RAF Ringstead

RAF Ringstead
RAF Ringstead
Ringstead Bay, Dorset in England
	One of the former transmitter blocks of RAF Ringstead in 2011
	RAF Ringstead Shown within Dorset RAF Ringstead RAF Ringstead (the United Kingdom)
Coordinates	50°38′03″N002°20′35″W / 50.63417°N 2.34306°W
Type	Royal Air Force Station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force ; United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1942 - 1946
Battles/wars	European theatre of World War II ; Cold War

Last updated October 26, 2024

RAF Ringstead is a former Royal Air Force radar station at Ringstead Bay, Dorset, England. It is notable for having served three separate functions: first as a Chain Home early-warning radar station during WWII and then, during the Cold War, as a Rotor station and then, finally, as a USAF Tropospheric scatter station. The first of these functions commenced in 1942; the last of the functions ceased in 1974. The structural remains were Grade II listed in 2020.^[1]

Chain Home

Chain Home was a ring of early warning radar stations built around the coastline as part of WWII defences from the late 1930s onwards.^[1]

RAF Ringstead Chain Home Radar Station (known as AMES12B and CH12B) was built in 1941, and was fully operational by March 1942. ^[1] It was designed with well-dispersed structures: doubled-up transmitter and receiver blocks, a substation and a standby set house in earth-bound bunkers, four 325ft steel transmitter aerial masts and two 240ft self-supporting timber receiver aerial towers. ^[1] Ringstead Chain Home was stood down in 1945. ^[1]

Rotor station

In 1952, the former Chain Home station was refurbished into a Rotor station site (known as SRD).^[1] The Rotor programme was developed to update previous wartime radar technology and to install more capable radar systems to detect and locate fast-flying jets.^[1] The former Chain Home station became the technical site of the Rotor station; Upton Farm, 2 km to the north, became the domestic site, where personnel were accommodated.^[1] It closed in 1956. ^[1]

Tropospheric scatter

In 1963, a United States Air Force Tropospheric scatter station was established at Ringstead to provide a cross-channel relay link from High Wycombe Atomic Joint Co-Ordination Centre to a counterpart network in Gorramendi, near Elizondo, in the Spanish Pyrenees.^[1]^[2] Two parabolic aerials were erected as part of this refurbishment.^[1] The Tropospheric Scatter station was operated by USAF No 6 Detachment, 2180 Communications Squadron, ^[3] and closed in 1974. ^[1]

Legacy

The Tropospheric Scatter station parabolic aerials were dismantled in 1975.^[3] The Wessex Hang Gliding Club use the field where the aerials were formerly located for emergency landings.^[4]

The bunker is on land owned by the National Trust, and the Trust occasionally run open days.^[5]

The radar station was listed Grade II in 2020, as one of the best-preserved Chain Home stations in southwest England, and as such a rare example of its type.^[1] One of the two transmitting blocks is proposed for conversion to holiday accommodation.^[1] Planning permission was granted in 2021 for a conversion designed by Lipton Plant Architects.^[6]

Related Research Articles

Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), direction, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, map weather formations, and terrain.

Tropospheric scatter, also known as troposcatter, is a method of communicating with microwave radio signals over considerable distances – often up to 500 kilometres (310 mi) and further depending on frequency of operation, equipment type, terrain, and climate factors. This method of propagation uses the tropospheric scatter phenomenon, where radio waves at UHF and SHF frequencies are randomly scattered as they pass through the upper layers of the troposphere. Radio signals are transmitted in a narrow beam aimed just above the horizon in the direction of the receiver station. As the signals pass through the troposphere, some of the energy is scattered back toward the Earth, allowing the receiver station to pick up the signal.

Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force (RAF) before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Initially known as RDF, and given the official name Air Ministry Experimental Station Type 1 in 1940, the radar units were also known as Chain Home for most of their life. Chain Home was the first early warning radar network in the world and the first military radar system to reach operational status. Its effect on the war made it one of the most powerful systems of what became known as the "Wizard War".

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Historic England List Entry No 1472715" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
↑ "Subterranea Britannica: ACE High NATO Communications System" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
1 2 "Geograph: SY7681 – Ringstead Bay c 1970" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
↑ "Hang Gliding History: Ringstead". hghistory.org. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
↑ "Where Can We Go: Ringstead Bay Radar Station Open Day". wherecanwego.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
↑ Lea, Martin (31 July 2021). "How war bunker at Ringstead will look when it becomes holiday accommodation". Dorset Echo . Retrieved 26 August 2021.

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[auto1-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Historic England List Entry No 1472715" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.

[2] "Subterranea Britannica: ACE High NATO Communications System" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.

[auto-3] 1 2 "Geograph: SY7681 – Ringstead Bay c 1970" . Retrieved 26 August 2021.

[4] "Hang Gliding History: Ringstead". hghistory.org. Retrieved 26 August 2021.

[5] "Where Can We Go: Ringstead Bay Radar Station Open Day". wherecanwego.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.

[6] Lea, Martin (31 July 2021). "How war bunker at Ringstead will look when it becomes holiday accommodation". Dorset Echo . Retrieved 26 August 2021.

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