Funkmessstelle für Weltraumfunk, Space radio monitoring station in Riedstadt, Germany

The Funkmessstelle für Weltraumfunk is a space radio monitoring station in Riedstadt that receives and analyzes signals transmitted by satellites in orbit. The facility contains several specialized antennas, including a large rotatable Cassegrain system and smaller units designed to detect signals across different frequency ranges.

The German Federal Post Office initiated planning for this facility, which opened officially on October 28, 1980. The establishment was part of European development in satellite monitoring technologies during the height of space communication expansion.

The station's official name is Messstelle für Weltraumfunkdienste, but it has carried several others, among them Funkkontrollmeßstelle für den Weltraumfunk in Leeheim and Antennen-Messgelände für Forschungs- und Versuchszwecke. Its operators call the hunt for pirate and jamming signals Störungsbearbeitung: sources that would otherwise disrupt satellite and terrestrial radio services are located and processed there.

The site lies near Leeheim, about 20 km from Darmstadt, and is run by the Bundesnetzagentur; it is an operating radio monitoring facility, not a visitor site, so access is restricted. The 12 m Cassegrain dish can be tilted up to 90 degrees in elevation and swung about 270 degrees in azimuth, while the four 3 m logarithmic-periodic antennas turn without limit. The antennas are best seen from outside the grounds.

Four logarithmic-periodic antennas work in concert to capture signals regardless of their polarization direction. This combined approach allows the station to track communication data from multiple satellite sources simultaneously.