Hi folks,

I've been trying to search for info / pics on the UK termination end of the TAT-1 cable (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-1) and came across this little jem - http://indicatorloops.com/obanbay.htm including details of the buiildings. May be worth starting a wiki page on the oban area?

Have you looked at the Contents Page?

You'll find Oban, or more accurately Ganavan, covered in some detail - we couldn't resist

If you fire TAT-1 into the search, you'll find we're on the case for that too, only listed as a First at the moment, we're hunting down more info on the subject.

Wikipedia information is second-hand, not source material, so you won't normally find it referred to in SeSco, which doesn't mind admitting it's the same (second-hand info) as there's no shame in that. What would be wrong is being second-hand source referring or quoting a second-hand source - which I hope makes sense

meh - Thought I'd searched. Suspect typo and there was a user error in failing to look at the contents page. Definately on the 'todo: road trip' list.
btw - I saw that some of the tat-1 spare valves were being flogged on ebay recently, although the chances of finding it again are minimal (ever tried to search ebay for 'tat'? 80% of all listings....)

I think the valves were for sale quite a while ago, but there was another site that had some info relating to them and their history.

I can't recall it, and the details are hazy, but I think the asking price was around $16,000 - whether it was obtained is another story.

Made me reach for my spares box, as I have couple of valves that look like 2 litre Irn-Bru bottles, but I doubt they'd be worth that much as they might be big, but don't have a famous history

Hi Guys

I have just taken over as the new researcher at the Oban War and Peace Museum.  On display in the museum is details and photographs of the building in which the cable was terminated, also we have abit of the cable itself and photographs of the men and the vessels used in bringing the cable ashore.  I am willing to copy some of the photographs for you and any info that i have if you think that will help in anyway.  We have some watchkeepers that actually worked on the project if you would like to talk to them.  The museum itself is not open again until March 2nd and for those of you who don't know the museum has moved.  We are now in the Old Oban Times building on the Esplanade.  If we can help you we will.  Come along and see us.

Nikki

Hi Nikki,

As you may have gathered, we've suffered a little trial and tribulation over the past few days thanks to Lycos unilaterally killing the email account that used to reliably channel important info to us.

Your offer is most welcome, and anything which appears will be fully attributed as to source of course.

Not that it has to be earned, but I see we've yet to have a page for the museum - that would have been rectified already, had we not been suffering a little diversion

Now that I know you have even more goodies on show than I thought (including the flying boat items) I will have to do something to make sure I actually get into Oban at a time when the museum is open. My usual travel patterns tend to be at anti-social times - a habit I should break, so might even see the interior other than in darkness and through glass

Hello Nikki, and welcome! Glad to see another teuchter among us! If researching War and Peace History is your interest, I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself on this forum. I wonder if there is anything in your museum dealing with Unity Mitford's death in Oban at the end of the war?

I have been thinking of going and getting some better pictures and sketches of the loop site before the grass gets too high, the ones on that site were taken a few years ago.

The TAT-1 site is on private ground and we have been unable to get access.  I took some pictures from offshore last year, it is quite a large site site and looks very interesting.

Another puzzle for anyone around Oban - there is RN Y station shown at Oban in a booklet that I have, any ideas?  It's possible the GPO site at Ganavan was built on a previous site but there are no signs of WWII type buildings there.

I may be mistaken - failing memory? - but two points worth recording.

1.  Small parachutes were used to ensure that the cable descended evenly from the cable ship to the seabed. This technique was tested before the actual cable was laid in upper Loch Fyne.

2.  The overland extension of the cable ran from Oban, by Connell (and Oban Radio), A819 to Inveraray, A83 to Arrochar, A814 along the east side of Loch Long and Gare Loch (incidentally, for the conspiracy theorists,  following the original line of the road, which passed through what is now the centre of HM Naval Base Clyde), and onwards to whichever exchange was the terminus  - presumably in London.

Passerby

Quoted from Passerby

I may be mistaken - failing memory? - but two points worth recording.

1.  Small parachutes were used to ensure that the cable descended evenly from the cable ship to the seabed. This technique was tested before the actual cable was laid in upper Loch Fyne.

2.  The overland extension of the cable ran from Oban, by Connell (and Oban Radio), A819 to Inveraray, A83 to Arrochar, A814 along the east side of Loch Long and Gare Loch (incidentally, for the conspiracy theorists,  following the original line of the road, which passed through what is now the centre of HM Naval Base Clyde), and onwards to whichever exchange was the terminus  - presumably in London.

Passerby

There was a trunk cable (coax?) on that approximate route, I presume it went along the same route and used the same repeater buildings.  I think most of these have now gone unless any were bought privately - I photographed some of the bricks in the debris from the one near the VMS near Pennygael cemetery recently.  Another trunk cable ran up to Fort William.  So perhaps Connel was on that cable.  I can't see it being routed through Oban Radio because it was on the wrong side of the loch though there would have been a cable there.  

On the Hill above Lochaline alongside the Road in is a big microwave Dish set fairly low directed at Mull.from memory I could not see a repeater in the opposite direction so I would imagine it is linked to wherever by cable.The Dish has a big BT logo and is kept pristine.Would this be linked to oban Etc in some way.

Quoted from greenock

On the Hill above Lochaline alongside the Road in is a big microwave Dish set fairly low directed at Mull.from memory I could not see a repeater in the opposite direction so I would imagine it is linked to wherever by cable.The Dish has a big BT logo and is kept pristine.Would this be linked to oban Etc in some way.

I think it is just a branch off to feed Lochaline.

The microwave system around Mull was quite an early use of microwave links for local circuits as opposed to the big trunk sites.  From memory it runs Gallanach > Craignure (not the site at 1900ft, the one near the village) > Glengorm  then around Tiree and the West side of Mull to Pennyghael.  There was another spur up to Kingairloch and probably Ardnamurchan area.  Just cheaper than lots of submarine cables or long cable routes on land.

There was also a Scottish radio station near Craignure that carried the ROC circuits and the EVN.

MB