Help Save Goonhilly Earth Station Complex

Photo courtesy of and copyright Ian Jones, 2011

Goonhilly 3 Antenna and the Orion Constellation

Everybody’s heard of Goonhilly, haven’t they? No? I’m amazed, so here’s the story of a piece of UK National and technological heritage and why it desperately needs your support right now.

There’s an urgent petition to the UK Government which needs to be considered and, if agreed with, then signed by all people who do not want to see yet another piece of national heritage callously discarded by short-term-interest politicians and NMP (not my problem) bureaucrats.
If I sound cynical, just look at what the last Government did with the Foreign Office Library. They scrapped it! Apparently, you can now find original, ancient treaties etc of the British Empire for sale on EBay!!!

The petition site is at http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/goonhilly

Goonhilly Downs – a windswept, out-of-the-way location on the Lizard peninsular by the Atlantic Ocean in south west Cornwall, England became a dramatic focal point at the dawn of the satellite communications era. Why, you might ask? [Read more…]

Oh Deer – The MX Missile, a Flying Coffin and the Twin Towers

Manhattan Skyline With World Trade Centre

Manhattan Skyline With World Trade Centre

The anniversary of the atrocity committed against the USA has triggered memories of a day some 30 years ago which culminated in a picture-perfect flight into NYC’s La Guardia airport, the approach being down the Hudson River with a sharp turn to port across Manhattan onto the final approach. A stunning afternoon view of Manhattan and the twin towers of the World Trade Centre.

However, the story starts the day before. I was marketing & sales director of a company that I’ll call F-Corp (if there’s a real company called F-Corp, I apologise. It’s not you!). I’d been in the States visiting customers and I flew into the town of Binghamton in upstate New York at about 9:00pm one evening. It was early spring, very cold and with recent snow on the ground.

Why Binghamton? Well, F-Corp had developed a completely new technology for very high-performance, small, light weight microwave filters. These devices had major advantages in airborne and space applications where light weight and stability in extremes of temperature and pressure were essential. They met the US military’s MIL STD 5400E environmental specifications. [Read more…]

Deepest, Darkest Borneo

It might be a week or so before my next post as I’m about to depart from the connected world for a bit. Internet availability in Borneo is expected to be patchy – that’s why they’ll benefit from more satellite communications.

If I manage to survive the jungle, the mosquitoes, leeches, snakes,spiders and the occasional Orang-utan I hope to surface eventually in Singapore.Then immediately travelling on to colder climes.

After having made some 6,000 flights I never really want to see [Read more…]


Warning: Version warning: Imagick was compiled against ImageMagick version 1692 but version 1693 is loaded. Imagick will run but may behave surprisingly in Unknown on line 0