Abandoned Tropo Station of Lefkada

This former communications station sits on the magnificent Ionian island of Lefkada. It was built in 1965 by the United States, and everything about it gives you Cold War vibes. It is easily accessible by car, although it stands on a ridge of Agios Donatos, the highest mountain on the island.

The station was home to Detachment 15 of the U.S. Air Force’s 2140th Communications Group, which was based at Hellinikon Air Base, Greece. It was used for communication between various NATO bases in the Mediterranean.  The large dishes were used for “tropospheric scatter,” which sent out high-power radio waves and bounced them off the troposphere, allowing for communication beyond the line of sight over hundreds of miles. The antennas are in pairs, one for transmit and one for receive. It was shut down after the Cold War ended in the early 1990s.