In 1962 construction began on the U.S. Naval Radio Station at Thurso. The station was commissioned on 3 January 1964. It was established to provide vital support to ships, aircraft and submarines, for both U.S. and NATO forces in the North Atlantic and North Sea. The station was unique in being the most northerly station in the world-wide communication network.

Originally set up as an extended unit of NAVCOMMSTA Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the base at Thurso became an independent unit in the late 1970s. The base at Thurso consisted of 3 sites: the transmitter site at Forss, the receiver site at West Murkle and 26 housing units in Thurso. The headquarters were located at the Forss site along with the transmitter building, antenna field and staff quarters.

When operational, the antenna field supported a single 183m high guyed lattice mast, ten 43m high antennae,three 37m high antennae and eleven 21m high antennae, plus associated steel wire guys, and was described as a ‘forest of wires’.

The base was decommissioned in 1992 when all of the masts and antennae were dismantled, leaving only the ground anchor points, access tracks and the main control building. The land remained unused, until it was purchased in 2001 with a view to developing a wind farm on this ‘brownfield’ site.