29 minutes, colour, stereo, Betacam SP, ©1997 Big Muddy Films, Banff Centre for the Arts co-production

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Tracking Distance aired on SCN (Saskatchewan Communication Network) on November 25, 1999. It was last broadcast on April 21, 2004.

C.F.S. Dana once operated as a NORAD air defence radar station, seventy-two kilometres east of Saskatoon. It was one of 33 stations in the Pinetree radar line that stretched across Canada on or about the 49th parallel. Construction of the line was complete by 1954 at a cost of $450 million (1950s dollars). The cost to the United States was $300 million while Canada contributed $150 million. The Pinetree line's defensive purpose was to track the potential threat of Soviet nuclear bombers that could enter North American airspace through the artic during the cold war. It operated in conjunction with two additional layers of air defence radar to the north, the Mid-Canada line (unmanned sites) and DEW line (Distance Early Warning) in the artic. The system was most effective during the early stages of the cold war.

Canadian Forces Station (C.F.S.) Dana, a NORAD Pinetree Line radar station, operated from 1962 to 1986, and was officially closed on August 30, 1987. It enlisted 200-300 service personnel and their families. What remains of this military installation is explored and remembered in this half-hour documentary through ten individuals who once worked at the base.

There are insights from a cross-section of people such as radar technicians, an elderly school principal, and a retired air force major. The current owner of the station explains how he came to own the military property as he stands before a herd of buffalo that now graze the area.

Perceptions of the cold war period are given from some those who served at the station. Some question what the cold war was really all about. A radar technician explains that during the late 1970s, Canada's radar air defence towers were stocked with Soviet-made vacuum tubes, pointing to the industry behind the military and the cold war.

Although many such radar stations stretched across Canada within the Pinetree Line, the intent of this documentary is to focus on C.F.S. Dana, Saskatchewan. For the filmmaker, the station served as one of the first childhood homes during the early 1970s.