"Underground Radio" has a Different Meaning Inside a Bunker

A Cold War-era bunker that was one of the last to be taken out of service in the UK in 1991 has become a base for a ham radio club on the North Yorkshire Moors. Like so many radio operators before in the Royal Observer Corps, the hams are surrounded by concrete walls, 5 metres deep into the underground, as they transmit important information and take measurements. Now, however it is signal reports they are sending to other hams - not levels of radiation that would have followed the dreaded nuclear blast.

The station GBØROC of the Guisborough & District Amateur Radio Club is underground radio at its finest. Like the other bunker sites, this location was once a secret. Now you can't miss its high visibility on the map of various amateur radio awards schemes: It is part of the Bunkers on the Air scheme as B/G-0919, within Parks on the Air number G0003, Worldwide Flora and Fauna area GFF-0012 and Worked All Britain square NZ60. Its video on YouTube also shows how the club welcomes visitors who walk in or, in this case, climb in - since access to the radio room requires careful descent down a metal ladder.

The bunker is a restored symbol of history of a time when the world was on edge. Now its business of radioactivity is simply just that: friendly activity on the radio.