Radio Liberty, Playa De Pals, Spain

Radio Liberty was an idea that was developed by the US armed forces at the end of WW2 as a way of getting pro-American information (i.e. propaganda) to people stuck in the Russian zone of East Berlin. As the Iron Curtain went up, the Americans - especially the CIA - thought it would be useful to develop a radio system that would allow them to to do this permanently, so they created Radio Free Europe and its sister service, Radio Liberty, which started broadcasting from the Costa Brava in 1959. As you can see in the 2005 picture taken below, there were eight massive antenna arrays, which used an ionospheric signal system to ping radio broadcasts right into Sofia, Prague and Moscow all the way through the cold war.



These days there isn't much left of the antenna arrays, just the odd hardstanding and guy fixing point,(see below) but you still can't get anywhere near the main office building (which is the biggest structure that remains) as it houses a meterological satellite dish and is patrolled regularly by the Guardia Civil, who stopped me to ask me what I was doing taking pictures of the old site.However, there are a few interesting bits left.

For example, the "Check Point Charlie" style gatehouse, complete with barbed wire


Inside the complex, where the antenna were there are these three small entrances which (I believe) originally led down to bunkers which housed the cooling eqipment for the transistors. According to local sources the bunkers have not been filled in




You can also see some of the hardstandings and guy points for the antennas



There's some footage on the web of the antenna array being demolished, but for the reall lowdown on the site you should read the English version of www.radioliberty.org, which is run by a former
employee of the the Radio Liberty service who was based at Pals for years

GDZ

Hmm just looked back at this thread and realised that my photos are fairly dogshite. Many apologies people. Needless to say, if anyone has any good photos of this site (or really any photos of anything that are better than these ones) please post them.
I am (as ever) your complete moron
GDZ

im not kissing your arse or anything but i dont think they are that bad and interesting reading i really enjoyed the history of this thanks alot for some interesting stuff

Too kind, too kind, but really there must be someone who has been there and made more of it than me. Its just that I didn't really have the time or the inclination to stake it out properly (which could have been quite good as it now fronts on to a nudist beach!) But thanks anyway. It is a really interesting and important site, which is why it should be done properly!
GDZ