{"id":508,"date":"2011-10-03T12:35:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T12:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/?p=508"},"modified":"2011-10-03T12:35:06","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T12:35:06","slug":"goonhilly-satellite-earth-station-cornwall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station, Cornwall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_509\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-509\" style=\"width: 544px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly359.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly359.jpg\" alt=\"large satellite dish\" title=\"Goonhilly359\" width=\"544\" height=\"411\" class=\"size-full wp-image-509\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly359.jpg 544w, https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly359-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 544px) 85vw, 544px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-509\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&quot;Arthur&quot;<\/figcaption><\/figure>Goonhilly\u2019s  first dish, Antenna One, (\u201cArthur\u201d) was built in 1962 to link with Telstar. It was the first open parabolic design and is a monster 25.9 metres in diameter and weighs 1,118 tonnes. Other dishes followed, till there were around 60 dishes of various sizes. In  2006, however, BT announced that it would close its site by 2008, centralising its operations elsewhere.  The biggest dishes are redundant, as with today\u2019s powerful electronics, much smaller one will suffice.<\/p>\n<p><em>Until Easter 2010 the site had a visitor centre inside which the Connected Earth gallery told the history of satellite communications. There were many other interactive exhibits, a cafe, a shop and one of Britain&#8217;s fastest cybercaf\u00e9s (a one gigabit pipe and a theoretical maximum speed per iMac of 100 Mbit). There were also tours around the main BT site and into the heart of Arthur.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I visited the visitor centre while it was open in 2007, and found it quite interesting.  I looked at the exhibits, climbed to the viewing gallery, and looked at my website via the cybercafe. The high point was a bus tour around the site, which allowed visitors to get a closer look at some of the monster dishes. What was a let-down was that some of the dishes were online and receiving signals, and we weren\u2019t allowed to see any of it.  It was like your friend asks you round to see his new satellite and Freeview, and he shows you his elliptical dish and spiky aerial. You\u2019d be under-impressed, wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n<p>On 11 Jan 2011 it was announced that parts of the site are changing hands, and there are also plans to upgrade the former visitor centre into &#8220;an outreach centre promoting space and space science for visitors, including local residents and schools&#8221;.<br \/>\nAs with privately owned great houses, this may have been a case of \u201cvisit it while you have the chance\u201d, but you can hope.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_510\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-510\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly360.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly360-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"General site view\" title=\"Goonhilly360\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-510\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-510\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View from roof of V.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure> <figure id=\"attachment_511\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-511\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly361.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goonhilly361-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"View of dish and roofs\" title=\"Goonhilly361\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-511\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-511\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">View from roof of V.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Goonhilly\u2019s first dish, Antenna One, (\u201cArthur\u201d) was built in 1962 to link with Telstar. It was the first open parabolic design and is a monster 25.9 metres in diameter and weighs 1,118 tonnes. Other dishes followed, till there were around 60 dishes of various sizes. In 2006, however, BT announced that it would close its &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/?p=508\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station, Cornwall&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysoutblog.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}