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Port Stanley, Falkland Islands


Although the Winkfield sub-station at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands did not have any Bendix involvement it did have some significance to the STADAN story. It supplemented the chain down through South America to cover polar orbits. The magnetic tapes were packaged up and sent by sea to Montivideo (5 days) and on by air to RSRS. They were then sent on to Greenbelt Maryland for xperimenter distribution. The surroundings look primitive but the usual NASA supplied equipment was used.

In the photo the equipment was housed in the whitish building on the near bottom right fringe of the town. The two rounded buildings adjoining were storage. The short paved track leads to the ISIS command aerial, nearer to the building of the two telemetry aerials. The aerial in the foreground was the az-el TACO used for reception. Some tall masts can be seen that were part of the ionosonde housed in the same building.

The photo was part of a series taken from the Beaver float plane probably in the seventies and has no stickers attached. During the argentenian invasion they put a shell through the near gable of the building and into the much cabled roof space!!

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October 31, 2007
Late note from Vic Brown who recently visited the location of the old Winkfield station.

"I managed to visit Winkfield on the way back from a trip to Brighton. I do not have much to report. I think I was in the right lane, it was St Mary's Lane and had some long established houses in it. The lane looked right to me but at the end it terminated in a pair of wrought iron gates painted cream and obviously the entrance to private property. I looked throught the gates and could see nothing of the remains of Winkfield station. Around to the left was a large new house and the rest appeared to be given over to grass that was pretty well mown. Beyond the grass was a small wooded area that I could not place but I guess it would only take 20 years or so for trees to be established."

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