SITE VIEWS





1964 Site Views After The First Antenna Refit For Geostationary Satellite Working.



Plan View



View West



View South-West



View South



GHY 1 Site



GHY 1 Ready For Testing



GHY 1 Site Almost A Plan View



1972 Expansion Of Services



GHY 3 completed on left with GHY 2 more distant and left of centre. Both of these antennas are set to the Atlantic satellites providing AOR main path and AOR primary path.


GHY 1 on right is set to the Indian Ocean, so was working to the Intelsat III F3 satellite over the Indian Ocean which was just above the horizon providing the first link with IOR countries.


All three of these antennas worked in the C-band Microwave frequencies.


On the Experimental Site a 9 metre (later GHY 9) receive only antenna had been installed.



View Looking North



The Experimental Site is off picture to the left.



1975 Plan of Site





1980's The Development Continues



By this time, four more main antennas had been constructed.


GHY 4 in the foreground right of centre was initially an experimental antenna for exploring the possibility of expanding capacity using the higher frequency Ku-band.


GHY 5, foreground left of centre, was an antenna specifically for ship to shore service being set up by the INMARSAT consortium.


GHY 6, centre right, is the largest antenna on site, and was the first to be capable of using both C-band and Ku-band frequencies.


GHY 7, a smaller antenna close to the Main Building, just below GHY 1 in the picture, was initially constructed for TV leased services. In 1987, it was modified for SKYPHONE aeronautical services.


The Experimental Site, expanded to work on different service exploration, including

pre-service Earth Station Verification & Assistance (ESVAs) for antennas

internationally.



1980's Site Plan



Showing Additions in Red



Site View Looking East



Service Extensions ~1996



The days of large antennas were waning, as new developments in electronics and technology allowed smaller equipment with greater capacity, matching the increasing power and capacity of the orbiting satellites fitted with shaped-beam antennas. Other developments were occurring in the Inmarsat arena as a number of new services were being added, for maritime, aeronautical, and land mobile applications, so greater coverage was needed for the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Regions.


The original GHY 5 Inmarsat antenna, lower left in the picture below, was joined by a line of three antennas, GHY 14, GHY 24 & GHY 25.


GHY 20 was one of a number of small special services antennas dotted around the site near the main antennas, this one being placed close to the base of GHY 3.


GHY 23, close to GHY 4, slightly right of centre, was a contingency system providing C-band support for the other antennas and also Cable Restoration in case of failure.



Site View Looking East



1990's Site Plan



Showing additions in red



The Last Years as a BT Satcomms Station



The early 2000's can be considered the peak in BT satcomms, followed by a slow decline as it decided to consolidate its UK earth station operations by reducing the four main sites down to one near Hereford. The main cause was the now ready availability of competitive other company satellite services arriving on the market.



A higher view of the site looking ENE



Picture kindly provided by RNAS Culdrose



View looking SE



Picture kindly provided by RNAS Culdrose



The Inmarsat Services Antennas



The complete system was sold to Stratos and finally removed from the site to Holland around mid 2007.



The Experimental B- Site



Taken from the roof of GHY 3 top cabin.



Other Site Pictures



Distant GHY4 left and GHY3 near



View from Nature Reserve



GHY 3 against the setting Sun



Site closed by snow 1979



Goonhilly from Croft Pascoe Pool.



GHY 5 after Sunset looking West



Last Edit : AJ 09/08/2020