Diego Garcia BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) was my home back in 1984-1985. They had at that time a Receiver Site close to the main base, and at the furthest point away the Transmitter Facility (Was where I was). Worked on 2 AN/FRT-83 100W HF, 10 AN/FRT-84 1KW, and 10 AN/FRT-85 10KW Transmitters. Later on heard they added at least 10 more AN/FRT-85's. main Antennae's were Conical Monopoles and a couple large HF Rhombic. Was also first time I saw HF Helical Cable. Man, your bringing back some more memories...
I've really enjoyed this circular listening station series. I'm also amazed that I knew nothing about this, even though I've been an avid radio listener for six decades. I was born in the 1950s and grew up in Cold War America, five miles from a US Air Force Base. I knew plenty of guys in the military, both officers and enlisted personnel, who had been to war or had worked in intelligence of some kind. In discussions about communications, these antennas were never mentioned. I think one big reason may be that the people chosen to do those jobs are very loyal to their oaths of secrecy until death.
I find your topics on communications absolutely facinating. The quality of your research oh these topics has been very well done. I for one never tire on the obscure use of comms and it's history. Please, keep up the fantastic work. You are easily my #1 RUclips channel to follow.
Back in the '90s, I did sit My FCC Amateur Radio Exam tests, I had a sponsor and I had to carry my UK passport driving licence as a form of ID with me at RAF Menworth Hill. Then I operate a special advent Station on 4th July GB4JUL they Club Station on-site with an HF long periodic antenna one time. one day I did visit there was a thunder and lightning storm I see an aerial rigger working on one of the aerial towers he soon comes down to the ground like lightning like a pun! Now I hold USA call sign KG0PL and you could not go walking around the base unless you had the sponsor with you at all times. I am enjoying the videos. Are you going to Blackpool Radio Rally next month? I tell you more in person
As for Bornholm. I think NATO is looking into starting communication monitoring, since Bornholm is not that far away from Kalingrad (around 315 km, were I am in Denmark, the distance is around 682 km). There are news about NATO being in Bornholm, what they are doing is not explained in the news. Outside of the normal military activity. As for Iceland, there is some expansion of U.S and NATO abilities, but those are mostly limited to air craft abilities and that type of monitoring activity. For anything else, I have not seen anything in the news. That does not rule that NATO and U.S might be planning something in Iceland.
Great series of videos! there are so many very interesting military radio related sites around the world that have been decommissioned I'd like to learn more about. They're all part of untold History. Weirdly enough There's no Wulenwerber array I'm aware of in France. Maybe a NATO thing ? Here we have (or had) some CRHF (centre radio hautes frequences) facilities , like the long gone one in Etampes and maybe others , which hosted a huge number of various antennas. Always wondered what their purpose was
Here in the Netherlands there is also a echelon network with a HF direction farm with a protective underground bunker. The place is called echelon Ouddorp.
Great series of videos. Thanks for showing Digby pusher site. Back in the heady days of the Cold War one of the jokes on new personnel was to send them out to give the person in the pusher hut a cup of tea. Of course the pusher hut was not manned. A long walk wasted over the fields!
There used to be a row of those loop antenna (as shown at 8:04) adjacent to a car park at the Ministry of Defence Corsham, Wiltshire. I always wondered what they were for. They weren't in a circle as far as I can remember there was only a straight row of 8 or 10 maybe. Fascinating video, thanks as always! ;-)
Penhale Camp is still open for business despite part of the site being sold off for a holidaymaker Bungalow Land development. The heavy gauge stainless steel magnetic loop kit, seen from the coast path, is very impressive inside the upgraded perimeter defences. Given the Antenna’s intended proximity to the Bungalows, and, given the electronic fog generated by modern life, I’m guessing it’s all intended for LF monitoring?
Penhale Sands is home to an HF receiver station forming part of the Defence High-Frequency Communications Service. The station is operated by Babcock International Group on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Whats not to enjoy, your research is amazing and even though these systems have been (for the most part) superceeded, its fascinating to see how the worlds super powers kept track of each other
This has been a very interesting series, a few of today's pictures have made me wonder again about the big golf balls that I think are part of listening posts, could you consider a video or series on these in the future please
13 Signal Regt. (Birgelen, Germany), now closed, also had Pusher. Unlike a lot of intercept stations who’s arrays were close to the base 13 Sigs. Pusher was a few miles away in a forest area. I was a Pusher Op. during my time at the Regt. (1973-76).
Hi, not a circular antenna, but one of the largest log periodic antennas I have ever seen was located at the Piestock end of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, it was massive and would have put any Steppir amateur antenna to shame, it stood atop a 200ft mast and was rotatable, it disappeared in the 90s sometime I wondered if it was a part of the same DF systems the military used as the NATO underground war planning rooms were located about a country mile away in Aldershot
I had noticed the offset ring at Chicksands in the previous video and nearly asked. I also noticed there are two other, much smaller outlines elsewhere in the area of the largest ring.
Hi, At 5:30 there is an image of a log periodic antenna on a mast. It made me remember seeing something very similar on or near Dunstable Downs about 25 years ago, I've always wondered what they were for? I don't remember seeing much in the way of buildings however. Great video, as ever. Cheers!
Home Office monitoring service according to the notices. The place had its own bus stops on each side of the road (now the B489) and a Concrete access roadway. It was on the Aylesbury to Luton United Counties bus route. Perhaps the activity was underground, it’s very rural around there and the Cold War was keeping Builders busy. Not far from the (now demolished) national phone exchange.
The Wullenweber array at Sobe Okinawa, Japan was removed just after 2000. But, unbeknownst to most people the station was replaced with a new array (different technology) at 26d 29' 18.31"N 127d 55' 26.92" E. You can clearly see it on Google Earth.
Great stuff coming up there Lewis, I wonder how often transmissions from radio amateurs are used to test out all this sort of stuff. If you needed signals coming in from random locations, random frequencies and at random times then a ham is your man.
Ah dear old Plessey's their original factory was in Vicarage Lane Ilford Essex, and was probably the towns biggest employer along with Ilford Limited the camera film makers. The Plessey site was in full production all through the Second World War making military radios and other electronics. I have no idea if the pusher units were made in Ilford or at some other Plessey facility, but it closed sometime I think in the 1990's and is now the site of a housing estate.
What causes the scars? Is it the physical activity inside or does the radio emissions have anything to do with it? I'm inclined to think it's the physical activity.
I should have waited. Last week I spent over an hour scouring the Azores on Google Earth unsuccessfully, looking for remnants of something no one can see anymore. 😂
It's clearly visible but YT deletes my posts when I post co-ordinates. 330m ESE of Canada Vicente Coelho / R. Agualva-Cacém . Southerly portion of the circle stands out like a sore thumb. Plus there is a second antenna site 235m to the East. It's not Lewis manually deleting posts since I refresh immediately and it is gone.
My last post with a description of the location was not deleted so Ill continue... if you have Google Maps you might see a 3rd circle in the south of that plot, it is faint but has a clearly circular arc.
Would like an episode on the NAS listening site just over the ridge from the Greenbank Radio Astronomy site in West Virginia in what is known as a radio quiet zone.
I guess there are better means of HF/DF now? Any of us who are fans of using the HF bands as Amateur Operators or Shortwave Listeners would leap at the opportunity to use any of these military arrays - very cool!!
Better methods of phase comparison today make it possible to get similar performance with smaller arrays... and the one killer for these arrays is that they could not get elevation angle and it turns out that if you know about current conditions having elevation angle is very useful. But a lot of it is just that so much communication has moved from HF to satellite services that there is less of a need for HF surveillance.
@@scottkludgedorsey4805 I was wondering too with what kind of system these giant installations were replaced - or if the shift from HF to Satellite just made them obsolete. The latter would mean giving up the capability for precise HF direction finding, so in theory if someone today were to use HF for purposes that might "interest" the military/government, they would have an advantage today vs. back when the big arrays were in operation.
@@tpa6120a2dwp : There are still some HFDF systems out there, most of them smaller arrays but many of them are taller with multiple vertical levels of dipoles in order to measure elevation angle. But these days you can get location precision as good with a truck-mounted adcock array as you could with a wullenweber... even if your ability to detect weak signals is far less.
I don't seem to be able to post messages (albeit lengthy); they keep getting deleted after a short while. I don't have issues on any other channel except this one. If there's an issue, please let me know, otherwise there's no point me continuing to follow.
Knock knock.. Who's there? Man Man who? *door flies in * # at gunpoint# Man you're f***ed, get on the floor and hands behind your back, you're coming with us. * zip ties hands and feet, black bag over the head, drags you out the house * Just kidding, it'll probably never happen...right? Lewis? LEWIS????
Sas. Sbs used bowman and satellite phones they do not transmit much too keep canceled their position one trooper would be communication expert in the troop royal signals British army were heavily involved with their training and equipment and most was encrypted too
This was an interesting find on google.. 34°22'29.71" N 108°36'38.79" E . Its near a megalithic pyramid site, to the east of here.. 34°22'28.58" N 108°41'52.76" E
Diego Garcia BIOT (British Indian Ocean Territory) was my home back in 1984-1985. They had at that time a Receiver Site close to the main base, and at the furthest point away the Transmitter Facility (Was where I was). Worked on 2 AN/FRT-83 100W HF, 10 AN/FRT-84 1KW, and 10 AN/FRT-85 10KW Transmitters. Later on heard they added at least 10 more AN/FRT-85's. main Antennae's were Conical Monopoles and a couple large HF Rhombic. Was also first time I saw HF Helical Cable. Man, your bringing back some more memories...
I've really enjoyed this circular listening station series. I'm also amazed that I knew nothing about this, even though I've been an avid radio listener for six decades. I was born in the 1950s and grew up in Cold War America, five miles from a US Air Force Base. I knew plenty of guys in the military, both officers and enlisted personnel, who had been to war or had worked in intelligence of some kind. In discussions about communications, these antennas were never mentioned. I think one big reason may be that the people chosen to do those jobs are very loyal to their oaths of secrecy until death.
My loyalty vanished when the gov started treating us like shit.
"But this is an SAS base, so let's move on." Is this British English for "I'd rather not run afoul of the Crown"?
I would expect no less, he's a good lad!
I find your topics on communications absolutely facinating. The quality of your research oh these topics has been very well done.
I for one never tire on the obscure use of comms and it's history. Please, keep up the fantastic work. You are easily my #1 RUclips channel to follow.
The Plessey Pusher array at Credenhill was probably not used by the SAS, who occupied the site relatively recently - it was formerly RAF Credenhill.
Back in the '90s, I did sit My FCC Amateur Radio Exam tests, I had a sponsor and I had to carry my UK passport driving licence as a form of ID with me at RAF Menworth Hill. Then I operate a special advent Station on 4th July GB4JUL they Club Station on-site with an HF long periodic antenna one time. one day I did visit there was a thunder and lightning storm I see an aerial rigger working on one of the aerial towers he soon comes down to the ground like lightning like a pun! Now I hold USA call sign KG0PL and you could not go walking around the base unless you had the sponsor with you at all times. I am enjoying the videos. Are you going to Blackpool Radio Rally next month? I tell you more in person
This is the geekiest channel I watch on RUclips...probably.
This is probably one of my lesser geeky channels! 😅
As for Bornholm. I think NATO is looking into starting communication monitoring, since Bornholm is not that far away from Kalingrad (around 315 km, were I am in Denmark, the distance is around 682 km). There are news about NATO being in Bornholm, what they are doing is not explained in the news. Outside of the normal military activity. As for Iceland, there is some expansion of U.S and NATO abilities, but those are mostly limited to air craft abilities and that type of monitoring activity. For anything else, I have not seen anything in the news. That does not rule that NATO and U.S might be planning something in Iceland.
Great series of videos! there are so many very interesting military radio related sites around the world that have been decommissioned I'd like to learn more about. They're all part of untold History. Weirdly enough There's no Wulenwerber array I'm aware of in France. Maybe a NATO thing ? Here we have (or had) some CRHF (centre radio hautes frequences) facilities , like the long gone one in Etampes and maybe others , which hosted a huge number of various antennas. Always wondered what their purpose was
Most excellent Comrade! The chairman will be pleased with your work :)
Here in the Netherlands there is also a echelon network with a HF direction farm with a protective underground bunker.
The place is called echelon Ouddorp.
what a beaut! Any more HF direction finding farms in NL?
I know only the one at Goeree Overflakkee that is the biggest if the are more i dont no not that i know.
@@danosdotnl i found a DF site in the place Eibergen near a military complex.
@@cookiemonster81 oww wow, great find, looks defunct. Wonder what the story behind this one is
Great series of videos. Thanks for showing Digby pusher site. Back in the heady days of the Cold War one of the jokes on new personnel was to send them out to give the person in the pusher hut a cup of tea. Of course the pusher hut was not manned. A long walk wasted over the fields!
There used to be a row of those loop antenna (as shown at 8:04) adjacent to a car park at the Ministry of Defence Corsham, Wiltshire. I always wondered what they were for. They weren't in a circle as far as I can remember there was only a straight row of 8 or 10 maybe.
Fascinating video, thanks as always! ;-)
This is fun. Keep em coming. Thank you!
Penhale Camp is still open for business despite part of the site being sold off for a holidaymaker Bungalow Land development. The heavy gauge stainless steel magnetic loop kit, seen from the coast path, is very impressive inside the upgraded perimeter defences. Given the Antenna’s intended proximity to the Bungalows, and, given the electronic fog generated by modern life, I’m guessing it’s all intended for LF monitoring?
Penhale Sands is home to an HF receiver station forming part of the Defence High-Frequency Communications Service. The station is operated by Babcock International Group on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
You should definitely do a video on the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Base in northern Western Australia
Really been enjoying this series, keep up the good work. Looking forward to the next installment! 👍
Really well researched, im a new subscriber and new to the subject but im really enjoying your content
Whats not to enjoy, your research is amazing and even though these systems have been (for the most part) superceeded, its fascinating to see how the worlds super powers kept track of each other
Love this stuff Lewis. The research is awesome.
I find your videos fascinating. I hope someday you can explain how these huge round antennas work.
Never knew there were so many of these arrays !
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
Thank you for showing some from Denmark 🙂😊👍
This has been a very interesting series, a few of today's pictures have made me wonder again about the big golf balls that I think are part of listening posts, could you consider a video or series on these in the future please
It was interesting to see that my picture of Diego Garcia that I have on Flickr was used in this
I am really enjoying this series, I always like to learn different stuff radio was used for throughout time
Interesting the varying conditions of these different sites and how they are "crumbling" and disappearing!
Thank You for the post.
Amazing antenna. Thanks for this.
Tony Robinson needs to give you a job on "Time team"... Great video. Thanks
Amazing work and research on this series. I’ve enjoyed these very much!
13 Signal Regt. (Birgelen, Germany), now closed, also had Pusher. Unlike a lot of intercept stations who’s arrays were close to the base 13 Sigs. Pusher was a few miles away in a forest area. I was a Pusher Op. during my time at the Regt. (1973-76).
You should join the Birgelen Veterans Association. The array was still there I believe when I was there in the early 90s.
So interesting, another great vid, I've been past the RAAF Pearce site just north of Perth many times.
Hi, not a circular antenna, but one of the largest log periodic antennas I have ever seen was located at the Piestock end of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, it was massive and would have put any Steppir amateur antenna to shame, it stood atop a 200ft mast and was rotatable, it disappeared in the 90s sometime I wondered if it was a part of the same DF systems the military used as the NATO underground war planning rooms were located about a country mile away in Aldershot
Absolutely fascinating series Lewis really interesting stuff
I wonder if the Cyprus site was home to the Lincolnshire poacher too?
👍
Lincolnshire Poacher was the other side of Cyprus at RAF Akrotiri.
@@TomteeejayAhh that's what they want you to think
Thank you for the clarification
@@thisandthat871 No problem. Thanks for the reply.
Menwith Hill is a major node of ECHELON. I'd love to see a video on that, but there's hardly any reliable info out there
I had noticed the offset ring at Chicksands in the previous video and nearly asked. I also noticed there are two other, much smaller outlines elsewhere in the area of the largest ring.
Hi,
At 5:30 there is an image of a log periodic antenna on a mast. It made me remember seeing something very similar on or near Dunstable Downs about 25 years ago, I've always wondered what they were for? I don't remember seeing much in the way of buildings however.
Great video, as ever. Cheers!
Home Office monitoring service according to the notices. The place had its own bus stops on each side of the road (now the B489) and a Concrete access roadway. It was on the Aylesbury to Luton United Counties bus route. Perhaps the activity was underground, it’s very rural around there and the Cold War was keeping Builders busy. Not far from the (now demolished) national phone exchange.
@@kevinrkinsella That's great Kevin. Thank you for your reply. Another mystery solved! Cheers!
I appreciate you doing these videos.
The Wullenweber array at Sobe Okinawa, Japan was removed just after 2000. But, unbeknownst to most people the station was replaced with a new array (different technology) at 26d 29' 18.31"N 127d 55' 26.92" E. You can clearly see it on Google Earth.
Great stuff coming up there Lewis, I wonder how often transmissions from radio amateurs are used to test out all this sort of stuff. If you needed signals coming in from random locations, random frequencies and at random times then a ham is your man.
Ah dear old Plessey's their original factory was in Vicarage Lane Ilford Essex, and was probably the towns biggest employer along with Ilford Limited the camera film makers. The Plessey site was in full production all through the Second World War making military radios and other electronics. I have no idea if the pusher units were made in Ilford or at some other Plessey facility, but it closed sometime I think in the 1990's and is now the site of a housing estate.
Penhale antennas look to be linear arrays of magnetic loops. Is there a different kind of receive antenna than a mag loop that is circular like that?
Can’t believe I was at Paramali last winter and missed an antenna that big.
haha ! found it
The artefacts left are fascinating!
The Leitrim station near Ottawa, Canada is pronounced Lee Trim, not Lie Trim as you said.
I worked there in the mid-70’s.
Cheers
The antenna at RAAF Base Pearce is a non directional beacon
Thank you for the diagrams.
Another great video Lewis. And now I know that a Plessey Pusher is not a drug dealer!!
I would have thought it was a barcode printer since a Plessey Code is one type of symbology in use today.
What causes the scars? Is it the physical activity inside or does the radio emissions have anything to do with it?
I'm inclined to think it's the physical activity.
Just the concrete base it’s built on
H would love to hook up my HF receiver to one of those antenna arrays.
Thanks Lewis for another amazing video, First!!!!
that great. when you complete this series a playlist will be super. 73's
I live in RAF Henlow Bedfordshire , we’ve got the old USAAF base chicksands up the road , it used to have a huge one of these at it years ago .
I should have waited. Last week I spent over an hour scouring the Azores on Google Earth unsuccessfully, looking for remnants of something no one can see anymore. 😂
It's clearly visible but YT deletes my posts when I post co-ordinates. 330m ESE of Canada Vicente Coelho / R. Agualva-Cacém . Southerly portion of the circle stands out like a sore thumb. Plus there is a second antenna site 235m to the East. It's not Lewis manually deleting posts since I refresh immediately and it is gone.
My last post with a description of the location was not deleted so Ill continue... if you have Google Maps you might see a 3rd circle in the south of that plot, it is faint but has a clearly circular arc.
Hms forest moor nr Harrogate was the receive station for Polaris the transmitter station was at Inskip in Lancashire transmitting on vlf
You can visit RAF Digby, we went a few years back. I think it was free, meet in the carpark opposite.
Can you go in? Can't imagine they'd let you wander about there!!! I served there for a few years back I the 90s.
Would like an episode on the NAS listening site just over the ridge from the Greenbank Radio Astronomy site in West Virginia in what is known as a radio quiet zone.
Excellent! Keep it up.
All sites are gone, but their abilities are not lost just in new equipment and wider frequencies.
Fascinating stuff!
Who dares wins Lewis xx
Talk about the use of a word .......😆 Thanks for the video
I was edified by the inclusion of the three Canadian stations.
to ensure the bookies are always able to deliver best odds instantly to their customers
A pusher? There? I tell you, using drugs has taken over!
It looks like there is an Australian listening post in Cocos island, which are suspected to monitor Indonesian naval and air force operations.
Loving this
how did you find the Stirling lines pusher, have you got a pin for it pretty please?.
It is just West of Buchanan Coaches but YT autodeletes my comment if I put GPS co-ordinates for it.
@@andyalder7910 ///originate.slightly.letter
///originate.slightly.letter
Thanks Lewis for such informative info. Anything on GB3SL from 80-90s? Dave M3TDZ..
I’ve got a big video written with never before heard audio from my archives . Coming soon
does anyone know if current intercontinental missiles can be tapped/jammed/disrupted with communications equipment ?
The Bornholm site is mow a SIGINT Museum 😊
I guess there are better means of HF/DF now? Any of us who are fans of using the HF bands as Amateur Operators or Shortwave Listeners would leap at the opportunity to use any of these military arrays - very cool!!
Better methods of phase comparison today make it possible to get similar performance with smaller arrays... and the one killer for these arrays is that they could not get elevation angle and it turns out that if you know about current conditions having elevation angle is very useful. But a lot of it is just that so much communication has moved from HF to satellite services that there is less of a need for HF surveillance.
@@scottkludgedorsey4805 I was wondering too with what kind of system these giant installations were replaced - or if the shift from HF to Satellite just made them obsolete. The latter would mean giving up the capability for precise HF direction finding, so in theory if someone today were to use HF for purposes that might "interest" the military/government, they would have an advantage today vs. back when the big arrays were in operation.
@@tpa6120a2dwp : There are still some HFDF systems out there, most of them smaller arrays but many of them are taller with multiple vertical levels of dipoles in order to measure elevation angle. But these days you can get location precision as good with a truck-mounted adcock array as you could with a wullenweber... even if your ability to detect weak signals is far less.
"Circles... so hip right now" -America in the cold war
Did I miss Berlin?
Where these receiver only locations?
Yes
👍👍👍👍👍👍
I don't seem to be able to post messages (albeit lengthy); they keep getting deleted after a short while. I don't have issues on any other channel except this one. If there's an issue, please let me know, otherwise there's no point me continuing to follow.
Me too, but I was posting GPS locations and have had trouble doing that on YT previously.
Drop me an email ringwaymanchester@mail.com
SAS are no longer at Stirling lines
Knock knock..
Who's there?
Man
Man who?
*door flies in * # at gunpoint# Man you're f***ed, get on the floor and hands behind your back, you're coming with us. * zip ties hands and feet, black bag over the head, drags you out the house *
Just kidding, it'll probably never happen...right? Lewis? LEWIS????
Now plessey is a shadow of its former self I suppose it’s all Rohde and Schwarz nowadays
You’re not wrong there Dave. I know Roke manor provide stuff in the uk.
As if you can try to make a video about it.
The earth is round, the eye is round , mostly planets suns .Are round . Houses use to be ,??? Round.Crators on the moon Round .
very nice.. anyway....
speaking of round........
how many sides does a circle ○ have ?
Sas. Sbs used bowman and satellite phones they do not transmit much too keep canceled their position one trooper would be communication expert in the troop royal signals British army were heavily involved with their training and equipment and most was encrypted too
Thanks RM. Great Stuff**** Take Care.
Hello Sir, another great installment on the wonderful world of HF RF. Keep up the good work! 73 de Glenn ON4WIX
This was an interesting find on google.. 34°22'29.71" N 108°36'38.79" E . Its near a megalithic pyramid site, to the east of here.. 34°22'28.58" N 108°41'52.76" E