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Old 13th Nov 2017, 10:04 pm   #181
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Dunno!! Probably for as long as it takes to get aerial tweaking right and then field strength tests.
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 12:01 pm   #182
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I too have been listening out for the 648 KHz transmission but missed the test programme.

I wonder if the new station will see a resurgence in am radio sales. I didn't realise how many there were on Amazon around the £25 mark until I looked however, most of them are personal listening radios. One such set with a 2" loudspeaker featured bass boost!!

Although the station is supposed to be local radio in format I don't see a return to the days when teenagers would park their cars at Frinton on Sea beach head listening out for, who was it now, oh yes Emperor Rosko. What a shame!!

I wish it well and wonder if, with some irony, the site at Orfordness wasn't used to jam the station. Anyone know where the jammer was located?

Chris
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 1:12 pm   #183
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Well this last day when I listened or so it is either off or very low power here where I am.
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 4:25 pm   #184
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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I wish it well and wonder if, with some irony, the site at Orfordness wasn't used to jam the station. Anyone know where the jammer was located?
There is a story about this and apparently the jammer was at Orfordness. This was when RNI was briefly broadcasting as Caroline International. I think the story is somewhere on the Caroline website.
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 4:30 pm   #185
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Originally Posted by HamishBoxer View Post
Well this last day when I listened or so it is either off or very low power here where I am.
Nothing heard here so far this weekend.
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 5:31 pm   #186
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hi

I've always believed RNI was jammed from a transmitter sited in Canewdon on the Essex coast? I’m not sure but this may well have been a Marconi site at the time.

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Old 18th Nov 2017, 6:07 pm   #187
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

There is a very interesting story about the transmitter used to jam RNI: apparently it was a Continental Electronics 50kW that in the 1960s was originally destined for Radio Caroline but was diverted to the British Government instead. Supreme irony if true!

I can't give you a link but a search of the pirate radio history web pages should turn it up.
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 6:12 pm   #188
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Thank you G6Tanuki
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 6:17 pm   #189
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Having had a look on Google I can't help thinking, assuming what I read elsewhere is correct, how appropriate Ordfordness is for the transmitter of Radio Caroline: on a spit of land, almost surrounded by the North Sea, and about 20 miles up the coast from the original anchorage off Frinton.

Will people drive to Orford at night and flash their headlights at it?
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 9:28 pm   #190
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hello,

I suppose the reception I was getting last week in Southend would be explained if the transmitter is sited at Orfordness as its very much a sea path to Southend with a bit of low lying land around the transmitter site.

Terry
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Old 18th Nov 2017, 10:12 pm   #191
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

So the jamming was before the Cobra Mist debacle at Orfordness? That eclipsed all the money ever spent by with at to or for pirate radio!

David
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 12:15 am   #192
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Here is the story of the jamming of RNI when broadcasting as Caroline International. Scroll down the page to 'Here's an interesting story'.

Time has fuddled the memory...Orfordness is involved but not with the jamming. It's still an interesting story....it seems the transmitter used to jam RNI was originally destined for the Mi Amigo........
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 11:15 am   #193
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Well tracked down Sideband…. It could be ironic that the site for the legal Radio Caroline transmitter is Orfordness….

At the time when RNI was being jammed I was living in Rayleigh, Essex, which as the crow flies is roughly 5 miles from Canewdon and I remember it playing havoc with reception in the area. Still remember listening to RNI and the jamming using my Radionic set!

Below is a link to the site about a land based pirate radio station and how they tracked down the transmitter.
http://www.bookamook.com/kaleidoscop...hris-mccarthy/

I frequented the same radio spares shop The Radio Constructors Centre in Westcliff mentioned in the site
http://www.bookamook.com/kaleidoscop.../bill-fleming/

Terry
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 1:40 pm   #194
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Thanks, Sideband - couldn't find it yesterday.

I wonder if the transmitter has been sold?

Surely 50kW for Caroline from Ordfordness wouldn't be a problem!
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 3:45 pm   #195
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hi,

In the first of the pages I’d found it said….

“In later years Chris discovered that when the Canewdon Jamming transmitter was shut down it was moved to Orfordness in Suffolk another old Radar site and home of the BBC world service and FCO communications. Over the subsequent years the transmitter was gradually broken up for parts”

Except for the transmitters sitting on the sea bed or weren’t scrapped along with the ship the rest seems to have been used for a few years in parts of the world where they needed a second-hand AM transmitter - as you do

I suppose quite a few were eventually cannibalized as per the one at Orfordness for spares keep their kin on air. As to how many are still in use its hard to know.

Terry
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 6:43 pm   #196
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I think I still have a few minutes' recording of a jammed RNI broadcast from the early 1970's on the end of one of my cassettes. By suitably orienting my transistor radio it was possible to reduce the interference to a level that made listening just about acceptable when the only alternative was the BBC, but not to eliminate it completely. I was then living in Chadwell Heath, near Romford, Essex.
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 11:02 pm   #197
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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By suitably orienting my transistor radio it was possible to reduce the interference to a level that made listening just about acceptable when the only alternative was the BBC, but not to eliminate it completely.
I found that as well and could almost eliminate the jamming during the day.
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 11:30 pm   #198
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

This thread has re-kindled my interest in MW DX-ing, and in tuned loop antennas in particular. I used a large (1 metre square) 7-turn tuned loop back in the 1970s and I've since seen several modern designs, both home-made and commercially built, for small tuned MW loops which also appear to be very effective.

I'd have thought that, with a bit of forward planning and the use of directional antennas, Forum members should be able to DF Caroline's transmitter and pinpoint its location to a fair degree of accuracy!
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Old 19th Nov 2017, 11:43 pm   #199
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ View Post

I'd have thought that, with a bit of forward planning and the use of directional antennas, Forum members should be able to DF Caroline's transmitter and pinpoint its location to a fair degree of accuracy!
I think you'll DF it to the Orfordness reserve omnidirectional aerial.
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Old 25th Nov 2017, 10:36 am   #200
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Testing again now.
Graham
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