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Old 8th May 2018, 4:09 pm   #341
saddlestone-man
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Good reception of Caroline today in Gloucestershire on my Target HF3 receiver.

The earth used made a huge difference in quality: using mains earth or no earth at all results in no audible reception, just noise mush. Use of a good old two foot copper rod driven into damp earth eliminates most of the noise and gives very good reception bearing in mind Caroline's power and distance.

Good listening!

Stef.
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Old 15th Jun 2018, 3:15 pm   #342
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I have just returned from a few days in Kent. I took an average early 90s Sony pocket portable with me specifically to have a listen and can report that the signal was clear and solid both day and night. It was easy to find on the dial and a nice listen. I can only imagine what the MW band must have sounded like down there in the 1960s!
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Old 15th Jun 2018, 6:38 pm   #343
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Ah, those good old days! Growing up in the Midlands and about as far from any coast as it's possible to get, I was used to listening to Caroline and in fact all the pirates with weak, fading, noisy signals. Then once we went on holiday to the south coast and Caroline came booming in at 5 and 9. People were walking around with their trannies blaring out Radio Caroline or Radio London. I was amazed and the quality was as good as the BBC. However, it just didn't seem as exciting as struggling to pull the signal out of the mush...
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Old 15th Jun 2018, 10:33 pm   #344
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

We used to receive Caroline well in SW London in 1965. However that year we went on holiday for 2 weeks in Ramsgate and Caroline was by far the strongest station and even better reception with no fading. Great days when anything seemed possible.
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Old 17th Jun 2018, 11:22 am   #345
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I always received good strength signals from Caroline, London, City & 390 here in N. Oxfordshire during the mid 1960s, =using standard potable radios of the time, a Ferguson AM/FM radio whose model No. I don't recall, and a 'Westminster' branded Perdio MW/LW radio. The same applied when listening to RNI a few years later. Like most, though, reception of Radio 1 on 247 wasn't always brilliant.
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Old 17th Jun 2018, 8:19 pm   #346
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Not sure where "Laser 558" was broadcast from, but we used to pick that up clearly in the workshop on an average portable with an internal ferrite rod antenna inside a multi storey building on a window sill in West London around 1985.
Alan.
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Old 17th Jun 2018, 8:31 pm   #347
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?' View Post
I always received good strength signals from Caroline, London, City & 390 here in N. Oxfordshire during the mid 1960s, =using standard potable radios of the time, a Ferguson AM/FM radio whose model No. I don't recall, and a 'Westminster' branded Perdio MW/LW radio. The same applied when listening to RNI a few years later. Like most, though, reception of Radio 1 on 247 wasn't always brilliant.
I always seemed to receive Caroline well here in Lincolnshire at the time, and was well dischuffed when it went to be replaced by Radio 1 which was rubbish in comparison both in content (in my opinion) and signal strength. Caroline seems far better these days, but the transmitter is maybe closer and the bands are less crowded.
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Old 18th Jun 2018, 5:58 pm   #348
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

All the 60s pirates were a struggle in the daytime here in the West Midlands but came in well at night, even though in those days they may have turned the wick down in the evenings. Though by today's standards the fading would be annoying, for me this only added to the magic of receiving signals from a little ship out at sea. The very precariousness of it all made it so exciting. Of course the fact that they played the music I wanted to hear and had a far better personality than Luxembourg with its formulaic shows made me very unhappy when they went. Reception of Radio One was never a problem here with Droitwich only a few miles away and I was unaware of the struggle in less favoured areas. Curiously I got to like Radio One more when they brought in established BBC presenters like Jimmy Young, Pete Murray and Terry Wogan. I was never a Blackburn fan.

In the 1970s, daytime reception of Caroline on its announced 319m (315m) from Knock Deep and its earlier short-lived 773kHz service when off the Dutch coast was good on an ordinary transistor portable. Far better than the 60s and no doubt due to the ground wave. RNI had 6205kHz so I would listen on 49m during the day though 1367 was better at night.

IME here in the midlands, Laser 558 in 1984 from the Thames Estuary had the best daytime signal ever of any pirate by a country mile. The first time I heard it I was astonished, it was strong and clear and a very easy listen on an ordinary set and I often listened in the car on a cheapo aftermarket receiver and crude telescopic aerial.

Caroline 648 is variable here in the daytime. I use a Tecsun loop as it is barely there on the Sony otherwise. Unfortunately, it beats against another station at night.

What does astonish me is Manx Radio on 1368. It's very weak in the daytime but stonking at night with all of its 2kW. Better than RNI but of course the channel is clear these days.
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Old 22nd Jun 2018, 10:32 pm   #349
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Radio Caroline North on 1368kHz from Isle of Man this weekend.
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Old 23rd Jun 2018, 1:59 am   #350
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

What time/days will it be broadcasting?
I can just about pick it up on a gec starfinder if I walk around the room with it, it's currently broadcasting local material at the time this message was posted.

All the best, Rick.
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Old 23rd Jun 2018, 7:24 am   #351
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

If you were living near Dover in 1992 you could listen to Radio Caroline live on FM. After the Ross Revenge was towed off the sands it was moored in Dover Harbour. Whilst the ship was out of commission the studio facilities were operational. A short term broadcast license was applied for and received. Needing a transmitter site English Heritage was approached and Jocelyn Stevens, who was the new head of EH, permitted use of the Admiralty Lookout.
Perhaps the fact that he was an original financial backer of Radio Caroline back in the 1960s had something to do with it.

There are some youtube videos of that time, this one showing the erection of the aerial. Notice lack of health & safety.
https://youtu.be/JhMcsAyeJjw
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Old 26th Aug 2018, 8:16 am   #352
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Some good reading here...

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/201...m#.W4JTx-hKhPY
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Old 26th Aug 2018, 11:19 am   #353
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

http://www.rossrevengeplans.co.uk/Ab...rrent/648.html

The story behind the installation of the transmitter.
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Old 26th Aug 2018, 9:57 pm   #354
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

hi guys im getting radio Caroline loud and clear on my old 1930s hmv valve set its around 648 mw band its loud and clear here in Clacton on sea Essex thanks mike
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Old 26th Aug 2018, 10:44 pm   #355
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

As Clacton is, AFAIK, within the official service area of the Orfordness transmitter, I'd expect the signal to be strong there.
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Old 3rd Sep 2018, 8:32 pm   #356
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I woke up around half 5 this morning, turned on the bedside radio (Grundig Satellit 700) and had a tune around on MW.

Radio Caroline was coming in quite strong on 648kHz. At night it's usually wiped out by co-channel interference from continental stations, but this morning there was no interference. By 7am it had vanished back into the noise.


John Joe.

Last edited by linescan87; 3rd Sep 2018 at 8:32 pm. Reason: Punctuation.
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Old 3rd Sep 2018, 10:52 pm   #357
'LIVEWIRE?'
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Slightly OT perhaps, but linescan87 (John Joe)'s post reminds me that many years ago, in 1963 to be precise, here in N. Oxfordshire, R. Eireann -as it was then known- could be received at good listenable strength in the early mornings on our Ever Ready Sky Queen battery portable, which had an internal frame aerial, but as daylight brightened, the signal from the 566kHz transmitter would fade away. This was in February or March, IIRC, when there was at least, a partial darkness path between England and Ireland
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Old 4th Sep 2018, 5:08 pm   #358
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hi. Radio Caroline is received very well here in Leeds despite the odd crackling sound. I was amazed that my Bush VHF61 radio gave such reception of such a distant station.
Cheers
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Old 5th Sep 2018, 2:42 pm   #359
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

It is amazing the variety of the Top 15 listeners charts. There are records that I have not heard for years. Even BBC Six Music probably could not equal this for choices of rare music.
I put my Top 15 up and it got featured on 27/07, unfortunately I had a hospital appointment about my spine (after a fall at home earlier) and I missed the 9 a.m to 10 a.m music slot and knowing nothing about the night time repeat of it.
Is there a download facility of these programmes (off line) where you can hear these missed slots, please?
Cheers
Mike
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Old 5th Sep 2018, 4:10 pm   #360
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Caroline "flashback" on 576kHz this afternoon. Strong on the car radio,but as I am in Suffolk probably no surprise. Cannot find the 576 frequency mentioned on the website so I've no idea where it actually originates. Its the same content as the flashback stream.
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