(Source: Southgate ARC)

Many readers will remember with fond memories from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the famous offshore radio station Radio Caroline and the last ship they used to broadcast from, the MV Ross Revenge.

From today, a group of amateurs from the Martello Tower Group are operating special event station GB5RC from the Ross Revenge, moored in the Blackwater Estuary near West Mersea and Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex to celebrate five decades of offshore radio broadcasting.

Over the last few weeks, the group have set up quarter wave verticals for 40m, 20m and 15m along with a 5/8 wave for 10m and dipoles for 80m and 40m at various locations on the ship in preparation for the special event station.  They also hope to be able to operate VHF and UHF for local contacts and with some D-STAR and DMR thrown in for good measure.

GB5RC will be on the air from today, the 5th August until Monday 8th August with two stations operating simultaneously running full UK legal output power.  Let’s hope HF conditions are decent.

The Ross Revenge has been the home of Radio Caroline since August 1983 and although broadcasts directly from the ship ended in 1991, the station continues via the internet and once a month, live programmes are broadcast from the Ross Revenge with the help of the Manx AM transmitters on 1368kHz.

For more information see either https://www.qrz.com/db/GB5RC
or the Martello Tower Group website
http://www.martellotowergroup.com/gb5rc.html

Direct QSLs to G6NHU, bureau via GB5RC