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 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]
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]
In 1963, a USAF 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]
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]
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), angle, or velocity of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the object(s). Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the object and return to the receiver, giving information about the object's location and speed.
Tropospheric scatter, also known as troposcatter, is a method of communicating with microwave radio signals over considerable distances – often up to 300 kilometres (190 mi), and further depending on 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.
ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. In order to get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era systems, notably the original Chain Home radars for the early warning role, and the AMES Type 7 for plotting and interception control. Data from these stations was sent to a network of control stations, mostly built underground, using an extensive telephone and telex network.
Remote Radar Head Saxa Vord or RRH Saxa Vord, is a Royal Air Force radar station located on the island of Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. As of July 2019 it is once more a fully operational radar station, after closure in 2006. The station's motto Praemoneo de Periculis reflects its role. RAF Saxa Vord is further north than Saint Petersburg in Russia, and on the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. The station was named after Saxa Vord, which is the highest hill on Unst at 935 ft (285 m). It holds the unofficial British record for wind speed, which in 1992 was recorded at 197 mph (317 km/h) — just before the measuring equipment blew away.
Shemya or Simiya is a small island in the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands chain in the Aleutian Islands archipelago southwest of Alaska, at 52°43′27″N174°07′08″E. It has a land area of 5.903 sq mi (15.29 km2), and is about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It is 2.73 miles (4.39 km) wide and 4.32 miles (6.95 km) long.
Ringstead Bay and the small village of Ringstead are located on the coast in Dorset, southern England. The area lies on the Jurassic Coast and is known for its natural environment and fossils.
RAF Stenigot is a former Second World War radar station situated at Stenigot, near Donington on Bain, Lincolnshire.
Bulbarrow Hill is a 274 metres (899 ft) hill near Woolland, five miles west of Blandford Forum and ten miles (16 km) north of Dorchester in Dorset, England. The chalk hill is part of the scarp of Dorset Downs, which form the western end of the Southern England Chalk Formation. Part of the hill is used for arable agriculture, but most is calcareous grassland. The hill overlooks the Blackmore Vale, and offers views of Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.
Linesman/Mediator was a dual-purpose civil and military radar network in the United Kingdom between the 1960s and 1984. The military side (Linesman) was replaced by the Improved United Kingdom Air Defence Ground Environment (IUKADGE), while the civilian side (Mediator) became the modern public-private National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
No. 208 Radar Station RAAF is a heritage-listed former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) radar station at Mine Camp at Catherine Hill Bay and Pinny Beach, both in City of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. It was established on 10 February 1943. The remains of the radar station were added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 July 2008.
Royal Air Force Bempton or more simply RAF Bempton is a former Royal Air Force station situated at Bempton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, 6 miles (10 km) north of Bridlington. During the Second World War it was established as a radar station, becoming part of the Chain Home Low (CHL) network.
RAF Ventnor is a former Royal Air Force radar station located 0.7 miles (1.1 km) north east of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, England. It was initially constructed in 1937 as part of a World War II coastal defence programme codenamed Chain Home. The site played an important role during the Second World War, providing early warnings of incoming bomber attacks carried out by the Luftwaffe.
Royal Air Force Holmpton or more simply RAF Holmpton is a former Royal Air Force Cold War era nuclear bunker that was built in the 1950s as an early warning radar station as part of the ROTOR Radar Defence Programme. Located just south of the village of Holmpton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, RAF Holmpton remained a part of the Defence Estate right up to 8 December 2014 when it was sold into private ownership after 62 years of military service.
The North Atlantic Radio System (NARS) was a chain of 5 tropospheric scatter communication sites. It was an expansion of the former Distant Early Warning Line. NARS has been built for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Western Electric (AT&T) and its sites were maintained under contract by ITT Federal Electric Corporation. All NARS stations were supervised and controlled by the USAF, by agreement with the Canadian and Danish Governments.
Stenigot is a village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is in the Lincolnshire Wolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south-west from the town of Louth, and 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east from the village of Donington on Bain. It includes the hamlet of Cold Harbour. The population is included in the civil parish of Asterby.
RAF Portland is a former Royal Air Force and ROTOR radar station on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Located close to the Verne Citadel and East Cliff, the station was established in the 1950s as part of a nationwide air defence radar system built by the British Government during the Cold War. The station became a scheduled monument in 2004 and is now the site of the community farm, Fancy's Family Farm.
Bones Knob Radar Station is a heritage-listed radar station at Bowcock Road, Tolga, Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1943. It is also known as WWII RAAF 220 Radar Station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 May 2010.
Royal Air Force Shipton, was a First World War era airfield located north of the village of Shipton-by-Beningbrough, in North Yorkshire, England. During the First World War, it was used by No. 76 Squadron RAF whose remit was to provide Home Defence (HD).
Bent Rigg Radar Station,, was a radar site located at Bent Rigg, 0.6 miles (1 km) south of Ravenscar, North Yorkshire, England. Several radar stations had been located in the Ravenscar area from 1938, but a more permanent site was built at Bent Rigg in 1941, which was crewed by technicians and other staff from the Royal Air Force. Bent Rigg, and the wider location around Ravenscar, was deemed "attractive" for the siting of long-range finding equipment. It was originally part of the Coastal Defence/Chain Home Low (CD/CHL) system, designed to detect shipping. Later, it was upgraded with more powerful equipment as part of the Chain Home Extra Low (CHEL). The last recorded use of the station was in September 1944, and it is believed that the site closed soon afterwards.
Coordinates: 50°38′04″N2°20′37″W / 50.634353°N 2.3435399°W
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