Montrose satellite post, Scotland, June '09

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spacepunk

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Had a stroll along the old Montrose airfield and surrounding area as my Grandfather was a Squadron Leader and trained Polish pilots based here. His old uniform and other stuff are in the nearby Museum, but I've been in there before and as it was a nice afternoon Smellycat, Mrs. Spacepunk and I decided to go and visit this old building. In more recent times it has been used as a satellite communication post used by the US military based at RAF Edzell up until the 1990s when they left. It's all fenced of:mad:.

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Alot of lead pellet usage up there by the looks of it.

Whats under those slabs in the ground, access to a secret bunker or just cable runs :confused::mrgreen:
 
Good pictures and report there. :)

The second to last picture looks interesting, any idea what it is?
 
Nice one – this is the Kinnaber listening station. You can get in even tho the gate's shut … just need a bit of dexterity and a gap in the dogwalkers. The second but last pic is a lookout tower AFAIK, it sits close to one of the former aerial arrays.
 
Nice report mate. According to the RCAHMS website http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/36244/digital_images/montrose+airfield+general/

there is still a few pillboxes etc. around the site

NO75NW 31.01 centred NO 7190 5955 Aircraft Hangars
NO75NW 31.02 NO 7184 5911 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.03 NO 7205 5908 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.04 NO 7206 5917 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.05 c.NO 7251 5929 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.06 c.NO 7286 5948 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.07 c.NO 7305 5971 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.08 NO 7215 5996 Operations Block; Pillbox
NO75NW 31.09 NO 7195 5951 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.10 NO 7132 5894 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.11 NO 7185 5947 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.12 c.NO 7170 5976 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.13 c.NO 7289 5959 Operations Block
NO75NW 31.14 c.NO 7292 5974 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.15 NO 7222 5990 Shooting Butt
NO75NW 31.16 NO 71760 59339 Aircraft Hangar
NO75NW 31.17 NO 71764 59263 Aircraft Hangar
NO75NW 31.18 NO 71828 59464 Building
NO75NW 31.19 NO 71894 59501 Aircraft Hangar
NO75NW 31.20 NO 71821 59436 Guard Room
NO75NW 31.21 NO 71819 59312 Aircraft Hangar
NO75NW 31.22 NO 71782 59414 Aircraft Hangar
NO75NW 31.23 NO 7215 5979 Control Tower
NO75NW 31.24 NO 72252 59899 Pillbox
NO75NW 31.25 centred NO 71858 59535 and NO 71958 59675 Aircraft Hangars (Belfast Truss)
NO75NW 31.26 NO 7199 5958 Pillbox

Don't know if they are still there or have been demolished. I think this is the same place

DP045467
 
Hi i remember this place well.
Have visited it many times when site was live, been given a tour of site when in full use.
There was an ariel mast whitch was removed when site was shut down, also there is an was an underground ariel set up for submaine comunication, think this was just a grid of wires buried under the surface of the ground, witch was just left there when shut down.
This place was not very hi tec as was only a relay station for raf edzell.:):)
 
There's a reason it's not a widespread method of transmission... the theory is great, but the reality is somewhat different. Even VLF is very restricted, but is the only realistic alternative. :D

There's no way this system would have been installed at Montrose. It was considered by us Brits (it mentions Glengarry Forest as a possible site in the Wiki), but the idea was ditched for various reasons, not the least of which was the possible hazard to health by such low frequencies. Plus, it would cost an arm and a leg to operate, and I'm thinking billions rather than millions.

I suspect that part of the reason was also because the idea is shite. You have to realise that to transmit even tiny messages, and I'm talking a few letters rather than words, it would take minutes to send. Not exactly practical for anything other than very urgent codes. Hmm, am I thinking launch codes in the event of war? In any event, there is no way of knowing for sure that the signal would have been received, since the submarine would not have been able to transmit back except by conventional means.

So whilst you MAY have been informed correctly that the buried wires would have been for sub communications, I think it more likely to have been buried to serve as a ground plane for the above ground antennae if that were so. Were they laid in a mesh type pattern?
 
An interesting article in today's Teuchter Times...

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1361983

Unexploded ‘artefact’ dropped off at military museum
Army bomb disposal team called to Montrose after shrapnel shell discovered on doorstep

Published: 21/08/2009

AN ANGUS military museum received an unexpected overnight delivery when a World War II bomb was found on its doorstep.

The unexploded 15lb shrapnel shell was found near Montrose Air Station Museum by museum director John Melville as he opened the premises on Wednesday.

Mr Melville, 76, found the shell near the museum’s outer gate just before 10am.

He said: “It was just under the front gate, as if someone had rolled it under.

“I knew it was trouble as soon as I saw it. My first thought was that we’d have to close the place down. We’re self-financing and if we do that we lose money.

“I knew it was a shell but had no idea what kind. I think there might have been cordite in it but wasn’t sure, and wasn’t about to open it up to find out.”

Mr Melville, of Queen’s Court, Fettercairn, called the police, who cordoned off the road before carefully moving the shell into one of the museum’s “pillbox” machinegun emplacements.

The museum is on the site of a former World War I and II RAF base and the pillbox is made from reinforced concrete, which would have absorbed the blast.

Mr Melville said: “We’ve had people bringing in rubbish and scrap off the old airfield, but nothing as serious as that.”

Army bomb disposal experts were called in from Craighall, Edinburgh, and removed the shell just after 1.30pm.

It was taken in a sealed container to Ministry of Defence land at Barry Buddon, near Carnoustie, where it was destroyed in a controlled explosion.

Tayside Police are keen to trace whoever left the bomb at the museum. A spokesman said: “We’re concerned there may be other such ordnance in the area where this particular shell was originally found before it was left at the museum. One theory is that the shell may have been left where it was overnight by a well-intentioned person who wanted it to be found by the authorities.”

Anyone with information can contact Tayside Police on 0300 111 2222.
 

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