WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.
Menobservayshunul; Rounding Off
I know, it's not Film Club day. However, when preparing yesterday's post, I stumbled upon these two clips which tie in perfectly with the main theme of this week and seemed like the best way to end it.
The first is about the takeover by the National Trust and does mention how it is 'not necessarily comfortable or safe' to visit there; backing up my decision to refrain from the intended trip over there on the recent sojourn! The second is just a beauty-run with a drone showing the cold-war buildings. Notably the 'pagodas'. The design was such that, in the event of an explosion, the columns would just collapse and the solid roof would fall and seal the chamber completely. (The music is pretty good and suits the scene well.)
The first is about the takeover by the National Trust and does mention how it is 'not necessarily comfortable or safe' to visit there; backing up my decision to refrain from the intended trip over there on the recent sojourn! The second is just a beauty-run with a drone showing the cold-war buildings. Notably the 'pagodas'. The design was such that, in the event of an explosion, the columns would just collapse and the solid roof would fall and seal the chamber completely. (The music is pretty good and suits the scene well.)
Me-no-here; or the F.Y.E.O. post 2

Everyone was hyper about nuclear attack (or potential for it) and the intended purpose of the antenna being built was to provide early warning if USSR got trigger-happy. Building such a visible item, though, meant having to provide cover stories and the key one was that this was simply a radio relay and transmission station. Fake News, if you will - government generated. It is quite the art. Even though much (most) documentation in regard to Cobra Mist has been declassified, there is still quite a bit of the mysterious about it. Back in the day, though, all sorts of things were being reported.

For dad, though, it was just a job of engineering. There was recently a Channel 5 show about that time, which he and I watched together with great interest and I was much entertained by his mutterings of disagreement in places. One of the comments of the presenter was that there were very few photographs of the array...


There was trouble with the poles cracking. This he told me about but it was not spoken of in the tv program. What was mentioned was that the whole thing, after only a few months of commisioning, was shut up and demounted. He also backed up the talk of 'too much noise' for the billion-dollar (in today's rates) array to be useful. That's one big white hephalumpus! There are a number of archived and declassified docs on the inquiries made as to the whys and wherefores of so much US Govt funding going into a shingle spit to lie with all the unexploded ordinance there. Nothing is really conclusive. Without saying anything, I got the distinct impression the father considered the design doomed from the start. This paper was the shortest and (potentially) most interesting to read on the matter of RCA's part in things. It contains this excerpt, which pertains directly to the flaws mentioned above.
Some of the 'heavy plant' caused issues too. The 'push-me-pull-you' truck was okay till it got grabbed by the gravel. The crane was fine; until it wasn't.

Fun times. What struck me most was the futuristic beauty of the structures and the intended coverage of the completed array. It's all done by digital signals and satellites now, of course.
I leave you with a few more images.

Menokakkulish; midweek uplift

Those of you who pawticipated will already have received notification of the results.
Didya download your certificates???
How did you all do? Of the 32 dogs, I picked two correct breeds of the main three on seven of the pups; and picked one correct breed on five others. That's a total of twelve in which I recognised something. Initially, I was disappointed - one likes to do well, right? However, when reading that even so-called 'professionals' didn't do much better, I figured this really is proof positive that one cannot read a book by its cover!!! It was fun to take part and to look at all those lovely dogs and anything which contributes to research has got to be good.
🌄🌅🌄🌅 🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅 🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅 🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅🌄🌅 🌅🌄🌅🌄
On another note; I have had visitors. You are reading this as they pack in prep to depart tomorrow. Hailey and Zaphod very kindly let their peeps off-leash to travel parts 'furrin'! As I shall finish off the Suffolk Saga posts tomorrow, I can then start sharing what we got up to with Lady and Man from Canada!!!
Me-no-here...or F.Y.E.O. post 1
I mentioned that Suffolk held some memories relating to things mysterious. I have also mentioned previously that my father was an electrical engineer. The main reason for much of my childhood being spent in Suffolk is due to his having contracts down there. Mainly the standard electrification of remoter regions via poles and pylons kind of stuff.
However, at the time we were there, the American military also was. I used to babysit for USAAF families who lived in our village. The 'cold war' was still raging. There came a contract which had a degree of secrecy about it. As far as we knew, dad was working on a giant radio station. Which wasn't untrue; just not the whole truth.
Orfordness has a long history of use by the military. It was acquired by the War Department (precursor to the MOD) in 1913 for experiments in flying. Almost exclusively, the spit of shingle became attached to all things aerial. By the time of WW2, the RAF controlled the spit and brought on many civilian scientists with a view to improving ballistics and testing aircraft defences and vulnerabilities. One of the scientists was Robert Watson Watts who developed RADAR here. Then came the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
Established in 1954, AWRE Orford Ness was one of the few sites in the UK where purpose-built facilities were created for testing parts of nuclear weapons. At the height of the Cold War, Orford Ness was used to develop the atomic bomb. Within its stone walls, bombs would be put through their paces to test how they would deal with extreme temperatures, G-force and vibrations. Although no nuclear material was used in the testing, it was present at the site, increasing the risk of an explosion, which is why the 'pagoda' labs were designed to absorb an explosion. There are still some files closed on this matter.
It was in 1968 that work began on the top-secret System 441A OTH ('over the horizon' a.k.a. AN/FPS-95) backscatter radar project; codename - 'Cobra Mist'. Father has informed me that he was given an honorary rank of Fl Lt in the RAF in order for him to be able to access this building. The main contractor was the USA's RCA. In a number of documents I have read, there is no mention of the sub-contractors (the actual builders) of the masts, Balfour Beatty. Which might be a blessing, as things did not run smoothly and RCA would have to hold the responsibility of that in the end. Not that I could track down any evidence - rather, there seems to have been quite a lot of 'tap-dancing' to get more money out of the government to 'fix' things... On Thursday a little less history and more about the father's work.

Orfordness has a long history of use by the military. It was acquired by the War Department (precursor to the MOD) in 1913 for experiments in flying. Almost exclusively, the spit of shingle became attached to all things aerial. By the time of WW2, the RAF controlled the spit and brought on many civilian scientists with a view to improving ballistics and testing aircraft defences and vulnerabilities. One of the scientists was Robert Watson Watts who developed RADAR here. Then came the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment.
Established in 1954, AWRE Orford Ness was one of the few sites in the UK where purpose-built facilities were created for testing parts of nuclear weapons. At the height of the Cold War, Orford Ness was used to develop the atomic bomb. Within its stone walls, bombs would be put through their paces to test how they would deal with extreme temperatures, G-force and vibrations. Although no nuclear material was used in the testing, it was present at the site, increasing the risk of an explosion, which is why the 'pagoda' labs were designed to absorb an explosion. There are still some files closed on this matter.

at
Monday, August 13, 2018
Random Selection
2018L-Suffolk,
East Anglia,
England,
Ma 'n' Pa,
Mac History
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