04:00Военный аэродром Ростов-на-Дону - Центральный | Military Airfield Rostov-on-Don - Central (XRRO)
Flag of the Soviet Air Force -Wikipedia
The military airport to the Northwest end of Rostov-on-Don caught my eye a while back, and I wanted to figure out what it had been used for in the Cold War.
Looking at open-source satellite imagery it was obvious that the airport was, or had been, military from the alert aprons with hard stands surrounded by berms at the end of the runway. But Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-78553978223305422782016-04-03T16:51:00.002-04:002016-04-03T16:51:43.401-04:00Are all Cold War Nuclear Weapons Storage Areas Contaminated?
Coat of arms of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1958 to 1991
As I've mentioned before, from the 1950s to the 1960s the American nuclear arsenal of nuclear bombs were of a design where the fissile pit (the nuclear part of the nuke) could be removed. When the grapefruit-sized pit was removed, and in storage near the rest of the small-car-sized "non-nucular" bomb weighing Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-45538060920661441792016-03-13T12:00:00.000-04:002016-08-01T12:51:46.862-04:00Goose Air Base | (Nuclear) Weapons Storage Area
Building 1092
Earth Covered Magazine (representative of 1091-1095)
Photo: Howard Haby (2010.04.05)
I have the impression that most Canadians are not aware of the extent that American military forces were deployed at US bases located within Canada borders, throughout the Cold War. I'm also convinced that there were nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Canada, at Goose Air Base, Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com20Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL, Canada53.295629162623982 -60.37683534901589253.290884162623982 -60.386920349015888 53.300374162623982 -60.366750349015895tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-52498111111922039452016-03-13T11:24:00.000-04:002016-03-13T12:27:09.953-04:00New batteries for the 'Burban
My 1999 GMC Suburban K2500 6.5L diesel was really hard to start this winter, and a frayed block heater cable didn't help any. After replacing the block heater cable and dropping in the two new batteries from TSC everything is working MUCH better.
I put in two of these bad boys:
Size 34/78
Model: 778DT
CCA: 850
Reserve: 115
CA: 1020
Weight: 41lbs ea
Previously I had two Energizer Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com1Carp, Ottawa, ON, Canada45.3490658 -76.041322145.3266263 -76.081834100000009 45.371505299999995 -76.0008101tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-12804170189594292402016-02-13T09:00:00.000-05:002016-02-16T02:55:47.526-05:00American nuclear bombs were stored in Goose Bay, and here's proof.
Nuclear weapons are well known to have been stored in Canada; John Clearwater makes that clear in his book, U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Canada (1999). Exactly what kind of nuclear weapons is still a topic of discussion. Yes, there were ground to air missiles (Bomarc), depth charges (Lulu), and air to air missiles (Falcon & Genie) - but were there bombs? There are a lot of Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-30700314530353234422016-01-21T16:25:00.000-05:002016-01-21T16:25:11.194-05:00NEW BLOG - Vessel of Interest | наблюдаемое судно
I've spun out any non-Canadian non-Cold War related blog posts to a new blog called Vessel of Interest (наблюдаемое судно) in order to keep the focus of CampingCDN.blogspot.com with Canadian Cold War topics related to sites I might be able to go and visit, in Canada, or at least posts related to Canada's Cold War effort. Any old posts here that weren't fully Cold War related have Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-40062086961115945322016-01-08T06:00:00.000-05:002016-01-08T08:21:04.180-05:00Canadian Forces Ammunition Depots
ADM(MAT)
I'm interested in the architecture and location of all the ammunition magazines that were used during the Cold War in Canada, and abroad, but it's pretty easy to locate the current locations which are in use as ammunition depots, so let's start there...
Run by the Canadian Materiel Support Group (CMSG), a subordinate formation of CFJOSG, the following ammunition depots are Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-43904433322544598972016-01-04T13:00:00.001-05:002016-01-04T13:28:25.028-05:00Extracting Data from a Holux M-1000C GPS Data Logger using Ubuntu
Photo Credit: Jagro - commons.wikimedia.org
When I'm traveling in the back-country I like to carry a GPS data-logger in a pocket, and forget about it. The Holux M-1000C (or any of its cousins http://www.dx.com/s/holux+gps+data+logger) just logs GPS coordinates, time, speed, and how many satellites it sees, as often as you want it to. Every second? Every meter? Whatever Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-22924328770873582992015-12-21T17:30:00.000-05:002015-12-21T17:33:41.854-05:00Where are the old Canadian SOSUS arrays?
Quick primer on underwater surveillance and anti-submarine warfare. Around 1950 the US Navy started planning and building underwater hydrophones that would listen for Soviet submarines. This was the beginning of SOSUS. After the fall of the Soviet Union many of the sites were decommissioned or centralized, since around the same time there were "technological advancements" (as the official Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-79616375932956410292015-12-19T15:37:00.000-05:002015-12-19T15:37:12.194-05:00The Cold War Sleeping Bag
I'd heard that the winter military sleeping bags are a system of layered sleeping bags, making a cocoon that can withstand -30C temperatures. Well, I just bought a combination of old military surplus bags from a friend, and I'm extremely impressed.
They are labelled:
Case, Sleeping Bag, M-1945, Water Repellent
Case, Sleeping Bag
DSA100-76-C-1773
8465-00-237-8719
Rebmar Inc
Sleeping Bag, Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-76127571663326930142015-11-12T08:36:00.000-05:002015-11-12T11:27:27.649-05:00The Igor Belousov (Игорь Белоусов); finished deep water tests, on to sea trials
Igor Belousov (Игорь Белоусов) Project 21300
Photo Credit - http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/56753/
Credit: arms-expo.ru
The Igor Belousov / Игорь Белоусов, aka "Project 21300", just finished deep water testing with their divers operating in 100 meters (328 feet) of water, using pressurized diving bells and compression chambers, in multiple shifts, simulating rescue operations of a Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-78742856383626422842015-11-10T09:09:00.000-05:002015-11-10T18:20:44.457-05:00Was the Marshal Krylov / Маршал Крылов watching the US Navy ballistic missile test too?
US Navy Air Photo from May 1990 (U)
taken with the famous KA-99 low altitude panoramic camera
On Monday September 21st 2015 the Marshal Krylov (Маршал Крылов) set sail from the home of the Russian Pacific Fleet, Vladivostok. I believe it was back in the harbour by September 27th, but I don't really know how long it was out of port, as it could have just been out briefly for a Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-27243933476915737402015-11-09T23:55:00.000-05:002015-11-10T12:57:58.329-05:00Russian Navy Varag flotilla passes through the Tsushima Strait
Thanks to the Japanese Ministry of Defense (and @7FBTK who noticed they posted the press release), we now have excellent pictures of the Russian Navy Varag flotilla headed to the Bay of Bengal for military exercises with the Indian Navy (that I mentioned previously) under the command of Rear Admiral Alexander Yuldashev (контр-адмирала Александра Юлдашева)
These pictures were taken by a JapaneseSteffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-43297284771601340922015-11-09T18:05:00.000-05:002015-11-10T12:18:40.782-05:00RFS Nikolay Chiker towing the 55,000 ton Admiral Kuznetsov in rough seas (~2012)
Russian Navy ensign
While I haven't found the exact date of this operation, my understanding is it was in 2012 when the Admiral Kuznetsov (Адмира́л Кузнецо́в or Адмира́л фло́та Сове́тского Сою́за Кузнецо́в) experienced engine trouble and had to be towed by the RFS Nikolay Chiker (Николай Чикер), one of the most powerful tugs in the world, and specifically built for just such a task. Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-28349807818872755322015-11-07T23:59:00.000-05:002015-11-10T14:03:02.728-05:00Canadian Forces smuggling illegal arms into Northern Iraq? Not exactly.
The Mediterranean. 6 September 2014
A technician signals a CC-130J Hercules aircraft to stop on an airfield during Operation IMPACT
in the Mediterranean on September 6, 2014.
(Photo: MCpl Patrick Blanchard, Canadian Forces Combat Camera)
(Used without Permission)
This is a first; I've never felt any compulsion to post anything about Canadian Forces' OP Impact; the Canadian contribution Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-55967501201237896522015-11-04T18:00:00.000-05:002015-11-10T12:56:59.761-05:00The Russian Navy Pacific Fleet Flagship is on the move
While waiting for the Fotiy Krylov to arrive back in Vladivostok, I've been paying more attention than usual to Russian Pacific fleet movements. I was happy to see something in my morning Twitter feed from @7FBTK and @az1ok about a flotilla, including the Pacific Fleet flagship Varyag, leaving Vladivostok, headed to the Indian port of Visakhapatnam ( Original source Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-62129939814810475912015-10-31T01:06:00.000-04:002015-11-03T15:48:42.736-05:00RFS Fotiy Krylov and RV Marshal Gelovani visit Shanghai, China
To recap, ships from the Russian Navy Pacific Fleet, RFS Fotiy Krylov and RV Marshal Gelovani, have traveled from Vladivostok, to Nicaragua, did some stuff while they were there... and are on their way back to their home port. To my surprise they stopped in the port of Shanghai! Luckily Shanghai has some excellent shipspotters that really go the extra mile.
Thank you for the pictures Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-17790558233181668392015-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:002015-12-23T23:50:27.936-05:00Trevor Paglen - You should know his name.
Trevor Paglen
Photo Credit: Paris Match - May 2014
Trevor Paglen "gets it". With all the secrecy that's going on, there is mountain of information out there - and it can't all be hidden. Some things are hidden in plain sight, you just need to know where and how to look. I admire his ability to see things in a different light, and pursue them.
Full biography here:
Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-34080516632993733222015-09-27T15:44:00.002-04:002015-09-27T15:44:26.534-04:00DND CANADA - GENERATOR SET - GASOLINE ENGINE [ PU-5025/U ]
I made a new acquisition that I can't find a lot of information about. It seems like it's a 1970s 28 Volt, DC, 17.9 Amp, 500W generator powered by a 1 cylinder, two stroke, gas engine, with a rip-cord pull start (not recoil!). This seems very similar to the US Department of Defense MEP-024A, but you can see from the diagrams it's slightly different. Searching for all Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-67990135567856754882015-09-20T22:05:00.002-04:002015-09-20T22:39:36.251-04:00RV Yantar (Янтарь) arrives at the Port of Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles
I can take no credit for these spectacular pictures (CLICK THEM!), all credit goes to Cees Bustraan, who is an avid Ship Spotter for shipspotting.com with over 10,000 pictures to his credit (WOW!). I dropped him a line; he'd been monitoring the RV Yantar's progress towards Willemstad, and took pictures of it as in came in to port today, just in the nick of time since it was almost a Steffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-71078312625120300462015-09-10T18:06:00.000-04:002015-09-10T18:06:00.060-04:00Credits and References
Recently I've been reminded that I have a lot of help from the "Twiterverse", "Blogosphere", and whatever other catchy names I can think of to describe the international community that I tap into online, to glean information about current and past events. The following is is limited number of twitter accounts and blogs you might want to follow if you're interested in similar topics.
Consider itSteffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5602029201718002085.post-51639577676649577512015-09-10T17:55:00.000-04:002015-09-10T17:55:00.709-04:00Cuban Military Facilities
While looking for information about historic military bases in Cuba, several names of locations were mentioned that I had no familiarity with. Somehow, Cuban geography wasn't something I picked up in school. So, I slapped this together with the available information I had at my disposal. It's not complete, and may not even be up to date, but I made it as a visual aid for myselfSteffan Watkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11450950957115187533noreply@blogger.com0