Go to Goonhilly - the Earth station- the biggest space station of the world.
After the inspection threes became makes a photo of us with "ET".

Talking to the world

When you make an international phone call (or receive one), the chances are that it will be routed through Goonhilly. Over 10 million international phone calls are handled each week.
Here's how it might work if you were calling Vancouver from the UK. Your call goes through your local exchange to one of our international switching centres and is then passed on to the BT Tower in central London. From there it's transmitted by fibre optic cable to Goonhilly.
Your call is then parcelled up with a host of other signals going in the same direction, and electronically labelled for its correct destination.
It is beamed up to one of the Intelsat satellites covering the Atlantic region, down to a satellite earth station on the West Coast of North America, through another international switching centre, another local telephone exchange and then on to the subscriber you want . in not much longer than it takes you to dieal the number!
One of the latest applications of satellite technology at Goonhilly is the meshsat system. This allows commercial organisations such as banks, to operate a wide area network (covering for example, Africa and the Caribbean) that enables the transfer of financial date to and from their UK officies.



TV Pictures from the winning line

Much of the live TV material handeled by Goonhilly is either news and current affairs or sporting events from around the world.
For instance, pictures of the Olympic Games come to you through Goonhilly. After we have picked up the transmissions from an intelsat satellite we forward them to the BT Tower in Londonby special TV links. From there they are distributed to TV transmitters throughout the UK, by microwave - all in the blink of an eye.
TV satellite transmissions from Goonhilly to other countries are mostly for foreign news agencies, sending material back home from their London bases. They book satellite space through Goonhilly whenever a bid story breaks and slots are allocated to them on a first-come. first-served basis.


Submarine cables

As telecommunications moves towards the millenium there has been a world-wide shift towards the use of fibre optic cables (pioneered by BT), for high capacaty point to point communications.
The movement toward fibre however will never displace the use of satellites, due to the ease with which traffíc can be configured over them together with their lower unit cost on smaller routes, and overall flexibility.
Goonhilly has remained at the forefront by complementing its satellite services with a number of international submarine fibre optic cables. Their destinations are the USA, Canada, the Far East, the Middle East, Spain, France and the Channel Islands. Together they have the capacity to provide over 1 million simultaneous telephone conversations.


Marcomi's Dots

The first live transatlntic radio message - three dots standing for the letter S in Morse Code - was sent from Guglielmo Marconi's transmitter at Poldhu near Goonhilly, to a receiver on the coast of Newfoundland in 1901.
The connection was made using radio signals that had a fairly long wavelength. Such signals tend to follow the curve of the earth's surface.
Not long afterwards, amateur radio hams, using shorter radio wavelengths., found their transmissions could travel much greater distances, but not because they followed the earth's surface - quite the opposite.
They aimed their signals skywards at an angle. which then climbed to 300 kilometers or so before they were reflected back down to earth from the lower surface on the ionosphere, back upwards again from the earth and so on.
The only problem was that the ionosphere is not a reliable reflectore. It can change from day to day and is severely affected by the sun, so connections were mostly haphazard.


A clear view across the Atlantic

England's Southernmost point on the Lizard Peninsula was not adopted as the site for BT's first satellite earth station simply because it's an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Like Marconi. whose Poldhu transmitter was only a few miles down the road, we had to have an unbvstructed view across the Atlantic.
The plateau upon which Goonhilly is built gives us that view from just half a degree above the horizon, which enabled us to track Telstar(the first low-orbit satellite) that raced across the sky from horizon to horizon in under half an hour. Like Marconi, our planners also wanted unpolluted air that was free from electrical interference.
But we had an additional requirement. We needed rock solid foundations to support our dish antennae, which would weigh hundreds of tonnes each.
Geological surveys showed that the hard, Pre-Cambrian, serpentine bedrock beneath the site, was just what we were looking for.


Truth is stranger than fiction

In 1945, a building science fiction writer called Artur C. Clarkesuggested that microwave radio signals could be sent up to an unmanned orbiting satellite and beamed back down again to a different part of the world.
Clarke said that three satellites would be required for worlwide coverage, and that the right place for them, would be parked 36,000 kilometres above the Equator.
At the time, the highest man had been above the surface of the planet was a mere 20 kilometres.
The nearest thing to a satllite launcher, never mind a satellite, was the German V2 rocket, whose maximum altitude had been 75 kilometres; so it was hardly surprising that most people ignored Clarke's hypotheses.
But Clarke had done his homework thoroghly. He had reasoned that if his proposed satellites were going to offer permanent communications links, they would have to be virtually stationary when viewed from earth, in what us referred to today as a geo-stationary orbit.
He was spot-on. A distance of 36,000 kiloemtres is the optimum altitude for satellites that, orbit in time with the earth's rotation and can therefore be tracked 24 hours a day.
At a lower altitude they would, like the early communications satellites, actually travel faster than the earth and be out of sight (and out of touch) for most of the time.


Right odea, wrong technology

The Americans launched the first dedicated communications satellite ( Echo 1 and Echo 2) into a low, elliptical orbit in 1960.
They traveled at altitudes of between 500 and 1,200 kilometres above the earth, crossing both the North and South Poles in the process - and took 90 minutes to complete a single orbit.
Nearly 150ft in diameter, they looked like huge tinfoil balloons and reacted like mirrors. Signals from one satellite earth station were simply bounced off them and reflected back down to another satellite earth station.
Unfortunately, these "passive" satellites were struck by thousands of tiny meteorites and soon became too badly pitted to be of any use.


Right Technology, wrong Orbit

Telstar was the next, American commincations satellite to be launched - on 10 July, 1962. And Goonhilly, which had opened only a few months earlier, was ready and waiting to track it.
As historic moments go, the first live transatlantic TV broadcast was a bit of a let-down. The pictures were so fuzzy and lined, it was only just possible for viewers to make out a face.
Yet it was still a milestone, every bit as important as Marconi's first three dots to Newfoundland.
On hand at Goonhilly to record the moment for posterity at precisely 2.44 am on the following day, 11 July, was the BBC's Tomorrow's World presenter Ramond Baxter, whose commentary went: "here we are... there is a bar... that's a man's face - three it is" He was doing his best to describe the face of American telephone company boss Frederick Cappel.
Although the quality of the pictures from Telstar did improve, the most striking thing about those first broadcasts for the majority of people, was the novelty of watching live TV images from beyond the Atlantic.
It didn't matter to viewers that Telstar was a low-orbit satellite which disappeared from sight after 22 minutes, severing communications links until it re-appeared 90 minutes later!
By this time. the feasibility of Clarke's idea of bouncing microwave radio signals off a high-orbit satellite had been proved by scientists at the Jodrell Bank Radio telescope, who used the most obvious natural satellite for their experiments - the Moon.
All that was missing was the rocket-power to catapult a satellite into geo-stationary orbit!


The Boost that was needed

Early Bird, later renamed Intelsat 1, was launched in 1965. Perched 36,000 kilometres above the earth, as so accurately predicted by Arthur C. Clarke 20 years earlier, it was the first geostationary satellite to cover the Atlantic region.
Not only were we able to track the satellite for 24 hours a day, we didn't have to keep moving our dish around at breakneck speed to follow it. In fact, we hardly had to move the dish at all, as the satellite was always hovering in approximately the same position in the sky.
In practice, small dish adjustments were necessary from time to time. These were affected in exactly the same way as they are today. Here's hot it works. The satellite sends out a continous beacon signal to the dish. If the satellite changes position for some reason, the dish will move and automatically follow the beam. It's as simple as that!


From car boot to juggernaut

Intelsat 1, designed to handle 240 two-way phone calls simultaneously, or one TV broadcast, was unter 1 metre in height, weighed 50 kilos and was small enough to fit the boot of a car.
It was followed into space by the two other geostationary satellites that Clarke had prophesied would be required for global coverage - one over the Pacific, in 1967, and the other above the Indian Ocean, in 1969 - just in time for the whole world to watch live coverage to the Apollo 11 moon landing!
There have now been eight, generations of Intelsat satellites and several satellites within each generation - each more complex then its predecessor.
There are, for example. 11 satellites in the Intelsat V series . the most powerful of which can carry 15.000 two-way phone calls and two TV broadcasts simultaneously.
The first Intelsat VI satellite came into service in 1990. As tall as a double-decker bus and weighing a hefty 2 tonnes, it can handle 44,000 two-way phone calls and three TV broadcastts at the same time. The Intelsat VIII series of satellites are being put into orbit and the ninth generation will be in operation by the year 2001.


Mind over matter

Responsible for providing operational support for all BT's satellite earth stations, the engineering centre at Goonhilly is also credited with a number of innovations in the field of satellite communications.
For instance, they were the first to demonstrate radiopaging by satellite and were involved, in partnership with British Airways, with the first Skyphone tests.


At sea, on land, and in the air

The growth in demand for satellite comminications over recent years has been literally astronomical, with the result that several new services are now avaiable through Goonhilly.
For example, Inmarsat (the International Maritime Satellite Organisation) enables over 30,000 vessels at sea to communicate by phone, fax, data or telex. It also provides vital meteorological and emergency services and has revolutionised maritime communnications- for example, it is now possible for you to dial direct to ships at sea from your phone at home.
Than there's Skyphone, which allows aeroplane passenders to make phone calls anywhere in the world.
Passangers in private jets used to be the only ones who could benefit from this service. However, Skyphone has been sold to a number of international airlines like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Singopore Airlines, who use it on commercial flights for data reporting. Other facilities such as interactive sales and entertainment have been extended to passengers. Over 2000 aircraft have now been fitted with this system and this number is increasing by 60 aircraft a month.


Gerant

This dish was designed for maritime services, working as a link to the Inmarsat satellite over the Atlantic. The Inmarsat network allows ships at sea to communicate by telephone, fax or telex. It has a dish diameter of 14.2 metres and is now used as standby antenna and to support the expansion of mobile services in the Indian Ocean.

Tristan

Opened in 1983, this 13 meters dish was originally used for TV services, carrying news from Europe and the Middle East to New York and then onwards to the North American networks. Ir underwent a complete refit and was used for the Skyphone system until Gewain and Galahad took over this service. It is now used as part of the Meshsat system providing financial services to the Caribbean.

Guinevere

Some say the most elegant of the Goonhilly dishes, with its tapered tower and great beams behind, this dish reminds many people of windmill. It was opened in 1972, weighs 356 tonnes, has a diameter of 29.6 metres and faces an Intelsat satellite hovering over the Indian Ocean, Countries served include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Korea, Singapore and India.

Lancelot

Lancelot was originally desinged and built in 1978 to operate to the European Space Agency's Orbital Test Satellite. However it was soon transferred to full commercial use helping to cope with the big increase in transatlantic traffic and now carries a range of business traffic such as video conferencing, telex and fax transmissions. This 19 metre dish is also used as a standby antenna to Merlin.

Arthur

This was the first dish to be opened at Goonhilly, in 1962. It weighs 1,118 tonnes and has a diameter of 25.9 metres. Designed to work with the fast orbiting Telstar satellite Arthur can turn a complete cirle in under 3 minutes and can move from the horizontal through 90 degrees to the vertical.
Nowadays of course, it doesn't need to follow Telstar across the horizon at breakneck speed and in 1964 Arthur was re-profiled with a new "skin" of 24 petals allowing it to receive the weaker signals from Intelsat 1 (for Early Bird) and the later geo-stationary satellites orbiting at much greater cable traffic if an Atlantic or Indien Ocean undersea cable is damaged, or to carry temporary circuits for special events - like the Olympic Games.

Merlin

Although this is the largest dish on the site, with a diameter of 32 metres, it is also one the lightest for its size. Made from an aluminium alloy, it weights just 395 tonnes. It also happens to be one of the most sophisticated aerials in the world. Opened in 1985, it carries four times the normal amount of traffic (using four wavelengths at once) on transatlantic routes. It's unofficially known as Blue Peter, after the children's TV programme that featured its official opening. This antenna carried the Live Aid Concert in 1985 to over 2 billion people in about 100 countries throughout the world and carried news of the assassination of the Israeli President, Yitzhak Rabin.

Uther

Opened in 1968, and with a diameter of 27.4 metre, is similar in size to Arthur. It rotates a moving weight of 960 tonnes through an arc of 270 degrees on a small track powered by two 15 Horse Power DC Motors. As all our communication satellites orbit at fixed points around the equator, the antenna never needs to turn face North and therefore the gap in the track to the rear of the antenna allows entry of heavy maintenance equipment.
It serves the Intelsat satellite over the Atlantic and handles mostly phone and data transmissions. Countries served include Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Roca, Israel, The Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Nigeria, Trinidad, Uruguay, The United States, Venezuela and Ghana. Recent events handled by Uther include the Rugby World Cup and Test Cricket from South Africa.

Our journey led us on to St. Keverne, Porthoustock, Coverack and Cadgwith.
These places are little idyllic little ports.


Coverack

The picturesque fishing village of Coverack lies under the shelter of Black Head on the eastern side of the Lizard peninsula. Now popular with summer visitors it was once well known for its smuggling activities and the small harbour has for centuries provided a refuge for fishermen in this exposed stretch of coast with its dangerous offshore rocks.

Cadgwith

At the journey to Cadgwith we had to drive on the narrowest and steepest streets of the Cornish coast. The street was so narrow that the two outside mirrors touched the lateral planting of the street.
For this reason, quickly, we have left the surely most beautiful and romantic port on the other side again.
Oncoming cars had to return backwards.

Known for its rocky coastline and delightful sandy coves, the Lizard Peninsula has some of the finest scenery in the country. the area also abounds in sturdy thatched cottages and this attractive example stands in the unspoilt village of Cadgwith which lies at the foot of a steep and heavily wooded valley tucked between rocky headlands on the eastern side of the peninsula.


We drove on to the Lizard Point, went to the lighthouse and drank cream Tea again with Scoons instead.


Lizard Lighthouse

The distinctive twin towers of the Lizard Lighthouse mark the most southerly point of mainland Britain. The lighthouse gives a guide to vessels in passage along the English Channeland warns of the hazardous waters off Lizard Point.
Many stories are told of the activities of wreckers around our coasts, most of which are exaggerated, but small communities occasionally and sometimes officially benefited from the spoils of shipwrecks, and petitions for lighthouses were, in certaim cases, rejected on the strength of local opinion; this was particularly true in the South West of England. The coastline around the Lizard is particularly hazardous, and from early times the need for a beacon was obvious. Sir John Killigrew, a philantropic Cornishman, applied for a patent. Apparently, because it was thought that a light on Lizard Point would guide enemy vessels and pirates to a safe landing, the patent was granted with the proviso that the light should be extinguished at the approach of the enemy. Killigrew agreed to erect the lighthouse at his own expense, for a rent of "twenty nobles by the year", for a term of thirty years. Although he was willing to build the tower, he was too poor to bear the cost of maintenance, and intended to fund the project by collecting from the ships that passed the point any voluntary contributions that the owners might have offer him. In spite of the difficulty of recruiting local labour, the tower was finished by Christmas 1619, and proved a great benefit to mariners. However, the shipowners offered nothing for its upkeep, and the mounting costs if maintenance were bankrupting Killkigrew. Thus, in the face of more opposition from Trinity House, James I set a fee of one halfpenny a ton on all vessels passing the light. This caused such an uproar from the shipowners hat the patent was withdrawn, the light extinguished and the tower demolished.

Applications were made in ensuing years, but it was not until 1748 that Trinity House supported an attempt by Thomas Fonnerau to erect a lighthouse. The building was completed in 1751, and consistes of two towers, with a cottage built between them, in which an overlooker lay on a sort of couch, with a window on either side commanding a view of the lanterns. When the bellows-blowers relaxed their efforts and the fires dimmed, he would remind them of their duties by a blast from a cow horn. Trinity House assumed responsibility in 1771. Structural alternations were made in 1812 which left the station much as it is today.

Lizard Lighthouse was automated in 1998 with the keepers leaving the station on 16 April. The automation involved replacing the compressed air fog signal, the last one in the Service, with an electrical signal.
In 1998 a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) station was built at Lizard Lighthouse, one of six such reference stations maintained by Trinity House which give overlapping coverage of up to 50 sea miles around the coast.
Trinity House is opening the Lizard Lighthouse to the public, in partnership with the Trevithick Trust, a charity dedicated to the conservation of Cornwall's industrial heritage. As well as the lighthouse tower, visitors can tour the engine room which contains as exhibition of historic engines and the air driven fog signal which has been preserved in working order and is the last operational example in Britain.

Position: 49° 57'.58 N 05° 12'.07 W
Established: 1619
Heigth of tower: 19 metres
Height of light above mean high water: 70 metres
Automated: 1998
Electrified: 1924
Optic: 2nd order 700 mm rotating catadioptric
Lamp: 400 watt metal halide
Character: one white flash every 3 seconds
Intensity: 1,020,000 candela
Range of light: 25 sea miles
For signal character: one 3 second blast every 30 seconds

Temperature: 21°C - wonderful weather

Driven miles: 66 = 106 km