Tatsfield Receiving Station

Tatsfield Receiving Station[1]
The site in September 2005
Location within Surrey
Former names BBC Station, Tatsfield
General information
Type Radio receiving station
Address Surrey
Coordinates 51°17′N 0°01′E / 51.29°N 0.01°E / 51.29; 0.01Coordinates: 51°17′N 0°01′E / 51.29°N 0.01°E / 51.29; 0.01
Elevation 255 m (837 ft)
Current tenants Vacated
Completed September 1929
Client BBC

The Tatsfield Receiving Station was a radio signal listening post on the eastern edge of Surrey, England, on the North Downs and Greenwich Meridian, near Kent, run by the BBC during the Cold War.

History

It was established in September 1929, to conduct work with the International Radio and Television Organisation or Union Internationale de Radiodiffusion. During the Second World War it monitored propaganda broadcasts coming from mainland (German-occupied) Europe, serving the same role as the USA's Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service.

Rocket launches

In the mid-1950s engineers at the station were involved with the first trans-Atlantic television broadcasts by the BBC. In 1957 the station was one of only two UK sites to pick up broadcasts from early Soviet rocket launches. In July 1958 it picked up radio signals from the American Explorer 4, launched by a Jupiter-C rocket.

Structure

On the Ordnance Survey maps it was listed as a WT Sta or Wireless Station. It was off the B269, north-east of the roundabout with the B2024, to the east of Pitchers Wood,[2] around one mile north of the M25.

Function

It listened in to short-wave transmissions, but to largely establish the frequencies of these broadcasts only.[3] It calibrated interference from transmitters from mainland Europe, such as the Mühlacker radio transmitter in Germany which broadcast on 833 kHz, so interfering with the London Regional station on 842 kHz in 1931. On Sunday 14 January 1934 at 11pm, new radio frequencies came into operation in the Lucerne Plan undertaken by the International Broadcasting Union.

It monitored overseas BBC broadcasts to see which were being jammed, mainly by the Soviet Union, who also jammed the Voice of America.[4] There are two types of radio jamming - skywave and groundwave, and the station could monitor skywave jamming.

In 1959 it carried out work into interference of television broadcasts in Northern Ireland and north-east Scotland. From 1960 it began to pick up unauthorised broadcasts from new pirate radio stations.

See also

References

  1. ↑ New Scientist. Reed Business Information. p. 10. ISSN 0262-4079. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
  2. ↑ "Pitchers Wood, Tandridge - area information, map, walks and more". ordnancesurvey.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
  3. ↑ Berg, J.S. (2008). Listening on the Short Waves, 1945 to Today. McFarland, Incorporated Publishers. p. 185. ISBN 9780786451999. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
  4. ↑ Webb, A. (2014). London Calling: Britain, the BBC World Service and the Cold War. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 209. ISBN 9781472515018. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
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