English Master and South West British Purple Decca Stations

Puckeridge and Llancarfan Stations

The following photos of the Puckeridge (English Chain Master Station) and Llancarfan (South West British Purple) were kindly sent to me by Paul Wynter (MW3PWA) and were taken after the stations had been decommissioned.

I have included a Google Earth image of the station to give the reader an appreciation of the site layout.

I am unfamiliar with much of the equipment in these photos, being a later generation than that used for the Nigerian Chains and consequently the descriptions may contain errors. I welcome any comments and corrections.

Puckeridge (English Chain Master Station)

The Google Earth Image of the Puckeridge Site. The Antenna Tower is in the middle upper portion of the image, and the station buildings are below.

Control/monitoring rack for the complete Chain (??)

Rectifiers or chargers (??)

D.C. Distribution Panel (??)

The Stores - now sadly depleted.

Puckeridge from a distance. It is also possible to see the masts to support an emergency "T" antenna in the event of the main tower collapse.

The Puckeridge Tower

A view of the lead-in support insulators. The inside of the coil houses were Faraday Shields, the copper screens can just be made out (now painted white).

Spark Gap. Now with shorting wires to ground static build-up on the tower.

Llancarfan (South West British Purple)

This is the Google Earth Image of the site. The two coil houses for the antenna system are in the lower middle of the image, and the station is to the upper left.

Originally all UK Decca Stations were permanently manned, and typically the station buildings would comprise of the station building together with a bungalow for the resident station manager. (I believe the resident station manager for this station was a Radio Amateur but I can't recall his callsign)

In the 1980/90s, Decca (then Racal) started to de-man the stations. The equipment was upgraded and at the same time the stations were containerised. (I wish they had done this in Nigeria!). The container is located in a small fenced compound to the top right of the buildings in the Google earth image.

The Station with equipment container, diesel generator (to the right) and the APS receiver antennas to the right foreground.

Another image of the equipment container and two of the APS antennas

Another view of the station

The Diesel Generator.

In the UK these were for standby use only, normally power would come from the mains.

The original station buildings - now a residence. The UK Decca stations which I saw would make very nice homes - they were quite spacious for the original valve equipment.

The transmitter rack.

In the foreground is what appear to be the phase control equipment (phase synchronised receivers and transmitter drivers)

The Antenna.

A mixture of antenna types were used. This is a "T" antenna.

One of the end masts supporting the "T"

Close up of the rigging

The Coil Houses (Antenna Tuning Units).

Some locations had two coil houses, the second being an emergency spare.

Lead in from the antenna

Paul provided some background information to these photos:

"We were looking at sites (in 2001) to buy to re-use for radio related purposes, Wi-Fi etc."

"We asked Cardiff University, who owned the lease, if we could either buy or lease the one in St Mawgan (Llancarfan), and they said the already had the digger there to remove the earth mat and scrap the NEW cabin etc. I asked them not to do it and they just went ahead, the masts which were serviceable and maintained could have been used to mount an experimental coastal Wi-Fi station for shipping as it entered Bristol Channel. They stated that they saw no radio use for the site, didn't want anything to do with radio, and wanted to scrap everything and turn it back into grazing or redevelop it (unlikely they'd get planning permission)."

Other Google Earth Images of Decca English and South West British Chain Sites.

During the preparation of this page, I found Google Earth images of some other UK Decca sites. They are parked here until I create a separate page for them.

Bolberry Down in Devon. South West British Master Station. The remaining two stations were at St.Mary's, Isles of Scilly and St. Helier, Jersey. Unfortunately the Google Earth images of these locations are not of a suitable resolution to see the sites.

Lewis East Sussex. English Chain Green Station.

Norwich. English Chain Red Station.

Warwick. English Chain Purple Station.

Google Earth Images taken from Google - all rights acknowledged

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Last update 6/10/07