Originally Posted by Tartiflette Fan (Post 11259038)

I visited the Royal Air Force Air Defence Radar Museum at Neatishead last month and found it very interesting indeed. There were presentations made during the visit by operators who had served there and explained the workings as well as a few anecdotes. One of these concerned a Soviet intelligence-gathering trawler off NW Scotland which was selected for a "roasting" for some reason. The power was turned right up and "aimed" at this ship and, supposedly, burnt out all electronic equipment. This rather puzzled me because AFAIK radar is line-of-sight and there are certainly a good few hills between low-lying Neatishead and the coast of NW Scotland and also wouldn't all this immense electronic power be destroying a swathe of electronic equipment across Britain. I asked the presenters about this and got no coherent answer.

Can anyone here tell me if this was true and/or possible, or simply a canteen story spun to anybody not in the know to amuse/impress them ?

Originally Posted by MAINJAFAD (Post 11259072)

Could have been Benbecula, but wouldn't have been the Type 92. Type 89 height finder was based there with a Type 88 Search radar.up to the late 1980's (The former AD-11 / AD-12 radars used for Thunderbird II SAM tactical control). Type 89 could be aimed at things and transmit without the thing nodding.

Originally Posted by chevvron (Post 11259235)

I visited Benbecula in 1977 in an aircraft from RAE Farnborough. Why we went there I don't know (possibly something to do with the rocket range) but I did see what I believe to have been the mobile T88 on the north side of the airfield but I don't recall the height finder radar..

Originally Posted by MAINJAFAD (Post 11258948)

Lindholme got a remote picture from Pattrington via a Relay in North Lincolnshire (most likely at Kirton in Lindsey). North Coates got it direct. from Pattrington.

Originally Posted by chevvron (Post 11259807)

When I was at Lindholme in '73, the microwave link operated from Staxton Wold's T84 or 85 via a relay north of the Humber then to Elsham Wold and Lindholme; this was in mid '73 and prior to that the Patrington T80 was routed possibly via Elsham Wold too.

Originally Posted by Finningley Boy (Post 11259376)

East Anglia used to bristle with GCI stations, all fully manned and self-contained, some now RRHs. Trimingham, Bawdsey, Wartling, Neatishead and some I'm sure I can't recall. I spent a few nights in Bawdsey Manor back in Feb 1987, or there abouts, during an exercise. The old R3 housed the SADOC (Standby Air Defence Operations Centre),

FB

Originally Posted by ORAC (Post 11260666)

Ash was, of course, refurbished as a IUKADGE bunker, as the standby southern SOC, and used as the OCU.

Never used operationally for anything, else then sold off afterwards. Totally hardening the bunker and installing the kit must have cost billions - so the company which bought it as a hardened data storage site got a real bargain.

I can vaguely remember attending the course, can’t remember where we were accommodated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Ash

Originally Posted by ORAC (Post 11260666)

Ash was, of course, refurbished as a IUKADGE bunker, as the standby southern SOC, and used as the OCU.

Never used operationally for anything, else then sold off afterwards. Totally hardening the bunker and installing the kit must have cost billions - so the company which bought it as a hardened data storage site got a real bargain.

I can vaguely remember attending the course, can’t remember where we were accommodated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Ash

Originally Posted by MAINJAFAD (Post 11259400)

There was a T89 there, confirmed by I guy I know who served there. I would have been very surprised if there hadn't been.

Originally Posted by ORAC (Post 11260666)

I can vaguely remember attending the course, can’t remember where we were accommodated.

Originally Posted by WB627 (Post 11260995)

RAF Manston I suspect. If so was it after about 1989 when the new Officers Mess was opened?

Originally Posted by chevvron (Post 11261155)

No as I said, there was a guy in the mess at Manston in 1988 who said he was working at Ash but the mess was very small; I was given a bungalow across the road to sleep in..

Originally Posted by Myrtle Meads (Post 11259563)

While stationed at RAF Boulmer in March 1962 I was sent on detachment to RAF Bawdsey to work with Marconi on the trials of the Type84 before the RAF took it over.