Spanish Air Ministry radio facility Gran Canaria

Marc B · Mar 1, 2021

Probably over one megawatt of power when operating .
Has been stripped of all removeable metal.

In the basement is an archive and there are still documents. This one is accounts dated 1974 Air Ministry

The front entrance while walking in view, had a decoration mural on wall which has been graffitied over

There is also other buildings including a lodge gatehouse thing.
Some parts of the main building have lot of bird droppings thick on floor.

Roderick · Mar 2, 2021

Interesting, A few general shots of the site from outside would be good. Were there any big masts or towers left standing?

Marc B · Mar 2, 2021

Roderick said:
Interesting, A few general shots of the site from outside would be good. Were there any big masts or towers left standing?

Next time I drive past by there I'll take some outside shots. An adjacent site is in use it has a high security perimeter fence with cameras and is a working station but has smaller aerials. I didn't get that close to look because I wanted to explore without attracting attention. On the site in the photos there are few remains of the aerials concrete blocks.
I have found the one only outside shot I have.

You can see there's a barbed wire fence across the gate. I presume this gets repaired every now and again.
I've just found on map. It's west of El Goro on GC140 just past a gasolinera. There is still a bus stop right outside (there was once many people coming and going).
I should add that just 3 years on after the date on the document in the photo, here in Canarias had happend the worst ever aircraft disaster in world history. A long series of unfortunate contributory factors caused a plane taking off to collide on the runway with another plane landing. Then again Canarias suffered another, in 2008 in Madrid was the Spanair disaster with a flight from this island, almost everyone here on the island personally knows a family affected.

Roderick · Mar 2, 2021

Thanks. I like the way the hole on the wall looks like a painting of a hole in the wall. Presumably they made it to get some big equipment out as they seem to have tidied up the rubble afterwards. Or is that the mural you spoke of and not a hole at all.....?

Marc B · Mar 2, 2021

Roderick said:
Thanks. I like the way the hole on the wall looks like a painting of a hole in the wall. Presumably they made it to get some big equipment out as they seem to have tidied up the rubble afterwards. Or is that the mural you spoke of and not a hole at all.....?

I think you mean the 7th photo in my OP. That is a real hole in wall. Looking at the photo again from the angle photographed it does indeed appear a painting of a hole.

Photo 6 is part of the mural I was speaking of, it's only a partial view of the entire mural which is about 4 meters wide and was of abstract shapes protuding from the wall behind the front reception desk.

wolfism · Mar 3, 2021

Interesting, at a guess if this was owned by the local Air Ministry it could have been a radio transmitter that was used as a navigation aid (navaid). Out of interest, did you spot any paperwork or signage that said VOR, ADF or NDB?

Marc B · Mar 3, 2021

wolfism said:
... that said VOR, ADF or NDB?

I didn't read through much of it, I just flicked through a few pages and left. Those acronyms look English whatever they are, if they are then I would expect to see the Spanish equivalent of them.

Marc B · Mar 3, 2021

Found a bit more, there had been been a party (a "botellón") there in the summer and these news reports show some more photos.
Botellón 1
Botellón 2
Botellón 3

** One of these links has a slide show with lots of outside shots of the place. **

If you can read Spanish the news story and the comments are interesting, in summary the police understand there's nowhere to party but are genuinely worried for people's safety, especially the covid19 gives everyone in emergency services extra workload. Even though there's placards up about distancing, the organisers get demonised by "shouldn't be allowed" people writing comments about what they read in the news. The people los botelleneros want to party but also don't want to cause trouble but there's always a tiny minority that spoil for everyone.

It reminds me of raves I went to back in UK. The next morning the core crowd and organsiers together all bag up all rubbish and fill a luton van with. Leave the site as they find it, if a padlock was cut they left a new padlock with set of keys the organiser the last one out.

Marc B · Jul 1, 2024

Update on El Goro Radio Station.
It's now fenced off with a perimeter going all around. Inside there's large new antenna has been installed, so looks like the ground is being put to use.

Spanish Air Ministry radio facility Gran Canaria

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