Nonetheless, the Frankfurt TX-site is far from being defunct or deactivated. In fact the transmitter site received UHF SATCOM capabilities in 2003, which were further expanded in 2004 and 2005.

Shortly before Rhein Main Air Base was handed over to the German authorities, additional buildings and antennas were again erected on the site.

Nowadays the site hosts several new buildings, 2 large radomes, a partly dismantled SHF SATCOM dish and several helical UHF SATCOM antennas of the FAH-Series by Astron Wireless as well as several H-10x Helicals made by Taco Communications. Additional light tower structures being erected at the site, hint at a further increase of the station's SATCOM capabilities. It is quite evident that some of the communication facilities formerly installed at Rhein Main Air Base have been moved to the area and that the site forms an integral part of the US-MIL communications infrastructure towards Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Microwave access to and from the site has undergone a change as well. One of the towers that carried a microwave dish was dismantled and additional microwave antennas were erected on the 2nd tower, while the direction of the antennas was changed as well.

Most HF antenna arrays have been left pretty much unchanged, except for a single A613 fan dipole that was dismantled and an Andrew 2753 type Conical Monopole that was added to the site. All HF-antennas seem to be in very good shape showing no signs of fatigue.

The current HF antenna inventory is as follows:

• 4 huge OE-175/FRC Log Periodic arrays consisting of the 19-element LP-1001 antenna, the R-3503 heavy duty rotor and the T-3002 dual tower system
• 1 Andrew 2753 type Conical Monopole
• 1 compact Monopole antenna (unknown brand)
• 3 TCI527 wire Log Periodics
• 6 TCI524 and TCI548 wire Log Periodics

It appears that large parts (especially the SATCOM portion) of this site are being used as a Regional Relay Facility for the US Diplomatic Telecommunications Service (DTS).

The site also shows up in SSB voice and ALE on the US diplomatic HF Emergency & Evacuation Network as "RIMC Frankfurt" (RIMC = Regional Infomation Mangement Center), using the official callsign "KWB48".

When I last visited the site in 2007, extensive work was undertaken by the German construction company "Wayss & Freytag", so we can probably expect additional enhancements to this transmitter site in the future..............stay tuned!

Update: It appears that the site nowadays transmits 260.41 Bd BPSK and 100Bd/800Hz FSK via UHF SATCOM, to reach the former E05 recipients