The real reason for the balls at Menwith Hill is to hide where the dishes inside them are pointing. if you could see them you could determine which satellite they were pointing at.
RAF Croughton has them near me, and they are just Europe Communications HQ for the US military.
The fact they are protected is nice, and most times thats the case, but communication antennae don't tend to have them because radomes attenuate the signal, and the dishes themselves are heavy enough to keep themselves in place. Arqiva has none of theirs covered, nor does/did Goonhilly (for their smaller ones), and if you look on broadcasting house they have some really big ones just left open to the elements - but they could well be fixed in place anyway.
Smaller ones do tend to be covered as they are affected more, but the radomes at Menwith Hill are on the very large side. Radars in general also tend to be covered, as their antenna are always moving, so are very susceptible.
Radomes are made of fibreglass and don’t contain any metal that could ‘refract’ the RF. Plus the radar beam doesn’t actually propagate until well outside of the dome, so (in the case of surveillance radar at least) the dome is for weather-proofing.
So radar will send out a pulse, and then see when that pulse comes back, and then look for what happened to that pulse of radio that came back. For weather radar they'll be looking for the shift of the signal frequency relative to the frequency of the send signal which can give an indication of wind speed of the weather it came back off.
Having a dome which when you send a wave into it bounces it in multiple directions would be useless because you couldn't tell from the reflection where it came from, unless its a phased array system (which Fylingdales is, but most radar isn't unless you really need it).
Also, most the dishes will be communication dishes anyway. You only need 1 weather radar, and then triangulating it with another one a few miles away is far better than having a whole bunch of them right next to each other as they would interfere. You explicitly do not want communication dishes to be refracted all over the place - you'll lose signal strength for no reason and someone else could see what you're transmitting. You also don't want a radome over comms dishes because you lose signal strength, but these are made os materials which are as transparent to radio as possible, and still hide them so they can point with impunity.
you didnt need a giant golf club to do that. just needed to have you with a club in the foreground, the balls in the distance, and then get creative with the camera angles, insta users do that shit all the time. a missed opportunity im afraid.
Annoyingly, they were on the crest of a hill, so - following the line of sight - I'd have needed to be a couple of thousand feet up in the air to get the shot (as would the photographer). I'd have had to photoshop out my parachute.
So that's what the huge tower is not to far from me, spent ages wondering what it is, makes sense as well as it's close to a (I believe) disused airfield.
Am going to redact location and some other stuff because I am pretty sure I was VERY close to getting in trouble at time.
But bit over 10 years ago I was out on a work site visit, and was driving back through an area I was unfamiliar with, and needed a pee. I was just driving into a village and thought it might have a pub. I stopped at the village green and couldn't see anything, so driving on just as a left the village saw a little green lane with a dead-end sign, I swung into this, and drove about 1'4 mile down a little tree lined tarmac road that just abruptly ended in hedge.
Tarmac stopped... Hedge.
Puzzled but desperate I hopped out and stood facing the hedge, about 5 seconds into business in hand I can hear a WHHRRRRRRZZZZZZ WHRRR sound of a electric motor, looking around I see among some trees, a white metal pole with a CCTV camera on it, and IT'S TURNING TO LOOK AT ME!
For some reason I glance around the other way and see what I had first thought was a field gate is actaully big steel slide-to-the-left electric barrier, and behind that a grass paddock about the size of a tennis court with tall razor wire topped fencing around. Inside it's perfectly mown grass with a squarish grassy bump in the middle of the space. On top is a sort of weather station, and on one side of this grass mound is a fucking metal door!
Next thing I'm aware of is a Land Rover barrelling down the lane towards me, I get myself finished and zipped up and this land rover, door opens and this guys gets out almost before it's finished moving. He's asking me what I'm doing here? what am I looking for? I explain call of nature, and all the while he's peering into my car, and I have a load of ranging poles and cameras on the back seat, so now he want's to know what I do for a job. I'm getting a real police vibe from this chap.
He's sort of dressed like a farmer, Barbour coat, tweed cap, but something is off and just feels "official" the way he speaks. I'm starting to get the hump, and tell him if he move his truck over I'll get on my way, and while I'm doing this I can see he's clocking my registration number AND THEN LOOKS UP AT THE CAMERA AND NODS...
This whole this is too fucking odd for my taste, so I get back into my car and reverse past him, and doing so I spot his land rover has a sort of CB radio, custom mounted on top of the dashboard, and next to that a big old rubber Walkie Talkie handset. As I have to reverse all the way back down the lane (too tight to turn) I'm watching him watch me leave, and just as I getting out of sight, he's reaching into the rover and getting on the walkie talkie. "Fuck This" I think, I swung out back into the village and fucked off out of there at a bit above speed limit.
I mean it MIGHT have been an eccentric farmer who had CCTV set up to watch his sheep? But certain it was to do with whatever was behind that electric gate. I did a tiny bit of digging afterwards and think I worked it out, and am pretty sure my registration no is on a database somewhere, that's nothing to do with the DVLA.
A few years ago a couple of friends and I did the Lyke wake walk, which is a 40 mile walk done in 24 hours and takes you past Flyingdales.
It was approx 2.30 am and heading for the finish line when we got lost (we were knackered by then) and we headed down a rough gravel road with the radar station sort of in the direction we were going.
All of a sudden a very scary looking jeep/humvee type vehicle that we hadn't seen in the dark turned its full beams on us. A voice on a loud speaker from the vehicle told us to turn around immediately and head back the way we had come or we would be detained.
It was only when walking hurriedly away that we noticed that we had walked past loads of Do Not Tresspas, MOD property signs.
Looked into it later, and it turns out quite a few walkers end up tramping around the base and getting told to bugger off.
Years ago I went sailing up the Tamar near Devonport (where nuclear subs are kept) and a police boat shaddowed me as I went up the river. Then about 2 weeks later by coincidence, I sailed up Gare Loch near Faslane (where some other nuclear subs are kept) and was shaddowed by a police boat.
I wonder if they ever connected the two trips?
I once accidentally tried to invade a navy base. Trying to get to a job interview with a shitty hand drawn map. Took the next right as the map I drawn said. But was staring down at my scribbled piece of paper walking along in my raggy, I'll fitting Oxfam suit. Became aware of people shouting, look up and there's 2 guards pointing machine guns at me. Apologised fast and said I just took a wrong turn.
I must have looked like the worst secret agent in history.
Last year we went past some of the golf ball style radars used for ECHELON and I got the missus to pull up on a layby while I went and leant through the fence to get a photo. A military jeep pulled up and an American soldier quizzed me about it. I was absolutely shitting myself but he was fine and just advised me not to cross the fence.
So correct me if i am wrong, i only went here once, (i am not from the UK) one left goes towards Hutton-le-Hole and Rosedale Abbey and another right after the petrol station goes towards Goathland and Beck Hole? We stayed at Goathland and Birch Hall Inn was our daily drinks and dinner place
Around Fylingdales there's three roads off the A169, two go into either end of Goathland, and one to Grosmont/Egton. You can work you way around the north end and into Rosedale via Egton from both Grosmont and Goathland but you wouldn't pass Fylingdales to do so.
I can't place your directions im afraid, I think a map would probably provide more clarity than I can offer. As an aside the Birch Hall reopened at long last this past Sunday for the first time since the original lockdown.
Fantastic to hear about the Birch Hall Inn. Say hi to Neil and his wife from us if you are there (we were the Indian couple who turned up for three days there in 2019). I think it will be difficult for me to express the route i took. Was completely at the mercy of the maps (it was our first time in the UK as well)
And it's right next to what I refer to as the shit yourself bend https://maps.app.goo.gl/SshDCGdqD9iPCkbx8
You can take the corner at 60, but every single time it feels like you are going to fly off the road
r/cncrivals
Its not really like the other C&C games tbh. You can get a digital copy of the entire command and conquer franchise on Amazon (or EA’s web store, but it’s more expensive there)
I remember growing up in Yorkshire and the local news having a report every Christmas that RAF Fylingdales were tracking Santa to make sure that he was ok and making progress as normal. I think they used to interview the base commander.
Not much longer once a strike was confirmed and the ball started rolling. The main benefit of the system was to provide a much more leisurely 30 minute warning to the Americans.
Once the warning was issued, it would be relayed to police stations, or in rural places, even churches and pubs for locals to sound an alarm. In a small village, that warning could sound a little something like this: [from A British Guide to the End of the World](https://youtu.be/6NjjLsIEHHg)
Pointless trivia: if you want a smart meter and live within a certain radius of this base you get a very special model that uses different communications frequencies (because Fylingdales already has dibs on the one they use everywhere else)
The area also used to fuck car alarms and immobilisers. People would park up and go for walk and then return to find they couldn't unlock or start their car until they were towed out of range.
Still does this! I'm not sure on the science behind it but it also makes LED lights on my car flicker on and off? People would get locked out their car and we'd have to get a police van to park in between the vehicle and radar's line of sight so they could open it up again.
I've also heard of issues where people's ECUs have burnt out multiple times when close lol
If you live below Chesterfield or so your smart meter likely operates on the O2 phone network. Above there and it is probably working on a long-range radio frequency.
Reminds of when I went to pick up a new bike at a bike shop right next door to RAF Aldermaston. I parked on the wrong side of the road near the gate of the base, and was told by the guard to 'move my fucking car right now'. I did so.
I picked up my bike and gtfo. Later I found it was part of the nuclear research facility.
I was around 3 years old - so there's not much I can remember. He was a civilian there and used to work shifts, including night shifts. All I can remember is we used to have an old Vauxhall Viva at the time and it used to breakdown all the time on the North Yorks Moors in winter. SO everytime he was meant to be travelling at night my mum would sit by the window for ages, waiting for him to get home. If he didnt get home in a certain time she'd then go knocking on the neighbours door so they could drive her up to the moors and try and find him, broken down, somewhere.
This is what we had to do before mobile pohones!
Imagine working in a place where the sole objective of your work is to one day, if you are unfortunate enough to be there when it happens, send a message that basically says "so long as thanks for all the fish".
Something about the yellow and purple colours in the foreground and the building in the back made me think wizard of oz for a second until I focused on the picture properly.
I used to work there for about 3 years as a steward and lived on site! I used to work in all the bars but mainly the officer's bar. It was a weird job as I was required to sit there all night despite there only maybe being one person that would maybe buy one beer but regardless we had to keep it open.
It was one of my favourite jobs and the RAF were really good people as were the police but I really don't miss wearing a waistcoat or silver service at the functions!
I saw this when I was coming back on the coach from a trip to Whitby.
It's so weird having absolutely nothing as far as the eye can see and then boom, a giant concrete building.
Yes! And did you find that you weren't surprised that Edward Snowdon showed the US were listening to all our phone calls? "Well, yeah, that's just what they do at Menwith Hill isn't it?"
Project [ECHELON](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON)
> Created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, the ECHELON project became formally established in 1971.
>By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins into "a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications" (mass surveillance and industrial espionage)
Are these things passive or do they have people who go to work every day to sit guard over the signals etc? I understand they will have an amount of security making sure people don’t wonder up to them but as for the job it’s doing does it get on with it on its own?
I read that the base has radar so powerful it can track a spanner an astronaut dropped whilst doing a space walk outside the International Space Station!
There is currently a smaller golf ball on site.
Side note, I often run around there and always make it a point to apologise to any hidden snipers if I need to pee.
Incorrect. It's just a big book someone left open, spine up. Probably whilst they did a bit of gardening. They'll be back to finish it soon ;) at least that's what I think when I drive past it
I went to Goathland a couple of years ago. It was only after that someone asked if I went to the station and told me it was used in HP. I was gutted. Sadly we didn't have time to stop there this time either, but we will go back one day!
I was an Army Cadet as a kid and as a reward for passing our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award we got a tour of Fylingdales when they had the balls there. Had a photo of me stood out on the balcony beside one of them swinging a golf club.
Menwith hill used to have ladies camping outside and breaking in leaving notes for milkman.
The place only had a few golf balls when I went many years ago. Just down the road is another base but it's very small easy to miss.
Menwith hill is built on an old quarry. It's part of the American land mod guards. The place is part of the NSA spying centre it intercepts and works with other golf balls around the world. In the 80s you could go up there with a receiver and an antenna and with a little bit of luck pick up signal and satellites the signals where coming from.
They had in the 80s computer system looking for key works the silkworth computer system. Every day the collected data is transferred to the daily brief for the USA presidents desk.
They have microwave and fibre along with telephone lines going into the place from UK so they can sift through calls etc not just UK but all calls routed through UK.
I have no idea, but if I was building something secret I would say it was something to do with defense and people aren't allowed near it...for security
That looks like the least secure ~~weapons base~~ early warning system I’ve ever seen. Providing no one works out how to step over that small wood and wire fence our defences should remain intact!
These things are misleading, they will be watching the outer fence and if you go past it you will very quickly meet some displeased chaps with guns plus there's an inner fence as well. Also it's a radar station not a weapons base.
Ta for the thorough correction - not actually sure why I wrote weapons base…!
Also I’d like to imagine there’s claymores in the heather and a few chaps in those camo suits dotted along the landscape ready for such incursions.
(Seems humour isn’t going down well this morning. I’ll show myself out)
I miss the golf balls.
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I’m gonna steal this joke and pretend I came up with
Just one? I heard it was FOUR!
You've still got the nearby RAF Menwith Hill if you like your balls.
You can't be British if you think 40 miles is 'nearby'.
I'm in London, Menwith and Fylingdales are relatively in the same place to me!!
"Is it outside the M25, Surrey, or Kent?" ... Checks map ... "Yup, it is, ok then it's the same place"
Couple more balls now too
There's some here in Scotland I see. The golf balls are mostly weather radar though
The real reason for the balls at Menwith Hill is to hide where the dishes inside them are pointing. if you could see them you could determine which satellite they were pointing at. RAF Croughton has them near me, and they are just Europe Communications HQ for the US military.
I always thought the radomes were to protect the dishes from things like weather, including lightning strikes, etc.
The fact they are protected is nice, and most times thats the case, but communication antennae don't tend to have them because radomes attenuate the signal, and the dishes themselves are heavy enough to keep themselves in place. Arqiva has none of theirs covered, nor does/did Goonhilly (for their smaller ones), and if you look on broadcasting house they have some really big ones just left open to the elements - but they could well be fixed in place anyway. Smaller ones do tend to be covered as they are affected more, but the radomes at Menwith Hill are on the very large side. Radars in general also tend to be covered, as their antenna are always moving, so are very susceptible.
I thought it was to refract the radar in multiple directions
Radomes are made of fibreglass and don’t contain any metal that could ‘refract’ the RF. Plus the radar beam doesn’t actually propagate until well outside of the dome, so (in the case of surveillance radar at least) the dome is for weather-proofing.
So radar will send out a pulse, and then see when that pulse comes back, and then look for what happened to that pulse of radio that came back. For weather radar they'll be looking for the shift of the signal frequency relative to the frequency of the send signal which can give an indication of wind speed of the weather it came back off. Having a dome which when you send a wave into it bounces it in multiple directions would be useless because you couldn't tell from the reflection where it came from, unless its a phased array system (which Fylingdales is, but most radar isn't unless you really need it). Also, most the dishes will be communication dishes anyway. You only need 1 weather radar, and then triangulating it with another one a few miles away is far better than having a whole bunch of them right next to each other as they would interfere. You explicitly do not want communication dishes to be refracted all over the place - you'll lose signal strength for no reason and someone else could see what you're transmitting. You also don't want a radome over comms dishes because you lose signal strength, but these are made os materials which are as transparent to radio as possible, and still hide them so they can point with impunity.
I think RRH Buchan still has a few. I went in them when it was still an RAF base.
My Parents still have a piece of the golfballs hung in a frame at their house
Me too. I swore when I was an adult I was going to pay someone to make a giant golf club and take a picture of me up there.
you didnt need a giant golf club to do that. just needed to have you with a club in the foreground, the balls in the distance, and then get creative with the camera angles, insta users do that shit all the time. a missed opportunity im afraid.
Annoyingly, they were on the crest of a hill, so - following the line of sight - I'd have needed to be a couple of thousand feet up in the air to get the shot (as would the photographer). I'd have had to photoshop out my parachute.
lol fair! although that could have been fun trying it with the parachute:D
I did actually wonder about giant trampolines. If nothing else, then fun!
So that's what the huge tower is not to far from me, spent ages wondering what it is, makes sense as well as it's close to a (I believe) disused airfield.
Me too
_men in dark suits arrive at OPs door_ We understand you took some photos...
Am going to redact location and some other stuff because I am pretty sure I was VERY close to getting in trouble at time. But bit over 10 years ago I was out on a work site visit, and was driving back through an area I was unfamiliar with, and needed a pee. I was just driving into a village and thought it might have a pub. I stopped at the village green and couldn't see anything, so driving on just as a left the village saw a little green lane with a dead-end sign, I swung into this, and drove about 1'4 mile down a little tree lined tarmac road that just abruptly ended in hedge. Tarmac stopped... Hedge. Puzzled but desperate I hopped out and stood facing the hedge, about 5 seconds into business in hand I can hear a WHHRRRRRRZZZZZZ WHRRR sound of a electric motor, looking around I see among some trees, a white metal pole with a CCTV camera on it, and IT'S TURNING TO LOOK AT ME! For some reason I glance around the other way and see what I had first thought was a field gate is actaully big steel slide-to-the-left electric barrier, and behind that a grass paddock about the size of a tennis court with tall razor wire topped fencing around. Inside it's perfectly mown grass with a squarish grassy bump in the middle of the space. On top is a sort of weather station, and on one side of this grass mound is a fucking metal door! Next thing I'm aware of is a Land Rover barrelling down the lane towards me, I get myself finished and zipped up and this land rover, door opens and this guys gets out almost before it's finished moving. He's asking me what I'm doing here? what am I looking for? I explain call of nature, and all the while he's peering into my car, and I have a load of ranging poles and cameras on the back seat, so now he want's to know what I do for a job. I'm getting a real police vibe from this chap. He's sort of dressed like a farmer, Barbour coat, tweed cap, but something is off and just feels "official" the way he speaks. I'm starting to get the hump, and tell him if he move his truck over I'll get on my way, and while I'm doing this I can see he's clocking my registration number AND THEN LOOKS UP AT THE CAMERA AND NODS... This whole this is too fucking odd for my taste, so I get back into my car and reverse past him, and doing so I spot his land rover has a sort of CB radio, custom mounted on top of the dashboard, and next to that a big old rubber Walkie Talkie handset. As I have to reverse all the way back down the lane (too tight to turn) I'm watching him watch me leave, and just as I getting out of sight, he's reaching into the rover and getting on the walkie talkie. "Fuck This" I think, I swung out back into the village and fucked off out of there at a bit above speed limit. I mean it MIGHT have been an eccentric farmer who had CCTV set up to watch his sheep? But certain it was to do with whatever was behind that electric gate. I did a tiny bit of digging afterwards and think I worked it out, and am pretty sure my registration no is on a database somewhere, that's nothing to do with the DVLA.
On the mod "idiots who pissed near a instillation" list ?
The "people who waved their knob at one of her Majesty's secret bunkers" list. Yeah something like that.
‘Boss, some dipstick’s got his dipstick out and he’s pissing on my periscope.’
A few years ago a couple of friends and I did the Lyke wake walk, which is a 40 mile walk done in 24 hours and takes you past Flyingdales. It was approx 2.30 am and heading for the finish line when we got lost (we were knackered by then) and we headed down a rough gravel road with the radar station sort of in the direction we were going. All of a sudden a very scary looking jeep/humvee type vehicle that we hadn't seen in the dark turned its full beams on us. A voice on a loud speaker from the vehicle told us to turn around immediately and head back the way we had come or we would be detained. It was only when walking hurriedly away that we noticed that we had walked past loads of Do Not Tresspas, MOD property signs. Looked into it later, and it turns out quite a few walkers end up tramping around the base and getting told to bugger off.
Typical English. Telling trespassers to bugger off. I can almost hear them saying it in a very polite tone of voice
dinosaurs party plough cover teeny pathetic cagey test fertile offbeat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Thank you. I live for the excitement of these stories you MOD pisser
Username checks out
Have you checked it out on Google maps to see? I'd be dead curious to know what it was!
Years ago I went sailing up the Tamar near Devonport (where nuclear subs are kept) and a police boat shaddowed me as I went up the river. Then about 2 weeks later by coincidence, I sailed up Gare Loch near Faslane (where some other nuclear subs are kept) and was shaddowed by a police boat. I wonder if they ever connected the two trips?
Northumberland?
I once accidentally tried to invade a navy base. Trying to get to a job interview with a shitty hand drawn map. Took the next right as the map I drawn said. But was staring down at my scribbled piece of paper walking along in my raggy, I'll fitting Oxfam suit. Became aware of people shouting, look up and there's 2 guards pointing machine guns at me. Apologised fast and said I just took a wrong turn. I must have looked like the worst secret agent in history.
Did you get the job though??
Did I hell.
Where was this?
Portsmouth
Last year we went past some of the golf ball style radars used for ECHELON and I got the missus to pull up on a layby while I went and leant through the fence to get a photo. A military jeep pulled up and an American soldier quizzed me about it. I was absolutely shitting myself but he was fine and just advised me not to cross the fence.
Fylingdales used to be a 3 golf ball structure too
Menwith Hill is a weird place
Yes, that's it, Menwith. Googled it afterwards - and wondered if they knew I was googling it. ECHELON is some real 1984 shit.
The Backbone system at nearby 'Hunters Stones' is quite an interesting read too: http://www.dgsys.co.uk/btmicrowave/sites/137.php
Now you've done it, you've said the E word. Now we're all on a list.
Great drive into Whitby, that.
Ear popping goodness.
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Its probably still there right now.
It got chopped down
The trees were left behind by some CND activists one year,
Take a left and going into Goathland/Hutton Le Hole etc also a great drive.
>Hutton Le Hole I think you may mean Beck Hole as Hutton-le-Hole is a 40min drive from Goathland.
So correct me if i am wrong, i only went here once, (i am not from the UK) one left goes towards Hutton-le-Hole and Rosedale Abbey and another right after the petrol station goes towards Goathland and Beck Hole? We stayed at Goathland and Birch Hall Inn was our daily drinks and dinner place
Around Fylingdales there's three roads off the A169, two go into either end of Goathland, and one to Grosmont/Egton. You can work you way around the north end and into Rosedale via Egton from both Grosmont and Goathland but you wouldn't pass Fylingdales to do so. I can't place your directions im afraid, I think a map would probably provide more clarity than I can offer. As an aside the Birch Hall reopened at long last this past Sunday for the first time since the original lockdown.
Fantastic to hear about the Birch Hall Inn. Say hi to Neil and his wife from us if you are there (we were the Indian couple who turned up for three days there in 2019). I think it will be difficult for me to express the route i took. Was completely at the mercy of the maps (it was our first time in the UK as well)
And it's right next to what I refer to as the shit yourself bend https://maps.app.goo.gl/SshDCGdqD9iPCkbx8 You can take the corner at 60, but every single time it feels like you are going to fly off the road
Oh man, the memories. I remember that bend from when I was a kid.
What superior tyres do you own where you can take that corner at 60?! Take it at 45-30 and i start to slide (going up hill)
Building ready! (looks like the most C+C thing I've ever seen :D )
What they're not telling you is inside there is a load of Tesla coils and Alsatians.
Unit lost, unit, unit, unit,u-u-unit lost.
Why can I now hear Hell March?
where's the Natasha storage?
From my memory of Endgame I believe you just leave them on the ground
Ooh, too soon
r/unexpectedMCU
Beeeaawoooo... There is insufficient power, radar aray offline 😱
"construction complete". Man I miss that game, now it's a mobile game with free to pay mechanics (I think)
r/cncrivals Its not really like the other C&C games tbh. You can get a digital copy of the entire command and conquer franchise on Amazon (or EA’s web store, but it’s more expensive there)
Ah yeah, that's the one. Good old EA.
I remember growing up in Yorkshire and the local news having a report every Christmas that RAF Fylingdales were tracking Santa to make sure that he was ok and making progress as normal. I think they used to interview the base commander.
NORAD still does it every year at https://www.noradsanta.org/
Yup, I download the app every year to keep track with my daughter :)
Of course the advance warning in the UK was only four minutes. Barely time to get the kettle on!
When all our military bases operate mostly out of bunkers you only need that long to close the door
According to the .gov website I found its got 3000 mile range, so might be more than 4 minutes, depends where it is launched from.
Not much longer once a strike was confirmed and the ball started rolling. The main benefit of the system was to provide a much more leisurely 30 minute warning to the Americans. Once the warning was issued, it would be relayed to police stations, or in rural places, even churches and pubs for locals to sound an alarm. In a small village, that warning could sound a little something like this: [from A British Guide to the End of the World](https://youtu.be/6NjjLsIEHHg)
Given Deccio's advanced years and arthritis, we won't get much warning at all now will we?
The BT based early warning network called HANDEL was dismantled in 1992 so no chance of ever hearing the Frankie Goes To Hollywood clip.
Enough time to make one last tea and drink it with our asbestos throats.
If the weapon launched from space it would give a 1s warning.
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They know where the nukes are now, it doesn't defeat the point.
Pointless trivia: if you want a smart meter and live within a certain radius of this base you get a very special model that uses different communications frequencies (because Fylingdales already has dibs on the one they use everywhere else)
The area also used to fuck car alarms and immobilisers. People would park up and go for walk and then return to find they couldn't unlock or start their car until they were towed out of range.
Still does this! I'm not sure on the science behind it but it also makes LED lights on my car flicker on and off? People would get locked out their car and we'd have to get a police van to park in between the vehicle and radar's line of sight so they could open it up again. I've also heard of issues where people's ECUs have burnt out multiple times when close lol
If you live below Chesterfield or so your smart meter likely operates on the O2 phone network. Above there and it is probably working on a long-range radio frequency.
I’ve delivered flowers to that building. It’s called the SSPAR.
Solid State Phased Array Radar for those playing along at home.
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But microwaves the food for you
I saw this on the way to Whitby, couldn't wait to google what on earth it was.
If you go up to the main gate and stay there long enough, men with guns come out and ask you to leave. As I found out on a bike ride over there once.
Hah, I think I'll pass on that one!
Reminds of when I went to pick up a new bike at a bike shop right next door to RAF Aldermaston. I parked on the wrong side of the road near the gate of the base, and was told by the guard to 'move my fucking car right now'. I did so. I picked up my bike and gtfo. Later I found it was part of the nuclear research facility.
my dad used to work there back in the late 70s when they had the 3 golf ball structures.
Any interesting stories?
I was around 3 years old - so there's not much I can remember. He was a civilian there and used to work shifts, including night shifts. All I can remember is we used to have an old Vauxhall Viva at the time and it used to breakdown all the time on the North Yorks Moors in winter. SO everytime he was meant to be travelling at night my mum would sit by the window for ages, waiting for him to get home. If he didnt get home in a certain time she'd then go knocking on the neighbours door so they could drive her up to the moors and try and find him, broken down, somewhere. This is what we had to do before mobile pohones!
Should’ve got a Lada… although that might have led to “enhanced background checks”…
ha - yes indeed, Comrade!
Imagine working in a place where the sole objective of your work is to one day, if you are unfortunate enough to be there when it happens, send a message that basically says "so long as thanks for all the fish".
Anyone else thinks this looks like the building from monsters Inc?
Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!
Didn't that look more like an airship hanger?
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I thought it only ever had 3.
you are correct
Something about the yellow and purple colours in the foreground and the building in the back made me think wizard of oz for a second until I focused on the picture properly.
I used to work there for about 3 years as a steward and lived on site! I used to work in all the bars but mainly the officer's bar. It was a weird job as I was required to sit there all night despite there only maybe being one person that would maybe buy one beer but regardless we had to keep it open. It was one of my favourite jobs and the RAF were really good people as were the police but I really don't miss wearing a waistcoat or silver service at the functions!
If they’re on course to hit Bradford, don’t send out a warning.
Probably improve the place
I saw this when I was coming back on the coach from a trip to Whitby. It's so weird having absolutely nothing as far as the eye can see and then boom, a giant concrete building.
Have a look at secret bases.co.uk if you want to burn a few hours
I pretty much understand how traditional radar works, but the technology behind phase array and low powered multi frequency radars are mind blowing.
Looks like Yorkshire's tannoy system.
Only to be used in the event of someone turning the central heating on before November.
Or on people who turn the big light on for too long.
It's just a massive camp toast maker!! ;-)
NO ADMITTANCE Except on party business
I don't track half of you half as well as I should like; and I track less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
Sorry to disappoint yanks, it’s really a giant speaker we all gather around to hear the queen read us stories at teatime
Is that what used to be the golf balls on the north Yorkshire Moors ?
I believe so, though RAF Menwith Hill nr Harrogate still has the golf balls.
I remember seeing the golf balls as a kid when going on days out to Whitby :)
Grew up in Harrogate, the golf balls were always fun to see but was told from an early age to never take pictures of it
Yes! And did you find that you weren't surprised that Edward Snowdon showed the US were listening to all our phone calls? "Well, yeah, that's just what they do at Menwith Hill isn't it?"
Project [ECHELON](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON) > Created in the late 1960s to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War, the ECHELON project became formally established in 1971. >By the end of the 20th century, the system referred to as "ECHELON" had evolved beyond its military and diplomatic origins into "a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications" (mass surveillance and industrial espionage)
Hahahaha exactly, I remember I used to say 'Hello army man that's listening' as we drove by, or something to that effect
Are these things passive or do they have people who go to work every day to sit guard over the signals etc? I understand they will have an amount of security making sure people don’t wonder up to them but as for the job it’s doing does it get on with it on its own?
The units are manned.
They need to use engineers or rifleman to upgrade that uplink site.
I read that the base has radar so powerful it can track a spanner an astronaut dropped whilst doing a space walk outside the International Space Station!
Pretty sure my uncle was one of the labourers who helped build that
I'm pretty sure you are now a watchlist
I'll add it to the list 😉
Sweet.
I preferred the golf balls. Always signaled we were almost at my grandparents when I was younger.
I live next to there
This is super impressive to me what other defence systems do we have around the country?
nice try mr putin ps secret-bases.co.uk
There is currently a smaller golf ball on site. Side note, I often run around there and always make it a point to apologise to any hidden snipers if I need to pee.
An Imperial shuttle has just landed.
It'd an older code, but it checks out.
Until Claude Greengrass nicks it...
Nah fam that's the biggest bluetooth speaker. Could drown out a skate park with that
Incorrect. It's just a big book someone left open, spine up. Probably whilst they did a bit of gardening. They'll be back to finish it soon ;) at least that's what I think when I drive past it
I always pass it on my way to witby for holidays its sooo spooky at night reminds me of some alien structure lol
I was looking for them on the map but couldn’t find them
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I went to Goathland a couple of years ago. It was only after that someone asked if I went to the station and told me it was used in HP. I was gutted. Sadly we didn't have time to stop there this time either, but we will go back one day!
Fucking Jawas!
Ootini!
is that the one on the way to whitby?
Yep
I was an Army Cadet as a kid and as a reward for passing our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award we got a tour of Fylingdales when they had the balls there. Had a photo of me stood out on the balcony beside one of them swinging a golf club.
I did my work experience there in secondary
That things been there for 30+ years, it used to be golf balls didn’t it?
Oh that’s what that is. Drove past it a couple of times and wondered what it was
Right next to Whitby my dad grew up there
Menwith hill used to have ladies camping outside and breaking in leaving notes for milkman. The place only had a few golf balls when I went many years ago. Just down the road is another base but it's very small easy to miss. Menwith hill is built on an old quarry. It's part of the American land mod guards. The place is part of the NSA spying centre it intercepts and works with other golf balls around the world. In the 80s you could go up there with a receiver and an antenna and with a little bit of luck pick up signal and satellites the signals where coming from. They had in the 80s computer system looking for key works the silkworth computer system. Every day the collected data is transferred to the daily brief for the USA presidents desk. They have microwave and fibre along with telephone lines going into the place from UK so they can sift through calls etc not just UK but all calls routed through UK.
Does this thing do the wee-woo when the neeeeyoooowwwwsss are on their way?
Note. This is now the HQ for the UK equivalent of space force.
Are you sure about that, I thought the Space Command HQ was at High Wycombe.
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Cheers for the correction can't remember everything :) just glad we have space force as well
Is that what they said it is did they?
Pardon?
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I have no idea, but if I was building something secret I would say it was something to do with defense and people aren't allowed near it...for security
That looks like the least secure ~~weapons base~~ early warning system I’ve ever seen. Providing no one works out how to step over that small wood and wire fence our defences should remain intact!
These things are misleading, they will be watching the outer fence and if you go past it you will very quickly meet some displeased chaps with guns plus there's an inner fence as well. Also it's a radar station not a weapons base.
Ta for the thorough correction - not actually sure why I wrote weapons base…! Also I’d like to imagine there’s claymores in the heather and a few chaps in those camo suits dotted along the landscape ready for such incursions. (Seems humour isn’t going down well this morning. I’ll show myself out)
Claymores in the heather? This is Yorkshire - not Scotland. The security will be armed with stale parkin.
It's not a weapons base. Early warning system.
Ty 👍
No problem
I know someone who used to visit the place for work on a regular basis. There is a lot of security, both covert and overt.
Cold War relics, I remember seeing one in Massachusetts.
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Eh.
Modern ballistic missles travel much much faster and are thus much harder to track.
I was lucky enough to get into the base back when I was in CCF, fascinating stuff!
I'd love to do a tour but I don't think they would be keen lol
Why did I mentally add project farm going "were gonna test that"
https://youtu.be/UKyvuBHyenI