BACKGROUND. The US Government owns and operates several overseas shortwave relays, one of which is located at Playa-de-Pals, in Spain. These high-powered stations are part of the global radio transmission network, managed by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), in Washington. Playa-de-Pals is known locally as *Pals*.

WHERE IS PALS? Pals is a coastal resort, on the extreme north-easterly part of the country some 40 km south of the French border, in a tourist area known as the Costa Brava. It is about 120 km north of the city of Barcelona, just off he main highway to Marseilles. It has many villas, holiday apartments, guest houses, and hotels, surrounded by pine tree forests, and looks out on the Mediterranean sea. The transmitting station is situated adjacent to the residential areas, right on the beach, at geographical coordinates 41N59.21, 3E12.06.

THE STATION. The station occupies an area of some 82 acres of unobstructed beachfront property. The facilities there include the Office of Spain manager, Administration, Transmitter Operations, Power Plant, Apartment, Motor Pool, Antenna Maintenance Shop, Carpentry, Paint and Masonry Shops, sundry other minor buildings housing the RF-line switch bay, dummy-load, and water system.

The station operates six transmitters each of 250 kW. Four identically matched units provide excellent flexibility to choose various power-output combinations as broadcasting situations require.

OPERATIONS. Pals transmits programs of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and Radio Liberty. These broadcasts are intended for audiences in the principal population areas of the Community of Independent States, in the adjacent Baltic area, and the remainder of the former USSR continent.

MY VISIT.I visited the station in October 2000, as a one-day bus excursion arranged by he Barcelona DX Association, as part of the European DX Council/s 2000 conference, held in Barcelona. Entry to the site is subject to very strict security clearance, with all visitors requiring day-passes and obligated to provide passport numbers and nationality status. The station is under the control of Mr Valenti Carbonell Cumeras, Telecommunications Engineer, who gave an interesting presentation of the station/s operations and history.

Our party was divided into three subgroups, each being guided by a station technical manager, with ample time being allocated to an inspection of the transmitter halls, halls, alarm systems, antennas, maintenance areas, feeders, the main control room, and the antenna switching computer room. We were also shown inside one off-line transmitter, with particular reference to cooling and ventilation, and safety interlock mechanisms.

TECHNICAL. Some of the transmitters are quite old, dating back to 1959, being Continental, and General Electric units. There is a newish Continental unit, installed in 1997, which was relocated from Gloria, Portugal.

I was impressed not only by the efficiency of the facility, but also at the compliance with safety standards and maintenance procedures, and the professionalism and skills of the technical staff. Housekeeping was first class, and carrier frequency deviation on all transmitters is maintained to within 10 Hertz. The station is an unusual mix of old and new technology, with some of the equipment being 40 years old, adjacent to 21st century hi-tech computerised switching gear, satellite antennas/links, and state-of-the-art transmitter monitoring and control facilities. Digital frequency readout displays are rack-mounted on the newer transmitters, and other indicators reveal various parameters such as modulation depth and swing, antenna current, RF antenna input power, and overall power consumption.

The master control room contains rack-mounted low noise amplifiers and demultiplexing equipment.

The main transmitting hall has large multi-colored, wall mounted illuminated maps of Europe and North Africa, showing coverage of the various antenna lobes.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. I asked about the siting of the station so close to a residential area and was told that the local community *tolerates it*! As far as I know there have been no environmental complaints about radio frequency radiation. However, abut 1 km to the north-east is an *optional dress* camping area and beach, which I understand is very popular during the height of summer, and which is easily visible from some of the towers!

STRATEGIC ROLE. The Pals station clearly serves a vital role in the global network of IBB facilities providing coverage into the former USSR area, and with six high powered transmitters, it obviously is regarded by the US Government as a strategically important and crucial mission. It remains to be seen whether this facility will continue to be permitted by the Spanish Government.

THANKS. Special thanks to the Barcelona DX Association for their excellent work in arranging the tour, and to the station/s staff for taking time off from their normal duties to host a group of 40 visitors around this nrteresting broadcasting facility. Furthermore, there were no security restrictions on what we could photograph, whether digital, video, or conventional.

The pix used in this story were taken with my little Canon *Sure Shot* 60mm zoom camera, using a mix of 100-400 ASA colour print stock. The external pix are somewhat dull, as it rtained, and rained, and rained....all day during our trip! Some of the pictures have been digitally enhanced to try and improve the colour rendition and contrast. As the song tells us: *The rain in DSpain falls mainly on the plain...* Indeed!

Special acknowledgments to Sr. Valenti Carbonell Cumuleras (Manager, Spain Station), and to Mr. Arto Mujunen (Manager, IBB Monitoring, Helsinki, Finland) for their help in making available the technical data used in this article.

***** Note: The Barcelona DX Association (BDXA) is one of many hobby-based organisations throughout the globe, whose members monitor world radio broadcasts. The term *DX* is a radio abbreviation meaning *distance*. The European DX Council comprises many member groups, individuals, and professional broadcasting organisations, some of whom are outside of Europe and meets annually; this year the conference was hosted by BDXA. It meets again in 2001 in Budapest, Hungary.

Hope you enjoyed reading about this trip and seeing the pix! I am working on an accompanying pix-story about the remainder of my Spanish tour which took me to the Andalucia Region.

(Bob Padula, Melbourne, Australia; November 2000)