ARLA/CLUSTER : Platja de Pals... Glória do Ribatejo.

[Carlos L.R. de A.Gonçalves]

Dear Wolfgang,

This week, only very little for your bulletin I'm afraid.

CATALUNYA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWWTRmOM28&feature=Recent&page=4&t=t&f=b is
the url where one can see the antennae towers at Platja de Pals being
charge-demolished on the scheduled date, 22nd March, courtesy of Carlos
Mourato CT4RK.   I still wonder why no other stn wanted to use the site,
even if antenna repositioning was needed as Pals and the 2 stns here in
Portugal had their aerials screened towards you know where.   On the other
hand, however, I admit the Pals' image can be spoiled just by the look of
towers so close to the shore, which is by no means the Portuguese case,
where HF stns are located at a lot more discrete places.   Even the Sines
stn is adequately located: near the shore, but not easily visible as it's
3.6 km away from the nearest beach (São Torpes).   In fact, a lot more un-
appealing is the coal-driven power station, at not more than half a km
from that beach!   (Carlos Gonçalves - POR)

PORTUGAL
As recent as this month,  news surfaced about the property used by the
former RFE/RL stn at Glória do Ribatejo, amounting to 198 ha (!)  As I
reported back in 2003, the compound was being taken care of by Portugal
Telecom, which received it from the Government after RARET closed for good.
The current owner of the place, Herdade Nossa Senhora da Glória, intends to
develop the property by building a golf acadamy, a hotel, a few other
smaller buildings, 77 semi-detached houses plus 233 plots for detached
houses, cf.
http://semanal.omirante.pt/index.asp?idEdicao=222&id=23372&idSeccao=2954&Action=noticia
and also www.rtp.pt/index.php?article=2251476&visual=6.  The "freguesia"
(transl. into parish, but has nothing to do with any religious
administrative division) of Glória do Ribatejo, which belongs to the
municipality of Salvaterra de Magos, approves the idea despite being an area
under the influence of the... communist party!   I'm sure they miss the
amenities the company managing the site, RARET, provided to the locals,
ranging from health services to schooling and training, which, I admit, was
the sole good aspect of the project that lived till 1999 during which time
most locals, incl. the staff, were simply & apparently (...) unaware of what
sort of programmes were actually emanating from the station... I would not
believe in this naïvety, sorry.   I learned today the towers were taken away
last Summer, so only the buildings remain.    Without wishing to speculate
on the subject, since the property is now on private hands, I believe it's
natural that the new owners wish (over)compensation for their investment
after having bought the place filled with old stuff to be taken down thus
surely meeting the both the Govern. and Portugal Telecom intentions since
the beginning.    Despite what many might imagine, municipalities ran by
leftwingers are known to be too keen in accepting certain sorts of
investment, chielfly of this kind...  (Carlos Gonçalves - POR)

73,
Carlos Gonçalves.