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Old 4th Jun 2017, 9:26 pm   #41
Phil G4SPZ
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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No reason to stay on a boat now, quite the opposite...
Quite. I remember in the days immediately prior to and after August 14th, 1967, Radio Caroline repeatedly broadcast a trailer in which Johnnie Walker foresaw a new landmark gracing the skyline - Caroline's aerial, on land. Perhaps we'll see his vision come true sooner rather than later.
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Old 6th Jun 2017, 10:41 pm   #42
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I thought the whole point of Caroline was that it was an offshore Pirate radio. Having a land based transmitter would loose a lot of the meaning for me. It would just be another local radio station and wouldn't feel a bit like Caroline, that cheeky Pirate, returning to the air.

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Old 10th Jun 2017, 10:17 pm   #43
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

MW News are reporting that Caroline will be on 648 Khz from a site east of Stowmarket. The old World Service frequency should give excellent coverage here in Ely, very much looking forward to this...
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 9:19 am   #44
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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I thought the whole point of Caroline was that it was an offshore Pirate radio. Having a land based transmitter would loose a lot of the meaning for me. It would just be another local radio station and wouldn't feel a bit like Caroline, that cheeky Pirate, returning to the air.
I agree to a great extent. The appeal of Caroline to my generation (a teen in the 60's) was the romance and defiance of the offshore stations, and for those of us with a technical interest in radio there was the 'wow, 20kw coming from a ship' thing.
No land-based, licensed station could ever replace that, but sadly Caroline is the nearest we'll get nowadays. For those of us well outside its service area there's still the challenge of actually hearing it!
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 10:16 am   #45
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Yes that was the appeal but sadly times have changed drastically from the 60's and it's doubtful that any pirate radio ship would last long before it was either forcibly towed into the nearest port or worse, sunk by some idiot that decided that it didn't fit in with what they consider to be 'correct' behaviour.

In reality, the pirates made their point by breaking the BBC monopoly. Caroline was a little different in that it carried on long after all the others had gone and during the 70's was probably the only album station on the air but it was still only a shadow of it's former self and lets face it, it costs a considerable sum to keep ship afloat and even without all the laws and restrictions in place now it's doubtful it would be commercially viable. Besides there is really no point as commercial radio has been with us for over 40 years.

Even the pirates knew they couldn't stay out there and considering they were only present for around 3 years, they changed the face of British broadcasting for ever which is what they set out to do.

Since Caroline was finally 'scuppered' in 1989 (or was it 1991) the ship has been restored but they have only made token broadcasts on restricted licence. At least they can now return to air properly albeit with a somewhat restricted audience. Caroline will always be remembered in broadcast history as being the first...and last true pirate station and hopefully will continue for many more years and enjoyed by a new audience.

Caroline was never the best reception here in Croydon. Big L was far better for some reason. Theoretically Big L could do 75kW but they seldom used that. Caroline I understand could do 50kW but very often used much less.

Hopefully here in the SE of England, some semblance of signal will be receivable and even if it's weak with crackles and pops, well it won't be much different from the reception back in 'the day' and will still have that 'pirate' sound!
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 10:40 am   #46
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

To be pedantic, Caroline was the first British pirate to actually go on air. Unless anyone know otherwise, the first offshore station was either Radio Nord or Radio Sud, not sure which. These broadcast to Scandinavia. Second on the air, IIRC, was R. Veronica, which was probably continuously on air longer than any other offshore pirate station. Be that as it may, can any modern sdtation replicate the 'pirate sound & style? IMHO, the only way they could do that is to broadcast no music newer than that issued in 1967, played on turntables, with original 60s jingles, plus commercials and DJs presenting in true 60s style.
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 1:24 pm   #47
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

The first offshore pirate station was Radio Mercur off Denmark which commenced broadcasts in 1958. There had been at least six offshore stations in European waters (if the short lived Dansk Commercial Radio which merged with Radio Mercur is included) before Radio Caroline took to the air in March 1964.

The early stations were: Radio Mercur, DCR (Denmark); Radio Nord which broadcast from the Bon Jour and which would later be renamed Mi Amigo and Radio Syd (Sweden); Radio Veronica (Holland) and Radio Antwerpen (Belgium).

The first broadcasts aimed at a British audience from an offshore station were by CNBC (Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company) in 1961. If it is decided this was a separate station that makes seven, however, the broadcasts emanated from the Radio Veronica ship and on the same frequency and were dropped as Veronica's Dutch output gained popularity.

Incidentally, Mercur, DCR and Syd broadcast only on VHF. Antwerpen transmitted on the 41m band in addition to medium wave.
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 1:47 pm   #48
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

You learn (or relearn!) something new every day, JBN! I didn't know, or had forgotten, that Mercur, DCR & SYD broadcast on VHF-surely a bold move for those days, but I did know about CNBC & remember trying, without success, to pick them up on my Fidelity Coronet pocket radio, here in central England. I also remember the NME's headline 'More Commercial Radio-beamed from a Ship', about CNBC.
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 2:14 pm   #49
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I discovered Veronica when I was suffering withdrawal symptoms following the closure of both Caroline ships in 1968. Tuning around one night (it was always while in bed wasn't it?) I stumbled across R. Veronica and it became my fave station until RNI popped up in 1970.
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Old 11th Jun 2017, 3:39 pm   #50
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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was probably the only album station
Speaking to a former Caroline DJ, they where all too stoned to bother changing records! Seems reasonable with a pinch of salt.
 
Old 13th Jun 2017, 4:53 pm   #51
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Here is hoping that I will be able to hear this station once again. These stations were an education in music because of the rarities that they played whether it be from U.K, U.S, or European groups. It would not have been possible if Georgie Fame had not found a fault in the record industry and that 4 big record companies controlled what music you could have (no small labels allowed).
Personally speaking I never believed that they caused interference to other users, and the jamming to their frequencies just made matters worse. I was told once that the so-called interference caused by the pirates was made up as a story or a joke by people that just wanted to cause bother. I wonder if there was a jamming station on that place called Orford Ness (Suffolk) where my late father once worked on a military (top secret) site in the 1960's. I must emphasize that it was "quite scary stuff" at the time to be told as a young lad not to listen to such stations (pre- 1967) by my father (totally out of character for him to do this) who worked on a top secret establishment. Both my brother & I had no idea about "cold wars" and just wanted to listen to music (not a very fair system!)
I got sick of the general idea of what people had been given about the ships being wanting to cause interference, or not pay license fees for broadcasting or music - the latter two facilities were denied by the authorities concerned because they did not want commercial radio. It was the BBC's fault that this situation ever occurred. After 1967, the idea was to go back to the Light, Home & Third system of the BBC and not to project forward to the present day system. I do not listen to Radio 1, but I do sympathize how the station was originally treated as a satellite of Radio 2
All the 1967 law did was turn music stations in to a kind of witch hunt.
The 1960's was a strange era for mass destruction on broadcasting.
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Old 13th Jun 2017, 5:27 pm   #52
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Should we not be talking about 462.6 Metres as Carolines frequency as we are a Vintage radio forum?
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Old 13th Jun 2017, 5:46 pm   #53
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

They'll probably call it 459.
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Old 13th Jun 2017, 6:52 pm   #54
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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Should we not be talking about 462.6 Metres as Carolines frequency as we are a Vintage radio forum?
No, that's a wavelength (the distance travelled by the wave in one cycle), not a frequency (the number of cycles in one second). Although they are related by (metres per cycle) * (cycles per second) = (metres per second).

There is something deliciously ironic about how radio stations stopped being measured in metres just around the same time everything else started being measured in metres ..... "That's 1116 kHz on the Medium wave band, or 269 metres if your set predates metrication!"
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Old 13th Jun 2017, 7:27 pm   #55
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I used to tech op for the Jazz presenter on my local station before starting my own show (6 hours on the trot - eek). I'd sometimes announce the station using wavelength and he once said "how many radios have you got with metres?". I pointed out he was probably asking the wrong person!
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Old 5th Jul 2017, 9:57 pm   #56
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Hi,
I have just finished reading 'Radio Caroline The True Story of the Boat that Rocked' by Ray Clarke published in 2014. DJ name Mick Williams on radio Caroline in the 1980's.

This book is written in the form of short interviews with people involved from the beginning with a good selection of photographs and overviews of the business deals and political cat and mouse episodes. You can only admire the tenacity and bravery of those involved in keeping the various ships financed and afloat plus climbing the rigging in all weathers to replace flashed over insulators and broken wire stays etc.

This was a chance find in the local library.

Pete
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Old 5th Jul 2017, 10:21 pm   #57
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

Thanks for that, Pete. I was thinking of buying this book, but the mention of 'The Boat that Rocked' made me think twice. The film was awful.
The book sounds rather good and I might treat myself.
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Old 5th Jul 2017, 10:59 pm   #58
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

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I wonder if there was a jamming station on that place called Orford Ness (Suffolk)
A few years after the pirates had gone (and before Caroline returned in 1972) RNI (Radio Nordsee International) in 1970 was jammed by a transmitter from Orford Ness. I believe there is an interesting story regarding this transmitter on the Radio Caroline website
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Old 5th Jul 2017, 11:33 pm   #59
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

My sis and me used to listen to RNI and I can remember getting ready for work on one hot summer morning, when the jamming started and made it totally unlistenable - the swine's !
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Old 5th Jul 2017, 11:38 pm   #60
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Default Re: Radio Caroline to return on Medium Wave.

I, too, remeber RNI & the jamming, which, IIRC, was because RNI had been trying to influence the outcome of a General Election. They had the last laugh in a way, because they changed their frequency to a higher one, so the Jamming transmitter was at least temporarily ineffective.
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