Antennae
- Goonhilly Earth Station,
the geek's answer to the Eden
Project. Cornwall = FUTURE. 25 communications dishes (the biggest 32
metres across), 36 other dishes, plus transatlantic fibre (which doesn't
count). Lat
50.048 lon -5.1761.
- Cutler VLF station, the US navy's biggest VLF transmitter, built
in 1961 and pumping out two megawatts at 14-60 kHz, by which means it
can transmit at 50 baud to submerged submarines anywhere in the north
Atlantic sort of region. 26 towers, each 250-300 metres tall, with over
2000 miles of antenna cabling strung between and beneath them. Lat
44.6472, lon -67.2817; see also an eyeball.
- The High-frequency Active
Auroral Research Program (HAARP), blasting (when it's finished) 3.6
megawatts at 2.8-10 MHz through a farm of 180 crossed dipole antennas
right into the upper atmosphere. Its stated purpose is research on
upper-atmosphere physics (it's an 'ionospheric heater', although it
doesn't heat it very much - more of a warmer), but everyone knows it's
some sort of weather control / plasma superweapon / star wars / mind
control no-goodery. Lat
62.39167, lon 145.1467. See also the Russian answer, Sura (lat
56.10, lon 46.10) and the plucky European heater, EISCAT Tromso (lat 69.5864, lon
19.2272).
- I always thought the antenna farm at Rugby
Radio Station (note there's a second page to that link) was rather
impressive when my dad drove us past it on the way to north Wales. It
had twelve 250 metre towers, and handled Britain's VLF signalling, but
they've mostly been demolished (shame!). These days, it transmits the MSF signal, the UK's national
time standard. Lat
52.3676, lon -1.1892.
- Arecibo. Nuff said. 305 metres!
Lat
18.3435, lon -66.753083.
- DX
138 (antenna
details in English), Europe's largest ham radio antenna park. 24
directional Beverage antennas, totalling over 2.8 km in length (and
rather more in the winter - not sure how that works), plus a few other
bits and bobs. Built by dedicated German ham Wilhelm Herbst to enable
hams to pick up extremely remote stations (Brazil, Alaska, etc). I'm not
sure exactly where it is - apparently, "12 kms from
Jammerbugten/Skagerrak in Denmark".
- RATAN-600, the world's
biggest radiotelescope, in Russia. Lat
43.831319, lon 41.592083.
- The Giant Metrewave
Radio Telescope, the world's biggest radiotelescope farm, near Pune.
Lat
19.096667, lon 74.05.
- BT
London Teleport, BT's main satellite uplink centre in London, out in
Docklands, on the site of a former telegraph works (whatever that is).
Apparently, the site was chosen to guarantee that the view south towards
the geosynchronous satellites it uses would not be blocked by future
tall buildings, since you can't put such things in a river - cunning!
Apparently, London is the teleport capital of the world, with six of the
things, of which this was the first, opened in 1984. No idea how many
actual dishes they have, but apparently there are 58 'satellite
accesses' there, more than at any other BT site, including Goonhilly. Lat
51.499373, lon 0.058751.
Special bonus! Mobile antenna - the US navy's Sea-Based X-band radar
(SBX), with a 25-metre dish - eyeballed!
Son of bonus! The
Transmission Gallery - photos of the UK's TV transmitters.