Bad Aibling Station

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The Bad Aibling Station (abbreviated BAS, which had an official designation as the 18th United States Army Security Agency Field Station, or as the pseudonym used by BND: Hortensie III) was until 2004 a large monitoring base of the US intelligence organization NSA in Bad Aibling, Bavaria
The Bad Aibling Station was an important monitoring station of the Echelon System (RSOC, Regional SIGINT Operation Center) that employed up to 1000 staff members. Its task was acquisition of information for American authorities and other closely allied intelligence services, e.g. from the United Kingdom. The López affair that was cleared up by telephone surveillance in the BAS gained worldwide audience.

According to official statements, the function of BAS was "Rapid Radio Relay and Secure Common, Support to DoD and Unified Commands, Medium and Longhand Common HF & Satellite, Communication Physics Research, Test and Evaluate Common Equipment"
Only view details are known. Serious hints, however, support the assumption that the BAS supervised numerous communication channels, including wireless communication, telephony and internet traffic. Particularly the communication with satellites, also outside the Intelsat system, seems to have been monitored by the BAS.