shortcolinAug 3, 2025

Discovered this mysterious old radio aerial/antenna during our Pentland Hills walk yesterday. The information board says it was used to receive signals from South Africa during WW2 but it feels too small and unlikely a location for this. Found a blog which believes it was used by Edinburgh university electrical engineering dept in the 1960s for ionospheric research: https://boghall-radio-masts.blogspot.com/2017/

I'm posting masts on Mastodon!

Show threadDr Bunhead
@shortcolin There's a great article at https://boghall-radio-masts.blogspot.com/
It says
The antenna was a Riometer (Relative Ionospheric Opacity Meter) ... The wires formed one plane of a corner reflector, the other plane was formed by the sloping terrain.
The centreline of the antenna was directed at the north celestial pole, so the antenna received radiation from the same area as the earth rotated .
It wasn't used for any military or HF communication applications.
So you were right on that.
Boghall Radio Aerial Masts

Can you help with information about this very unusual radio aerial in the Pentland Hills just south of Edinburgh?

Dec 8 at 11:58pmWeb
Show threadshortcolinDec 11
@drbunhead I like it when people write blog posts about strange things like this - always nice to discover them!