Dept. of the Army Civilian at the MSR
Guestbook Entry
From Charles Campbell, 20 October 2003, Sierra Vista, AZ MSCB, power plant, and their entrances: This is the personnel entrance. The large tunnel with the sloping drive (that you show flooded) is the Power Plant entrance. There was a huge blast door at the bottom of the ramp that was left closed except to bring in large equipment and supplies. During early construction, the blast door was left open. Everyone entered at this point. After the site was secured, everyone used the personnel entrance. The main corridor inside the power plant connected to the Control building also. All large equipment for both areas came in through the Power Plant entrance. All personnel (and small equipment and supplies) came in through the small tunnel. The personnel entrance entered on the second level. The power plant entrance entered on what might be referred to the basement or first level (there was a sub-basement also). There were actually 7 levels in the MSCB. Most of the upper levels were for access to equipment. (mostly antenna anechoic chambers, wave guide, TR switching, parametic amplifiers, many miles of cables, racks of antenna steering cards). The first level of the MSCB was where the Transmitters, High Voltage Power Supplies and a lot of ancillary equipment (High Purity water (used to cool the computers), Transmitter cooling oil purification and cooling (used to cool the Klystrons), larger substations, larger air handlers, pumps, and inverters) were installed (all very large stuff). There was also a mezzanine floor in the MSCB which was between what you may refer to as the the 1st and 2nd floors. There were some low voltage power supplies, supply rooms, storage areas, and repair facilities there. I believe the sleeping areas were on the mezzanine also. A pretty large area at that. The Power Plant had two levels in the area of the control room and switchgear platform. The generator modules filled their space from floor to ceiling. All non-specialized utilities were located in the power plant. I really don't recall anything you would consider an escape hatch. There was an opening in the ceiling of the power plant which we used to access switchgear when testing the generators. There was a plate (about 4 X 4 as I remember on the NE side of the MSCB in the parameter road (just at the base of the visible structure) which entered into the tunnel from the MSCB to the Missile Field substations. This tunnel was where all of the power was delivered from the MSCB to the co-located Missile Field. As I recall, these openings were welded closed when not being used.
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