Dictionary definition of “elephant cage”

elephant cage

n. a large antenna array surrounded by a circular fence. Subjects: English, Military, Technology, Slang

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Citations: 1966 Robert Trumbull @ Misawa, Japan New York Times (June 12) “Jets From U.S. Base in Japan Patrol Near Soviet” p. 110: A structure similar to a fence of tall steel posts stands out in the distance. “We call that the elephant cage,” an officer says. It is the property of the 6921st Security Wing, a high-power electronic eavesdropping outfit that prefers to be identified, if at all, as having something to do with “communications.” 1972 Michael Morrow @ Ramasun, Northeastern Thailand Washington Post, Times Herald (Sept. 14) “GIs at a Secret Base—Plenty of Time to Worry” p. E1: On base is a maze of wire and steel rods laid out over an area larger than a football field. Local people call it “the elephant cage.” It houses one of the most important intelligence-gathering operations the U.S. military is conducting in the Indochina war. 1987 Joseph D. Moell, Thomas N. Curlee Transmitter Hunting (June 1) p. 5: The AN/FLR-9 Countermeasures Receiving System, an excellent example of a Wullenweber DF array. This array, commonly called an “Elephant Cage,” is 900 feet in diameter. 1993 Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nov. 15) “Pacific Military Security Grows More Cooperative” p. A06: The 6,000 U.S. servicemen and women stationed at Misawa Air Base spend a lot of time thinking about North Korea. Eavesdroppers in a top-secret listening post at the base likely target the Stalinist nation with their gigantic antenna, a circular fencelike structure nicknamed the elephant cage. 2006 James Turnbull, Alex Turnbull Off the Map: The Most Amazing Sights on Earth as Seen by Satellite (Nov. 1) p. 33: You probably wouldn’t expect to find an elephant cage on an air base, but Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska has something like one—although there are no elephants in this cage. This is, in fact, a “AN/FLR-9 Circularly Disposed Antenna Array” (CDAA). 2007 Lisa Vaas eWeek (June 4) “NSA Rolls with Tech Changes to Keep Spying”: The NSA has another type of antenna array, nicknamed an elephant cage, which houses 360 elements. When the agency marries multiple elephant cages together, it can pinpoint exactly where a signal is coming from.

Posted 12 Jun 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

How can one see the rest of the verbage?

by James E. Kuss 10 Mar 09, 0425 GMT

What verbiage? If you want to see more of the citations, then click on the article or publication name. If they’re not live links, then more content isn’t available.

by Grant Barrett 10 Mar 09, 0831 GMT

I mean on the opening page.
I wanted to finish reading the article on FLR9’s oe Elephant Cages but the article was cut of in mid sentence and nothing I tried would scroll or move the text up so it could be read.
Is there some magic entry?
Do I need t register or join or something?

thanks; j.kuss

by James E. Kuss 11 Mar 09, 1255 GMT

Are you talking about the “Transmitter Hunting” book I linked above? If so, there’s no way to link directly to a specific page in a book in Amazon, but you can use the “Search inside this book” feature at Amazon to find the passage I excerpted here.

If that doesn’t help, then can you send me a screenshot of what you’re seeing? Send it to editor@doubletongued.org. Also include what opening page are you talking about, specifically giving the URL.

by Grant Barrett 11 Mar 09, 0336 GMT

Sorry for the comment because today it’s scrolling properly.
Go figure!

tks; j.kuss

by James E. Kuss 13 Mar 09, 0756 GMT

On Clark Air Base in the Phillipines we had an Elephant Cage too—I always thought that was a term coined by the local people for it!

by SuzyQ 17 Mar 09, 0636 GMT