Disclaimer: any information shown on this map is subject to additional updates/corrections. Please reach out to us below if you have any comments / additions) and of course, use none of this data for real world navigation.
Click on each station to uncover additional information, including geographic coordinates and, if we can determine it from the information on hand, the station type and approximate lifespan as seen on sectionals (special thanks to Tom Johnson for this information). Stations changed identifiers and frequencies over the years, but we do provide the identifier as listed in the August 1944 AAFRFC or other noted year. If one needs to study how a station specifically changed over time in more detail, including beam alignments, we’d advise diving into the sectionals and other information on the Resources page. Our team worked to geo-locate stations based on aerial imagery, and checked to see what might be left at each location as of December 2020. The locations are color coded as follows:
Yellow - Review Pending (22 or 2.6%): Historic aerials / maps have yet to reviewed by our team. This data is either raw coordinates from the AARFC which has varying accuracy as described below or has been roughly located with +/- 1 mile accuracy from an available map or other source.
Green – Confirmed (301 or 35.1%): The location and status was confirmed and something remains of the station today, zoom in close and you can see for yourself. The odds of this are better in the west and the northern reaches of Alaska and Canada due to more open space. The markers are spot on (+/- 10’ accuracy) and this classification is broken in three tiers as follow:
- Dark Green - Intact (6 or 0.7%): The major elements, e.g. blockhouse, most antennae, and fence line remain. Basically, well preserved close to original form. There are two such stations in California, and one each in Florida, Alabama, Alaska and Quebec (the last two are very remote).
- Green - Remains (151 or 17.6%): Substantial remnants, e.g. a blockhouse, an antenna or at least all of the blockhouse / antenna foundations remain. The site may still be in use as an NDB or radio facility, albeit modified. Likely obvious to a person on the ground.
- Light Green - Trace (144 or 16.8%): Minimal evidence, e.g. a foundation of the blockhouse or one structure, traces of fence, vegetation footprint, etc. Likely not obvious to a person on the ground.
Grey - Confirmed: No Trace (280 or 32.7%): The station location was positively identified by an historic aerial or USGS map; however, it is clear nothing remains of the station today – generally due to redevelopment of the site. This is especially common in urban areas and densely populated regions such as the Northeast. Locations identified by an aerial are also +/- 10’ accuracy, by USGS map closer to +/- 50 feet.
Orange - More Review Needed (254 or 29.6%): The team's attempt to identify the precise location / status of a station was not successful. This is normally due to the lack of aerial photos and maps before 1970’s in certain areas by which point many stations were already gone, or the aerials from the time the station existed had low resolution or significant ground clutter making it tough to make out the station. Although we know that the station existed based on the AAFRFC, sectional or other source, we simply don’t have the information to precisely pin on a map or say for certain what may be left of it today. Sometimes a possible candidate may be marked but needs further verification. That said, these locations were checked against sectional maps and the accuracy of has been refined to be within a quarter to half mile of the station’s probable location.
We’d love your help pinning all these stations down, especially the “More Review Needed” and “Review Pending” categories. Do you know something more about any station on this site? Perhaps we totally missed a location? Do we have a “confirmed” location wrong? If so please fill out the Google Docs Survey below with any coordinates, notes, photos, etc. We are happy to continue adding to this database!
Please note that nearly all of these sites are located on private land or public land where access is restricted. Please obtain clear permission from the owner / relevant authorities before attempting to access any site – do NOT trespass!
EXPANSION OF LFR DURING WORLD WAR II
The Low Frequency Radio Range was the United States’ answer to developing a reliable all-weather commercial aviation industry, but as the Second World War loomed at the close of the 1930’s it was clear LFR would go on to play a crucial military role. As the US Government prepared for the inevitable war, one of its first great tasks would be to ultimately manufacture 300,000 warplanes for itself and the Allied Forces and simultaneously train 2.3 million pilots, airmen, ground grew, mechanics, etc. in the Army Air Force to fly them. Hundreds of new Army Airfields popped up across the country to handle this sudden demand, many with a range station to guide and train the new aircrews. The Royal Air Force in Canada responded similarly and developed its first cross-county “Green One” air route with a 3,000-mile line of airbases and range stations.
The second herculean task would be to safely deliver this immense number of aircraft, personnel and materiel across two vast oceans to the Allied Forces that desperately needed them in Europe and Asia. Within a year the Allied Transport Commands created several ferry routes, each thousands of miles long, with regularly spaced air fields, range stations, and other infrastructure to allow aircraft (especially shorter-range twin-engine bombers and fighters) to safely make it to their destination in a series of "hops." Several major ferry routes were established as follows:
- The Northwest Staging Route or Alaska Siberia (ALSIB) route: from the US via Calgary / Edmonton through the Yukon Territory, then Fairbanks and then on to the USSR via the Bering strait or Aleutian Island Chain. The Alaska Canada Highway was constructed shortly thereafter and paralleled this route. The Aleutian Islands portion was built in anticipation and in direct response to the short-lived Japanese Occupation of Attu and Kiska islands there in 1942.
- North Atlantic Ferry Route: using the “Bluie” stations established at the start of World War II, northwest across Quebec via Goose Bay, to Greenland (Sondrestrom and Narsarsuaq), then to Reykjavik, Iceland and then on to the United Kingdom. Longer range aircraft could traverse the Atlantic via Newfoundland (Gander) and the Azores to the UK or Moroccan Coast.
- Mid Atlantic Ferry Route: from the US to Bermuda, then to the Azores to the Moroccan Coast or France after D-Day. Francoist Spain was technically neutral during the war and was not available to the Allies.
- Southwest Atlantic Ferry Route: from Florida to Guantanamo or Puerto Rico (Borinquen Field), the along the South American Coast (Atkinson, Natal and Recife Fields) and the across the Atlantic to Liberia (Roberts Field) or Sierra Leone (Hastings Field), then north along the West African Coast to the Mediterranean. Ascension Island was used for aircraft with more limited range. Half the aircraft destined for the USSR were sent via this route.
LFR’s navigation beams and communications line helped ensure that the planes and supplies made the journey, regardless of weather. Other key strategic areas that benefited from limited LFR coverage included the north coast of Africa along the Mediterranean and later, both ends of “the Hump”, the perilous supply route between India and China over the Burmese Himalayas. A scattering of stations were provided at key points along the South Pacific Ferry Route from Hawaii to Australia and along the route from Central Africa to the Middle East.
There was a terrible price paid for sending so many rapidly trained and inexperienced young men over vast, uninhabited stretches of the earth in complex aircraft: just on the Northwest Route alone, over 133 planes and their aircrews never made it from the US to Fairbanks. Although millions made it to their destinations, a testament to the Transport Commands’ ability, thousands would be lost to adverse conditions as well as enemy action along these routes by war’s end.
After the war was over, much of North America, Western Europe and other once remote parts of the globe were blessed with an extensive network of airfields and range stations that became the foundation of the postwar aviation boom. Very likely, if you are in the US or Canada, your local municipal airport was born in this era. Although Europe had other solid radio navigation options, the expanding presence of US airlines and military forces kept a small network of familiar LFR stations in operation here and in other parts of the Pacific Rim until they were finally supplanted by VORs. Some old airfields and a few dozen range stations though were truly surplus with no real civilian need after the war, and faded from the landscape and charts during the 50’s and 60’s (in a few cases after a brief stint as a drag racing strip).
The air traffic control techniques and operational procedures developed during the war that successfully moved so many planes across the sky laid the groundwork for the world-wide system we take for granted today. The new long-range routes established across the Atlantic were adopted by commercial airlines and they sought the experienced wartime pilots that flew them to handle the post war travel surge. Gander, Shannon, the Azores and Canary Islands became common stops until the jet age finally enabled direct non-stop crossings of the Atlantic. The routes across the Canadian and Alaskan Wilderness would help open the area to the oil exploration that followed in the 60’s and 70’s. These routes were also used by the US and its NATO Allies in ensuring military readiness during the Cold War.
In short: the impact of the Low Frequency Range extended well past the borders of the United States and played a seminal role, among many other international contributions, in shaping global aviation history.
MAPPING METHODOLOGY
For the United States and Lower Canada, the AAFRFC (especially the August 1944 edition) has been a “go to” primary source for locating old ranges, it provided what we would now call IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) en-route charts between major airports and range stations, as well as details of each facility. In addition, we combed through US and Canadian Sectional Aeronautical Charts (SAC’s) that can be found online especially at the Library of Congress, World Aeronautical Charts (WAC’s) that provided coverage of many parts of the globe, Route Charts (RC’s) and Radio Direction Finding Charts (RDF’s) all from the 1930’s through the early 60’s. Army Air Force Charts (AAF) provided coverage of many international areas during the Second World War. There was a profusion of these charts and other manuals produced during and right after World War II. As of 2020, much of this material is working its way onto eBay and other sources from estate sales and other private collections. We’ve made a few of the more critical pages of the August 1944 AAFRFC available under the Resources tab.
The AAFRFC has a table that provides the latitude and longitude of many US stations. There were a few spurious errors in this table here and there, e.g. a latitude and longitude switched, the given coordinates for a couple of sites seemed far from the nominal city (e.g. Atlanta – now corrected). But the data is generally accurate for 95%+ of most sites, and coordinates are provided to the nearest arc second. This sounds great as, in theory, an accuracy of one second of arc works out to be roughly 100’ on the ground. However, when stations were located on historic or current aerial photos it became clear that the actual accuracy for many sites ranged from a few hundred feet to a half mile, sometimes more. I personally believe that all of these errors were cause by limitations of the technology of the age (paper maps and scales), especially when the cartographers were constantly updating and disseminating this information during a frenzied wartime environment. Half/quarter mile accuracy was certainly good enough for this system, and I can’t imagine that a deliberate error would be enough to throw off an enemy agent attempting to locate a range station (something with five 135’ towers is indeed hard to hide).
Despite the location errors, many stations were easy to identify using current or historic aerials. Fortunately, most had a distinct square boundary and the blockhouse and antenna were clear. However, this was not always the case – the boundary could be disguised by underlying vegetation and other visual ground clutter. Additionally, aerials from the 1940’ and 50’s varied greatly in resolution – in some cases stations were quite clear down to detail of the antenna supports. Other aerials were so low-res that the blockhouse could barely be seen much less the antennae, especially if the sun was directly overhead when it was taken. In a few select cases USGS maps located range stations well enough to help with a positive ID, and in other cases contemporary aeronautical sectional charts provided enough clues (e.g. nearby rivers, roads, airports) to help with an identification. Through this process we’ve been able to positively ID many stations and we’ve categorized them as “Confirmed” as described above.
It’s tougher to locate sites internationally. Fortunately, many US aviation charts and the AAFRFC covered many Canadian and other international locations and a cache of World War II Canadian Aeronautical Sectionals was located online (see Resources); however, unlike the US Federal Government which readily makes old topo maps, aerial photos and aeronautical charts available on the web, the information is harder to source online from the Canadian Government and is found mostly on more limited university/regional websites. The situation is similar in Europe where much of this information appears to mostly available via paid commercial services; however, one site noted under Resources had numerous charts, approach plates for numerous Cold War era European military bases that were helpful. Although this all made it harder to find stations in this region, we believe that most if not all are reflected on the map above, many locations though need to be refined/update once appropriate aerials can be found. Only two Mexican range stations near the US border (Chihuahua and Nuevo Casas Grandes) were located; there is nearly nil information on Mexico stations online or available from map sources. World Aeronautical Charts and Army Air Force Charts covered many other parts of the globe, but finding related historic aerials and topo charts is difficult. If anyone has information in these areas, please reach out below.
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ERRATA: LOW POWER RANGES & STATIONS THAT NEVER WERE
For these people who really want to go into depth, here are is some additional information that came out of our research.
Low Power Airport Range Stations: During the 1930’s, some airports and airlines maintained small, low power loop ranges (type “ML”) that were 50 watts in power and had a 15-mile range that allowed an aircraft to home in more directly to an airport. It was certainly not as good as a localizer or modern-day instrument landing system but it was a helpful aid. As these systems were smaller, they were never noted on topo maps nor do they show on the few early aerial photos available so we could not geolocate these. Here is a list of the ones we’ve identified:
- Burbank, CA - circa 1939
- Chicago Municipal Airport, IL - circa 1939
- Cleveland Municipal Airport, IL – circa 1938-40
- Fort Wayne, IN – circa 1939, operated by airport or TWA
- Harrisburg State Airport, PA – circa 1939, 265°, 2.5SM to field
- Islip Airport, NY – circa 1939
- Medford, OR – circa 1936-39. Multiple Locations, operated by United Airlines
- Memphis Municipal Airport, TN - circa 1939
- New Brunswick (Hadley Field), NJ – circa 1932
- Providence State Airport, RI – circa 1939, 1.5SM NE of field
- Salt Lake City Airport, UT – circa 1939
- Tacoma, WA – circa 1932-35
Proposed / “Under Construction” Stations that never entered service. Finally, again in the 1930’s, a number of stations were proposed or listed as Department of Commerce Lists, some were even marked as “Under Construction” on sectional charts, but it appears they never saw actual service (e.g. have beams radiating from this location on a sectional). As we assume that there is little / no physical evidence to locate them these were also not geolocated. Here is a list of the one’s we’ve identified:
- Auburn, CA, Listed in 1931 but a range was never active here (a fan marker was placed instead)
- Fernley, NV, Listed in 1931
- Pontiac, IL, “Projected” 1931 in Depart of Commerce Airways Diagram
- Shasta Springs, CA, Under Construction 1932
- Sweetwater, TX Under Construction 1932
- Wanship, UT, Shown on early undated map (1930’s?)
- Wellton, AZ, Under Construction 1932
- Willows, CA, “Proposed” 1931 in Department of Commerce Airways Diagram
Note: Alturas, CA was constructed in 1944 but was never shown as an active station on the sectionals. It appears it may have been one of a string of new stations (including Fallon and Tonopah, Nevada) that were constructed during late World War II to provide an inland route from Las Vegas to the Pacific Northwest that was never fully completed, perhaps unneeded after the war’s end? There are remnants of the station which are mapped above.