
Portishead Radio (callsign GKA) was a
radio station
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
in England that provided worldwide
maritime communications and long-range
aeronautical communications from 1928 until 2000. It was the world's largest and busiest long-distance HF maritime radio station.
In 1974, the station employed 154 radio operators who handled over 20 million words per year.
It was originally operated by the
General Post Office
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific ...
(GPO), then the Post Office (1969–1981), and subsequently by British Telecom, which was privatised in 1984.
1920–1939
The UK's long-range maritime service commenced from a site at
Morgan's Hill, Devizes, Wiltshire, in 1920. In 1925, a remote receiving centre at
Highbridge, near Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, was opened, and in 1928 a transmitting station was opened at Portishead, from which the name "Portishead Radio" was derived.
The main transmitting station, which was remotely operated from the Highbridge site, originally consisted of a large array of radio masts at nearby
Portishead Downs. High-power transmitters for the maritime service were operated from a site at
Hillmorton
Hillmorton is a suburb of Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby, Warwickshire, England, around south-east of Rugby town centre, forming much of the eastern half of the town. It is also a Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, ward of the B ...
, Rugby. By 1936, the station had a staff of 60 radio officers who handled over 3 million words of radio traffic per year.
World War II
The station played a vital role during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in maintaining communications with the
British merchant navy
The British Merchant Navy is the collective name given to British civilian ships and their associated crews, including officers and ratings. In the UK, it is simply referred to as the Merchant Navy or MN. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensi ...
and with patrol aircraft in the
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...
. During the war, all communications with ships were one-way in order to avoid revealing the ships' locations to the enemy.
The station was short-staffed because many staff were on
secondment
Secondment is the temporary assignment of a member of one organization to another organization. In some jurisdictions, .g., Indiasuch temporary transfer of employees is called "on deputation".
Job rotation
The employee typically retains their s ...
s to various government services, such as operating other radio stations and training new radio officers to work in naval convoys.
In 1943, the workload was so great that
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
officers and 18 telegraphists were brought in from (amongst others) HMS ''Flowerdown'', a Naval Shore Wireless Service station near
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
.
Post-war expansion and decline
In 1948, the station was expanded again, adding two operating rooms with 32 new radio operator positions, a broadcasting and landline room, and a file of ship and aircraft positions plotted using magnetic indicators on a 36 by 16 ft steel map of the world.
Other maps covered the North Atlantic and Western European areas.
During the 1950s and 1960s there was a steady increase in traffic levels, and the
telex
Telex is a telecommunication
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...
-over-radio (TOR) system started operations. By 1965, the station employed 86 radio officers who handled over 11 million words of traffic per year, communicating with on average over 1,000 ships per day.
Queen Elizabeth II visited the station in 1958.
By 1974, traffic levels reached over 20 million words per year, handled by 154 radio officers. The rise in traffic was driven by demand from the oil market, the deep-water fishing industry, and the leisure boating market.
After the Portishead transmitter site closed in 1978,
and Dorchester in 1979, the service – still called Portishead Radio – used transmitters at
Rugby (Warwickshire),
Leafield
Leafield is a village and civil parish about northwest of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Langley, west of Leafield village. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 945. The village is abo ...
(Oxfordshire) and Ongar (Essex).
Competition from satellite communications, beginning with
Marisat
Marisat satellites were the first mobile telecommunications satellites and were designed to provide dependable telecommunications for commercial shipping and the U.S. Navy from stable geosynchronous orbital locations over the three major ocean r ...
in 1976 later the
Inmarsat
Inmarsat is a British communications satellite, satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services. It provides telephone and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate with groun ...
network, initially had little effect on the station's business, which continued to expand. Following the division of the Post Office in 1981, the station was operated by
British Telecommunications. In 1983, a new control centre was opened, adding new radiotelephone and radiotelegraphy consoles, and an automatic radiotelex facility.
The transmitter sites at Leafield and Ongar closed around 1990.
In addition to maritime and aeronautical radio services, the station provided communications facilities for fixed stations worldwide such as relief agencies, emergency and disaster relief companies, and industries where reliable landline communications were poor or non-existent. This was known as the 'Gateway' service and operated from the early 1980s until closure.
In the station's penultimate year to March 1999, there were on average per month 571 radio
telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...
s, 533 radio telephone calls, and 4,001 radio telex calls.
Closure and redevelopment of the site
In 1998, British Telecom Maritime Radio Services announced the planned closure of Portishead Radio.
The long-range services (
HF bands 3–30
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...
) were planned to cease at 12:00 GMT on 30 April 2000. The short-range
VHF maritime band (156–174 MHz) services were scheduled to close at the same time, and the medium-range services (
MF maritime band 1.6–3.0 MHz) services at 12:00 on 30 June. The station formally closed at 1200 UTC on 30 April 2000.
In September 2004,
Sedgemoor District Council adopted a local development plan that proposed the site of Portishead Radio for future housing development.
In October 2007, planning permission for a development of 190 houses and flats on the site was granted, and shortly afterwards the radio station buildings were demolished.
In 2007, the buildings at the Highbridge site were demolished to make way for the Mulholland Park housing estate, named after former station manager Don Mulholland and his father Robert, who also worked at the station.
Commemoration
Around 2015, a sculpture by
Rick Kirby
Rick Kirby (born 1952) is an English sculptor born in Gillingham, Kent. He started his career as an art teacher, before quitting after sixteen years to focus on his work. Much of his work is figural, reflecting an interest in the human face a ...
of five female figures holding hands, titled 'Arc of Angels', was installed close to the Portishead transmitting site to commemorate the five radio towers and their role.
In 2020, planned celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the long-range maritime service were put on hold due to COVID-19. However, a book on the history of the service was published titled ''Portishead Radio – A Friendly Voice on Many a Dark Night'', and a special amateur radio station GB100GKU was activated, making over 2,500 contacts from 69 countries.
See also
*
Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) is a worldwide system for automated emergency signal communication for ships at sea developed by the United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) as part of the SOLAS Convention ...
References
External links
Portishead Radio official websiteCoast Radio Stations of the World websiteImage of 'Arc of Angels' sculptureat
Geograph
Geograph Britain and Ireland is a Web application, web-based project, begun in March 2005, to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of Great Britain and Ireland. Photographs in the Geograph collection are cho ...
{{BT Group
BT Group buildings and structures
History of radio in the United Kingdom
Radio stations established in 1928
Portishead, Somerset
International telecommunications
Defunct radio stations in the United Kingdom
Radio stations in Somerset
Transatlantic telecommunications