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Project PAMOR Project PAMOR (passive Moon relay) was a highly classified project to intercept radar signals reflected from the Moon, originating from transmitters deep within the Soviet Union. It became an official US Navy intelligence program in 1950, though its origin can be traced back to 1947 after the success of Project Diana. The prime mover of the project was an engineer and radio amateur by the name of James H. Trexler,2 assigned to the electronic countermeasures group of the US NRL. It was in 1948, after having read a paper entitled ‘Considerations of MoonRelay Communication that Trexler determined that it should be possible to use the Moon for the above mentioned eavesdropping purpose. During the next two years the project evolved at the NRL’s Blue Plains field facility in Washington DC, showing promise. As a result, the effort was formalized by mid 1950 and funds were directed towards building a new antenna at Stump Neck, Maryland. The antenna, a 67 by 80 metres fixed elliptical parabola, was built and commissioned in 1951. It had a limited tracking capability, but in return it was built for optimum performance towards the ‘Sino-Soviet Block’. In order to learn more about the reflection properties of the lunar surface, the first EME echoes, using the new antenna, were received in October 1951. The transmitter operated at 198 MHz, delivering about 750 W using 10 μ,s pulses. To Trexler’s surprise, most of the received energy originated from the centre region of the lunar disc, meaning that the signals were much more coherent than expected . The potential of the project was thus greater than previously believed. As a result, PAMOR was given more priority and a higher security status. However, by 1954 it had become obvious that the project had outgrown the Stump Neck site. In order to satisfy all of the proposed electrical intelligence (ELINT) needs, a significantly larger antenna was required. Plans were thus made to build a 183 metre dish in Sugar Grove, West Virginia, though these plans never came into existence. Fortunately, there were other antennas at hand, alas these were only 46 metres in diameter which was the required minimum. One of these was ‘The Dish’, located in Palo Alto, California, while another was located at the NRL’s Chesapeake Bay facility. Using these dishes, detailed information was acquired about the Soviet Union’s anti–ballistic missile radar systems. In a declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document entitled ‘Moon Bounce ELINT – The monitoring of Soviet radars by way of the lunar surface, the author Frank Eliot tellingly concludes: ‘The Moon Bounce effort is one of those intelligence collection techniques which seemed at first “far out” but has in the event more than paid for itself.’ The NRL’s Stump Neck site with the 67 by 80 metres elliptical parabola. The focal point is approximately 27 metres above the dish, where a horn-type feed is used. The gain and beam width were measured using the Sun as well as a ‘horn gain standard’, which can be seen on the ground to the right of the parabola. (Photo courtesy of the NRL

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