Corral Bluffs GWEN Site
Corral Bluff is a communications site built specifically to deliver hardened communications between the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and other nearby military sites. It seems to have hosted both a gwen node and AT&T hardened microwave equipment.
Corral Bluffs was built in 1994, or at least that is the year that AT&T installed microwave equipment. It is not clear to me if AT&T built the entire site, but I think it's far more likely the site was built by Contel (the general contractor for GWEN) and that AT&T only furnished microwave communications equipment. GWEN was under construction in 1994, so this is also compatible with the assumption that Corral Bluffs was a GWEN site from the beginning. GWEN normally relied on UHF radio to “uplink” messages to the low-frequency GWEN nodes, and UHF was known to be unreliable in a “HEMP” (high altitude EMP) or post-war environment, so it makes sense that CMC would have been equipped with a specially hardened uplink to GWEN.
Aerial photographs confirm the site to have been completely absent in 1975, and constructed by 1999. I have not been able to find any photos or other conclusive evidence of hardened microwave antennas at the GWEN node, but given the poor quality of the aerial images from the relatively short era that it was intact, that's not too surprising.
The facility has since been completely demolished and the land is owned by the adjacent landfill operation. Interestingly, a 2002 solicitation refers to the Colorado Springs Survivable Communications Network including the Corral Bluffs site, but the GWEN node was demolished in 2011. I have not been able to find a solicitation for the next ten-year contract, so it's possible that the entire Colorado Springs Survivable Communications Network, or possibly just the radio components, were out of service circa 2012.
| Built | 1980s??? |
|---|---|
| Builder | AT&T |
| Fate | Demolished |
operating instructions
Various functions are available as part of the map.
mouse/touch operation
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- overview map using the < button in the bottom right of the map you can expand an overview map
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keyboard operation
Keyboard operation becomes available after activating the map using the tab key (the map will show a focus indicator ring).
- moving using the arrow keys you can move the map
- overview map using the + button in the bottom right of the map you can expand an overview map
- zooming in and out using the + and - buttons in the top left of the map or by using the + and - keys you can obtain more or less detail in the map
- switching themes or maps clicking on the ≡ icon on the right-hand side of the map you can view and select available maps and themes
- retrieving information the map may contain elements that contain more information, using the i key you can activate a cursor that may be moved using the arrow keys, pressing the enter will execute an information retrieval. press the i or the escape key to return to navigation mode
- fullscreen display using the ⛶ button the map can be maximized to fullscreen display, use the ▢ button to return to page display.
It's possible that some of the functions or buttons describe above have been disabled by the page author or the administrator
| id | symbol | latitude | longitude | description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
38.864946º | -104.575818º | Site Location |
A 2002 RFP gives some details:
The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) has a
requirement for a Contractor to provide, engineer, install, test and
maintain two High Altitude Electronic Magnetic Pulse (HEMP) and Blast
Hardened microwave radio links and provide DS-3 service on these links from
Cheyenne Mtn, CO and Schriever AFS, CO to Corral Bluffs, CO. This
requirement is in support of the Colorado Springs Survivable Communications
Network. The contractor shall provide commercial off-the-shelf equipment
whenever possible. All links and associated terminal equipment shall be
protected against HEMP. The link to CMAS will also be blast protected…
This requirement is a reaward of an existing 10 year AT&T contract
DCA200-92-D-0056 and AT&T owns the HEMP facility at Corral Bluffs, CO. AT&T
also possesses the only complete set of technical data and drawings for the
two blast hardened antennas at CMAS. The technical data and drawings are
AT&T proprietary information. Therefore, it is DITCO's intent to award a new
10 year contract to AT&T for this follow-on service.
It is not totally clear to me what/where “CMAS” is.