# Earth Station, Barbados, July 2012 (pic heavy)



## Boatbird (Aug 23, 2012)

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1875 and by 1884 the Barbados Telephone Company was in operation. 

Forward on less than 100 years and satellites were becoming part of the modern telecommunications developments and the Barbados Earth Station was built at Congor Bay in the St Johns District.

This station formed the nucleus for an international telephone-switching centers for, not only Barbados, but much of the English Caribbean. 

By 1982 fiber optic cables were introduced in Barbados, again a first for the Caribbean region. And within a few years, the earth station was abandoned as technology outdated it.

Although attempts were made to turn the area into a hotel complex, it has become too expensive with the world economy and nearby farmers graze cows in what should be the car parks.

Oh, and its got the coolest GPS co-ords ever at Latitude: 13.183333 / Longitude: -59.483333.






Entrance gate- while the drive is complete there is a rather large gap in the concrete stopping car access.





Main building





Main control room from a side room





Loading Bay area





Inside the power room





Mission statement





Generator room?





Fuel tank storage bay





Tool storage





Phone number list from 1988





Main entrance showing dedicated parking bays and seperate buildings





The building that held the satellite downlink (there was a great big dish on here years ago) didn't get any closer due to cows and lack of time

There are more photos here

Thanks to at_home for showing me where it is and looking after the wee dude so we could explore!


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## flyboys90 (Aug 24, 2012)

Very,very interesting,thanks for sharing.


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## chizyramone (Aug 24, 2012)

Very nice indeed. Where on the island is this?


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## TeeJF (Aug 24, 2012)

Totally tropical mannnnnnnnnnn!


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## Boatbird (Aug 24, 2012)

chizyramone said:


> Very nice indeed. Where on the island is this?


I gave you the GPS co-ords, go and google  Its in the St Johns district on the Atlantic side of the island.


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## Ace247 (Aug 24, 2012)

Interesting stuff... thanks for sharing it..


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## The Archivist (Aug 24, 2012)

Fascinating indeed. I'm always interested to see anything telecomms related. Pity the dish has gone, but understandable I suppose.


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## godzilla73 (Aug 24, 2012)

Yep, I'm with the Archivist on this one - this is juicy communications goodness. I was a bit curious about the shot with the fuel tank storage though , and that big mess of cable on the floor in the bottom right of the shot. Any idea what that was all about?

Godzy


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## Boatbird (Aug 24, 2012)

There was a lot of conduits under the concrete that I think ran the power from the generators to all the different buildings- maybe someone just gathered a whole load of them together (harvesting copper?) and that was what was left behind? There was a couple of rusty oil drums and some air con parts in there too


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## quade (Sep 24, 2012)

ive been to barbados 4 times now and did not know about this place, roll on the next trip in the new year. Grenada is a good one for derelict stuff, perticuly pearl airport if your into old ruins of planes.


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## Seahorse (Sep 25, 2012)

Boatbird said:


> Oh, and its got the coolest GPS co-ords ever at Latitude: 13.183333 / Longitude: -59.483333



Clearly, I'm missing something. Just not understanding the "cool" aspect at all.


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## Munchh (Sep 25, 2012)

It's a reasonably well presented report on what looks like an interesting place. Plus it's an overseas site so more interesting again to those of us stuck on _our_ Island at the arse end of Europe.

I'm with Seahorse on the co ords being cool thing though. Apart from having a lot of 3's in it, if this is the new _cool_ for grid refs then count me out. To me they simply mean 'where it's at'.

Thanks for posting


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## krela (Sep 26, 2012)

I think you'll find -78.464422, 106.837328 is the coolest co-ords ever...


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## prettyvacant71 (Oct 1, 2012)

thats the closest i'll prob ever get to barbados....thanx for sharin


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## chizyramone (Oct 2, 2012)

Boatbird said:


> I gave you the GPS co-ords, go and google  Its in the St Johns district on the Atlantic side of the island.



Those co-ords are way too cool for me- so many 3's . 

Not far from Welch Town would have done me tidy


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## Boatbird (Oct 2, 2012)

I thought the co-ords were cool... I don't get out much.

Here's a photo from the Earth Station in use c.1975! Thanks to at_home and a previous visit!


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## donss (Oct 28, 2012)

krela said:


> I think you'll find -78.464422, 106.837328 is the coolest co-ords ever...



Vostok Station: Super Uber Cool...


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## krela (Oct 28, 2012)

donss said:


> Vostok Station: Super Uber Cool...



Wahey, someone got it.


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