Monthly Archives: June 2025

Cambridgeshire County Council Emergency HQ Bunker with virtual tour

Bunkers, Cold War, UK

The Cambridgeshire County Council Cold War Emergency Headquarters Bunker was situated under the council offices in Cambridge city centre, it is a single story structure at the basement level built alongside the carpark in 1987. It has a soil mound on top and was a replacement to the original emergency centre which was in the basement of nearby Shire Hall.


After it was decommissioned as a “Nuclear Bunker” it became a generic Emergency Centre used for various large incident in the 90s and now it is used as a store for the Natural & Historic Environment department.

Council staff would have entered the bunker using the internal stairways from the offices down through the carpark and from there through the blast doors.

Once in the lobby they would be signed in at the reception desk before proceeding to their designated rooms, The generator and plant rooms are on the left as you enter, the generator itself is noticeably small and I’m told it wasn’t actually powerful enough to run the entire bunker.

There is one corridor that runs the length of the bunker and all the other rooms come off this, as usual the operations room is the largest and at the far end are the toilets and showers.

Beyond the toilets is an Exit lobby, this would also have served as an entrance for people entering after the bunker was “activated”, there would have been a small decontamination shower located here.

I have made a 360 Degree virtual tour of the bunker https://iamanerd.org.uk/360/cambridgeshire-county-council-emergency-hq/ and below are a few photos from my visit.

Thankyou to the Cambridgeshire County Council Natural & Historic Environment department for facilitating my visit.

Classic Blaupunkt Radio Bluetooth Conversion.

1966 VW Beetle, 3D Printing, Cars

I made this conversion for my Blaupunkt Manheim Radio (but it may work for others) using 3D printed parts I designed and a Bluetooth Amplifier PCB.

Do not attempt this if you are not good with electronics or don’t want to damage your radio. I take no responsibility for any damage you cause, Ensure you use the correct gauge wires and add an external fuse.

I used this Bluetooth Amplifier PCB https://amzn.to/444DJby but any similar one should work, be sure to check reviews as the first version I bought wasn’t as good quality as this one.

The STLs are available here for free https://www.printables.com/model/1319195-classic-blaupunkt-radio-conversion these are NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE.

To convert the radio is pretty simple:

  1. Strip the radio, removing the old PCB and controls. leave the buttons and display in place.
  2. Move the Volume pot into the Tuning pot position.
  3. Mount the PCB Bracket using the original Tuner collar and nut.
  4. Heat the end of the shaft adapter for a few seconds and push onto the shaft of the new volume pot, when cool thread the shaft through the hole.
  5. Screw PCB into the adapter.
  6. Finally wire up the new PCB, I didn’t use the supplied cable, I soldered 12v and Gnd feeds to the PCB.
  7. Ensure you fuse it externally, I cannot stress this enough.

You can wire the original bulb up to the 12v feed or replace it with some LED strip as I did, be sure to only give the radio a switched 12v supply and don’t leave unattended when in use.

I am really pleased with mine and have used it for thousands of miles now, I would thoroughly recommend good quality speakers (I used these JBLs in kick panels https://amzn.to/4ksJANA ) as this makes a world of difference, I also fitted an sub under the rear seat (this one https://amzn.to/3T97d1B ) wired into the speaker outputs, I recommend taking a feed from the coil to the remote power input as the auto detect power isn’t great.

Teufelsberg NSA listening station

Berlin, Bunkers, Cold War, Germany

Teufelsberg was an American Listening station during the Cold War.

From https://www.visitberlin.de/en/teufelsberg

A listening station during the Cold War, today, a popular place for a day out in the Grunewald. Enjoy a fantastic view of Berlin from Teufelsberg!

Look to the east and see the TV Tower and cathedral sparling in the setting sun. 114 metres up on a hill of rubble, the view of Germany’s capital is uniquely beautiful. Teufelsberg played the role of its life in the drama known as the Cold War – as an American listening station.

In the early 20th century the area was covered in bogs and mud, but that all changed when the Nazis came to power. As part of the plans for Germania – Hitler’s vision for a completely renewed Berlin – work began on the construction of a university faculty for military technology, but it was never completed, and destroyed in the war. After the war, trucks brought rubble from the rest of the devastated city to the site near Heerstraße and it soon piled up to become the highest point in West Berlin. The dumping stopped in 1972, trees were planted to make the man-made hill more attractive, and a ski slope was built complete with a ski lift, a ski jump and a toboggan run.

The Americans also soon recognised the usefulness of the artificial hill. From the 1950s onwards, antennas and radomes were erected on its two hilltops for espionage and intercepting communications. Huge dishes were built for intercepting, listening to and jamming radio signals from the Eastern Bloc.The field station was used by the American forces until the end of the Cold War in 1989. The four striking radomes are what still gives Teufelsberg its mysterious aura today.

Over time, the eavesdropping facility developed into the most important and largest of the Allies’ echelon spy network. It thus also functions as a career springboard in the field of intelligence for those who work there.

After the end of the Cold War and the departure of the allied forces, the complex was used for air traffic control until 1999, when the city government sold it. However, all the plans for a new use came to nothing. In 2007, the American film director David Lynch wanted to buy the complex in in order to set up a “Vedic Peace University” with the controversial Maharishi Foundation.

Today, tours are available where you can view the remains of the complex with its five large radar domes. The listening station is now probably the most well-known of Berlin’s formerly secret sites. The ruins of the station and its satellite dishes are covered in graffiti and exude a morbid charm. You can still feel the spirit of the Cold War which once permeated the city.

This site is all over the internet and has been done to death so i won’t waffle any further. We came here in 2008 while in Berlin to visit Objekt 5001, at the time is was completely wrecked and the fence was missing in one section so we just strolled in.