Embedded Files
2026
On April 11, the Key City Amateur Radio Club met at the Oplin, Texas silo S-5 for an "Event" which was open to the public. Attendance was good and the weather held off raining long enough so we could complete most of our goals. Among the planned activities were opening the overhead silo door, providing silo tours to interested attendees, and the establishment of two radio base stations along with efforts to contact two specific targeted locations.
The Event provided the public with an opportunity to see and experience active ham radio operations and ask questions of the operators. While reception was generally good and a number of contacts were made thoughout the day, the operators were unable to establish a link with one of the Plattsburgh, NY Atlas F sites nor were we able to raise the Titan II missile museum in Green Valley Ariz.
Tours were facilitated by Steve Savage owner of the Site 11 Atlas F facility in Anson, Texas, and Scott Voss, one of the Museum's directors.
John hard at work
Edwin and his solar powered ham set-up
Silo tour group
LCC level 2 and the Launch Control Console
Bruce’s Excellent Adventure - This is a short video of my first visit to the Oplin missile silo in April, 1997. Music and lyrics provided by Tom Lehrer's "The Wild West is Where I Wannna Be".
My Home is a Missile Silo – Russian TV coverage of Site 5, 578th SMS, Oplin, Texas
Nuclear Foes/Nuclear Partners – Great historical documentary on the simultaneous development of Russian and American ICBMs...from the Russian point of view.
Airlifting the Atlas Missile – Air lifting the Atlas and its transporter along with transporter assembly and set-up. Very interesting.....
Air Force Promotional video of an Atlas Launch at Vandenberg AFB – people who attended this particular launch stated the flight problem was due to the guidance system instructing the missile to reverse its roll and pitch sequence resulting in a non-satisfactory trajectory. Nice footage of the internals of a fully operational Atlas F silo. It was also reported that after its destruction, the resulting pieces of the missile sounded like a wind chime - they "tinkled" - as they fell.
History of the Atlas Missile Program – a good review of the development of the Atlas.
From the Collection and Memoirs of E. Ray Smyth
Silo World
http://www.siloworld.net/CONST/Atlas/ATF/578SMS/dyessconst.htm
Atlas Missile Silo
https://www.atlasmissilesilo.com/documents_atlasf_578th.htm
578th Strategic Missile Squadron
Steve Canyon (old TV series from the 1950s) shows moving an Atlas F in this episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcD_cNcfjrM&ab_channel=Retrospective-ClassicMovies
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