engineering

Madley Communications Centre

Madley Communications Centre is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Madley Communications Centre rather than just read about it. In short: Madley Communications Centre is BT Group's earth satellite tracking station, between Madley and Kingstone, Herefordshire, England. Earth position It lies on Coldstone Common at grid reference SO424374.

Key takeaways

Madley Communications Centre belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Madley Communications Centre to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Madley Communications Centre from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Madley Communications Centre is BT Group's earth satellite tracking station, between Madley and Kingstone, Herefordshire, England.

Earth position It lies on Coldstone Common at grid reference SO424374. The site dates from 1975 and is in active use for international telephone, fax and television transmission and reception. The station is in the civil parish of Kingstone, although most of the former airfield is in Madley, to the west of the site. The Roman road running south from Kenchester passes close to the north of the site.

Geology of the area The site is in a sheltered rock bowl between the Malvern Hills and the Black Mountains. This allowed the ground to take the weight of the large receiving dishes, but the most important fact was the lack of background electronic noise. What nearby electronic noise there was is said to compare to the strength of heat felt on the Moon from an electric fireplace on Earth.

History The site first went into service in September 1978 on the site of the disused World War II airfield RAF Madley, built in 1940.

Structures There are over 65 dishes, the smallest being 90 centimetres (35 in) with the three main dishes each having a diameter of 32 metres (105 ft) and weighing 290 tonnes. Madley 1, the first of the dishes, tracks a satellite about 22,236 miles (35,785 km) away, positioned over the Equator in geostationary orbit. The site covers a range from 66 degrees east to 314 degrees east, covering two thirds of the planet.

Transmissions Madley was the first UK satellite site to transmit a fully digital transmission via time division multiple access (TDMA). Until its closure in 2008, Goonhilly in Cornwall provided a similar role.

Other use of grounds The grounds are leased as an educational nature reserve, Madley Environmental Study Centre.

References

External links BT VSAT Services

Madley Environmental Study Centre Calling Hereford Radio 4 September 2009 30th anniversary in September 1978 30th anniversary Photo of station Photo of site

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Madley Communications Centre

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Madley Communications Centre claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Madley Communications Centre before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Madley Communications Centre ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Madley Communications Centre

In research: Madley Communications Centre appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Madley Communications Centre in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Madley Communications Centre is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 establishments in England, BT Group buildings and structures, Buildings and structures completed in 1978, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Madley Communications Centre outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Madley Communications Centre in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Madley Communications Centre means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Madley Communications Centre out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Madley Communications Centre in simple terms?

Madley Communications Centre is BT Group's earth satellite tracking station, between Madley and Kingstone, Herefordshire, England. Earth position It lies on Coldstone Common at grid reference SO424374.

Why does Madley Communications Centre matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Madley Communications Centre?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Madley Communications Centre.