European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 21, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday february 21. 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 Mountaintop gis fight isolation Winter Means plenty of hardships at relay station stories and photos by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Feldberg Germany they live in the Clouds in the company of skiers hikers Deer and boars. Their neighbourhood he Bald Summit of the Black Forest s highest Peak becomes a speckled carpet of edelweiss and other Al Pine Flowers in the summer. But Winter brings months of soul sapping isolation As Well As schizophrenic violent weather that can turn a simple trip to the store into a catastrophe. That s Why the army is Picky about the handful of soldiers it assigns to he co 160th signal brigade s tiny microwave relay station on fold Borg a Mountain 20 Miles North of the Swiss Border. We be had winds up Here of up to 100 Miles an hour said sgt. Anthony j. Tar Quinio the outgoing site chief. With pieces of ice in it said sgt. Ste phen e. Kennedy a strategic microwave systems repairman. We had a blizzard for to weeks this  their Post is a squat 16-year-old con Crete building nestled in a pocket of tree less land near Feldberg s Summit along with manned commercial broadcasting towers and nato and French army installations. The american facility is More Remote from its support services than any other army Post in Germany. Once a week someone from the station drives the 115 Miles to Karlsruhe to pick up supplies and mail for the 10 soldiers and six Ger Man employees stationed on the Mountain. In Winter it takes a 20-minute ride in a Snow cat a truck on tank tracks to reach the nearest passable Road. Tall striped poles jutting from the Snow Mark the Trail Down from the 4,995-foot Peak but they arc not always easy to see. A French Soldier died several years ago when he lost the Trail in a storm and drove his Snow cat off a Cliff Tarquinio said. Tarquinio. A new York City native said he did t mind being so far removed from the Hustle of cities and military bases when he was assigned to Feldborg nearly three years ago. Sol. Stephen e. Kennedy shovels out the doorway. In the background is a Snow cat it was a Welcome change at the time he said. It still is. But the problem of isolation is worse in the wintertime. You might As Well be in  the army usually does t assign sol Diers with american spouses to fold Borg he said speculating that most american women would t want to be this far from a military  several soldiers have married German women and reside in local villages. The rest live in a Liny Barracks that forms part of the station except sgt. Sam Smith who commutes to Karlsruhe to be with his american wife on his Days off. No female soldiers Are stationed at fold Borg. Sgt. Charles e. Richardson the new site chief said the army has been reluctant to assign women to Remote relay stations because of concern about fraternization problems. Bui he noted the majority of females who accept this mos military occupational specially from the beginning know it s going to be  the fold Borg detachment runs whal is called a tropospheric scatter radio relay Sta Tion supporting the us. Defense communications systems network. Their Mission is a simple one to relay data communications signals and Telephone traffic Between american military facilities at Donnersberge a Hill near Kaiserslautern and Savona Italy. Each signal is converted from digital pulses to an analog system and Back again during relay. Transmissions to and from donners Berg arc direct but the Swiss Alps Force the use of a technique called knife Edge refraction to reach the italian station. The signal strikes the face of the 11,800-fool fun Star Horn a Mountain in Switzerland then bounces toward Savona. The army invests a lot of time and Effort in the people it sends to fold Borg. Each Soldier studies Basic electronics for seven weeks then spends 34 weeks probing the mysteries of radios cryptographic equipment and multiplexers devices that translate radio signals into voice frequencies. The training is vital for anyone who has to work on fold Borg s general electric transmitters and receivers some of which have been in use since the 1950s. These radios arc some of the oldest in the business. They May not look like much but we have to keep repairing them and tuning them up Tarquinio said As Kennedy found and replaced a burned out tube during a transmitter inspection. Repairmen also must investigate service interruptions caused by equipment failures at other stations. Such failures Call for Quick efficient Telephone consultations with colleagues at the other stations to figure out the problem Richardson said. As a repairman you have to be just As agile in talking As repairing he said. The fold Borg Crew demonstrated its agility last year by keeping the station in service 99.97 percent of the Lime. The 5lh signal come picked fold Borg from sever Al dozen contenders last year As the out standing defense communications sys tem radio station of the year. Life on the Mountain includes More Mun Dane tasks such As chopping away the Snow and ice that tries to Bury the ground level Entrance to the building in an average storm. It also includes some unusual advantages. Aside from having its own mess Hall a fully equipped exercise room photographic Laboratory and a pm the size of a Large closet the Post provides All the soldiers with skis and ski lift passes As part of its morale support activities. Sgt Anthony j. Tarquinio inspects wiring. His watch and ring lie on a drawer As jewelry must be removed because of the danger of shocks