Coordinates: 66°38'N, 52°51'W
Overview
DYE-1 (call sign "Red River") was the westernmost of the four Greenland DEW Line stations, part of the DEW East extension that closed the radar gap between Baffin Island and Iceland. Built on a 4,789-foot mountaintop near the Inuit village of Qaqqatoqaq, 60 miles southwest of Sondrestrom Air Base, it was one of the most isolated and difficult stations to resupply. Year-round transport was primarily by helicopter, with ship access limited to the brief annual sealift season. Construction began on 19 July 1958, and the station became operational in 1961.
Site layout
The station occupied 162 acres atop a mountain at 4,789 feet (1,460 m) elevation. An AN/FPS-30 long-range search radar operating at 600 MHz was housed in an approximately 60-foot geodesic radome. During the annual sealift season, ships and landing craft could access a beach area at the head of Itidadlak Fjord, from which a 19-mile switchback road climbed to the station.
Two 345,000-gallon insulated water tanks were supplied by a 40,000-foot pipeline from a freshwater lake. Approximately 20 crew were stationed year-round. Climate extremes ranged from −29°F (−34°C) to +62°F (+17°C), with approximately 120 inches of annual snowfall and 15 inches of annual precipitation.
Operations
DYE-1 was responsible for monitoring a segment of airspace over western Greenland, covering approximately 180 miles east to DYE-2 on the ice cap and 233 miles west to DYE-MAIN at Cape Dyer on Baffin Island. Together with DYE-2, DYE-3, and DYE-4, it formed the DEW East chain that extended continuous radar coverage from the Canadian Arctic across Greenland toward Iceland.
The station's establishment in Greenland was made possible by an agreement with Denmark concluded on 20 March 1958, which provided the framework for all four Greenland DYE stations. DYE-1 operated under the same general command structure as the main DEW Line, with Western Electric as the prime contractor during construction and Federal Electric Corporation handling operations and maintenance.
Closure and remediation
DYE-1 was shut down at the end of summer 1988 along with DYE-2 and DYE-3, as the North Warning System rendered the Greenland ice cap stations redundant. DYE-4 at Kulusuk on the east coast remained operational until September 1991. After closure, DYE-1 remained in idle caretaker status through the end of the Cold War.
The station was demolished and the site environmentally remediated by 1995. The land was returned to the Danish government, and the site is now cleared.