Monday, June 05, 2006
Radome museum of Telecommunications
Took the day off to visit the Radome Telecommunications museum in Pleumeur-Bodou today.
On the 11th July 1962 the first live TV pictures where received here via the Telstar satellite from the ground station in Andover, Maine, USA. I always thought that the first pictures arrived at Goonhilly Down in Cornwall, UK, but apparently not. Goonhilly did receive transmissions from Telstar at about the same time but the Radome was the first.
The visit to the museum includes a light and laser show inside the 50 meter high 'dome' housing the receiving antena. The dome is covered in a 'fabric' and pressurised during bad weather to prevent any damage. Inside the dome is the huge 340 tonne 'ear shaped' horn antenna that received the satellite transmissions. The commentary is in French but they do supply a leaflet with the English text, so nothing is missed.
The museum area charts the progress of telecommunications from the first radio/morse experiments through transatlantic cable laying to modern day satellite systems. The progress is amazing considering just 40 years later we can now pop a 60cm dish on the side of the house and receive hundreds of TV pictures.
The Cosmopolis site also has a Planetarium and Gaulois Village. We didn't visit the Planetarium because all the shows where scheduled before lunchtime and we spent the morning exploring the coastline around Perros Guirec. The Gaulois Village would be more interesting to younger children than the Radome, but in general I would say it's worth a visit. The site is about 2 hours drive from our gites.
| 3:37:19 PM
Radome museum of Telecommunications
