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11th Dec 2021, 8:18 pm | #1 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: North Somerset, UK.
Posts: 2,129
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Cable station history, Cornwall.
This site may be of interest.
https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/Porthcurno/ About long distance submarine cables for telegraphy. Not strictly radio, I know, but it IS vintage and IS communications related. |
11th Dec 2021, 8:38 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Interesting to me. I spent a week at the Cable & Wireless Engineering School, now long gone it seems.
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11th Dec 2021, 8:52 pm | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: West Cumbria (CA13), UK
Posts: 6,127
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
The museum, now occupying the remaining buildings and tunnels, is worth a visit if you're in the area.
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11th Dec 2021, 9:19 pm | #4 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 2,039
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Quote:
Aub
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12th Dec 2021, 9:33 am | #5 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK.
Posts: 2,039
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Sorry, I meant Coventry.
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Life's a long song, but the tune ends too soon for us all. |
12th Dec 2021, 10:59 am | #6 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,876
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
One of the jobs I had to do was to design custom equalisers for the cables from the station equipment to the test racks at five cable termini. Rodilles to Penzance (presumably Porthcurno?), Alkmaar to Lowestoft, and Romo (Denmark) to Lowestoft.
So there may be a little bit of my work in that museum, connecting the SLMSs and switches to the real telecomms stuff. David
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12th Dec 2021, 1:18 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
An early map showing the station:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/105996808 A later map showing a later station building: https://maps.nls.uk/view/105996811 My only claim to fame lies at Rospletha just South of the station, barrowing countless cubic yards of concrete for the building conversions to holiday lets etc... The summer of '89 was a hot one there, phew! Lawrence. |
12th Dec 2021, 2:23 pm | #8 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,876
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
The concrete'll last longer than the equalisers did. They were for the old FDM over coax cables
David
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Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
12th Dec 2021, 2:36 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
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12th Dec 2021, 3:37 pm | #10 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,642
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
From memory, the museum tunnel entrance is shell proof steel!
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12th Dec 2021, 5:29 pm | #11 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Designing things like the valve repeaters for TAT1 (Transatlantic Telephone number 1) must have been a proper job, all 51 one of them. And with advances in technology the same cable almost trebled its capacity. And it was just one wire, power by constant current, return by the earth, marvellous.
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8th Feb 2022, 7:18 am | #12 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: North Somerset, UK.
Posts: 2,129
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Regarding the old telegraph cables that are terminated at the cable station, does anyone know if any of these cables are still in working order ? Not much use in todays world I know, but COULD one still be used ?
Could one connect a suitable battery and telegraph key and mirror galvanometer or other receiving device and actually send messages to say Gibraltar or elsewhere. Are these cables all corroded, or broken by storms and ships anchors, or are any still intact and merely out of use because telephony and digital data is needed these days rather than Morse telegraphy. If a cable was still serviceable, it could be an interesting historical reenactment to send and receive messages as was done 100 years ago, perhaps with original equipment. |
8th Feb 2022, 7:49 am | #13 |
Nonode
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Resolven, Wales; and Bristol, England
Posts: 2,608
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Last time I was there, the cables appeared to be 'terminated' on the beach!
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8th Feb 2022, 8:45 am | #14 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 826
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Quote:
I have this set of phone cards commemorating 125 years since the foundation of the Eastern Telegraph Company. John John |
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8th Feb 2022, 1:17 pm | #15 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Seaford, East Sussex, UK.
Posts: 5,997
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Similarly rusted cable ends here in Hope Gap, near Seaford. We did visit the termination building when it was open for a day, just rusty armoured cables emerging from a solid floor running to some similarly rusty connection boxes, it is now privately owned and used as a beach hut. There is some info here https://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/Eastbourne/index.htm although no mention of the termination hut we visited though.
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9th Feb 2022, 3:21 pm | #16 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Frajou, l'Isle en Dodon, Haute Garonne, France.(Previously: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.)
Posts: 3,183
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Hi,
I found this fascinating YouTube video about the undersea cables that come ashore in Cornwall. I didn't realise just what a network it was! I visited Porthcurno and the cable hut as well as the telegraph museum in the early 2000s. BT were promoting their 'Connected Earth' at the time with visitor centres at Porthcurno, Goonhilly Down, and elsewhere. Cheers, Pete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_nnUbX7uuQ
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10th Feb 2022, 4:49 pm | #17 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Edinburgh, UK.
Posts: 3,274
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
That is fascinating and a little surprising to be public domain.
Peter |
11th Feb 2022, 1:05 pm | #18 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Lots of familiar views for me.
It's all top secret in Cornwall. Lawrence. |
11th Feb 2022, 11:05 pm | #19 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 2,181
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Quote:
TAT1 was contained in it's own subterranean chamber in a hillside at Gallenach bay, outside Oban. it used USA AT&T equipment , and if you are interested this site is dedicated to the project. https://atlantic-cable.com/Cables/1956TAT-1/ TAT1 was built in the cold war period , with it's own air conditioning and standby power plant, but I never saw any provision for clean drinking water or any provisions for the human element who would have been behind the steel so called bomb proof doors although the redline between the west and RUSSIA passed through our circuits. Cantat1 terminal was built as a surface building on the same site, with bi directional cable using GEC/STC? equipment. Again from memory, the bandwidth was 36 x 3.4khz circuits , later changed to 48x 3khz . Last edited by Oldcodger; 11th Feb 2022 at 11:12 pm. |
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12th Feb 2022, 1:44 am | #20 | |
Octode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 1,654
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Re: Cable station history, Cornwall.
Quote:
Mike |
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