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Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick
Another story goes that Atlanta had Spotmasters and Caroline didn't but the Spotmasters were spirited onto the Frederica when both ships were being fitted at Greenore.
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I'm not so sure about that.
Carl Thomson lived only a couple of hundred yards from me and I'd seen the big mast in his back garden for his amateur activities.
One day, he turned up in my workshop asking for push button switches. At first he was a bit cagey as I tried to find out exactly what type of switch he wanted - low voltage, mains, momentary, etc. - not that there was a great range around in those days.
Eventually he came clean and told us he wanted them for the Spotmasters on the Mi Amigo but didn't want to waste his last Saturday on leave trekking up to Tottenham Court Road!
He wanted to add the remote control function to them, saying that when the ship had been originally fitted out that there was no time to do anything other than the bare essentials meaning that when the DJ wanted to play a jingle he had to reach right across to the back of the panel.
My younger brother worked with me and disappeared while I was rummaging about desperately looking for something suitable. I was just on the verge of admitting defeat when he came back with a big grin on his face holding two completely different Friedland doorbell push buttons that he'd taken from the display downstairs in the shop.
He then demonstrated that these different buttons were, in fact exactly the same - the switches themselves could just be popped out of the plastic housings and the housings disposed of. Just drill two holes in the panel, pop them in and Robert is your mother's brother!
The changeover on Caroline South took place at lunchtime on Mondays and the DJ presenting the lunchtime show would have his bag packed beside him. When the tender arrived, he would swap with his replacement during a record who would then take over the rest of the show.
The second Monday after Carl's visit, after the changeover, the incoming DJ said "Oh!. We've got some new buttons to press since I was last here. I wonder what happens if I press one!" and, of course, a Caroline jingle played out!
About 2 weeks later, the Mi Amigo went aground on Frinton beach and had a full re-fit, including new transmitters before returning to the North Sea, so whether or not our push buttons survived the exercise I have no idea!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Junk Box Nick
Ultimately, all the forts except Sunk Head and Roughs Tower were found to be in territorial waters, though this apparent turnabout was a little embarrassing given that a year before, during the Radio City incident, Shivering Sands was deemed to be outside jurisdiction.
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Ah yes. This depended on the legal definition of a bay which says that, if you draw a line between the two promontories that mark the entrance of the bay and draw a semi circle on that line, if the area of water contained within the bay exceeds the area of the semi circle, the entire bay is territorial waters.
By calculating the area of the Thames Estuary right back as far as Tower Bridge, the Post Office 'proved' that it contained more water than the semi circle - just. I think it was Estuary Radio's counsel who made a wry statement about all the people who would be flocking to Wapping-on-Sea for their summer holidays!