Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce Atchison, who writes:
Randy Bachman featured the music played on Radio Caroline in two shows
broadcast on CBC during the spring of this year. Check out both on
www.randybachman.com and scroll down until you find the pirate radio
shows.Both programs of Randy’s Vinyl Tap brought back so many good
memories.
Thanks for the tip, Bruce!
(Source: Southgate ARC)
Radio Caroline Trip 2018
The Martello Tower group will once again be running a special event station GB5RC from the Radio Caroline ship the MV Ross Revenge over a long weekend 3rd to 5th August.
This weekend we have arranged 6 trips out to visit the ship for a tour of the ship including studios, transmitter room etc. There will be 3 trips on both the Saturday and same on the Sunday and each trip can carry up to 11 visitors.
Each trip is for the whole 11 people and cost is £275 so if you fill the boat it’s just £25 per person. Sailing times are 1.30pm 4pm and 6.30pm and each trip is around 2.5 hours round trip and will be from Mersey island in Essex.
Bookings will need to be paid in full. Please note we are not taking individual bookings for spaces on trips only bookings of £275 per trip. This is on a first come paid bookings only.
To book a trip call Paul G0HWC on 07810 607766
A lot of SWLing Post readers have been contacting me lately noting that they’ve received their Muzen OTR/Radio Caroline FM radio and Bluetooth speaker.
Muzen started shipping the new OTR to their backers this week.
I received my OTR yesterday and am completely in love with this little gem. Without a doubt, it’s one of the highest quality pieces of consumer technology I’ve purchased in years.
Yesterday, by request, I made an unboxing video–I plan to post it later today when I have a good broadband connection.
I’ll also follow up with a proper product review, but I can say now that the Muzen OTR has amazing audio fidelity for such a tiny little unit–it’s room-filling. The FM tuner works well (although the dial is tiny). The solid wood chassis is beautiful, refined and sturdy.
The OTR shipped with the highest quality leather carrying case I’ve ever received with a product. It smacks of 1960s quality (or even better!).
The OTR is a salute to the famous Radio Caroline–as a nice added touch, they even include a tribute in the form of a QSL card.
The Muzen OTR package also includes an audio cable, USB cable, and FM antenna.
What a pleasure to receive such a quality piece of kit! Look for my review soon.
Post readers: Did you back the Muzen OTR as well? Received your unit yet? Please comment!
(Source: RadioWorld via Mike Hansgen)
The station is now operating 24 hours seven days a week on AM
NEAR COLCHESTER, England — Well into its second half-century of broadcasting, Radio Caroline has begun the next phase of its operations, returning to wide-area AM transmissions for the first time in nearly 30 years. Although by no means the first offshore radio station (that honor probably goes to one of the gambling ships that operated off the coast of California back in the mid-1930s), it is nevertheless the archetypical “pirate” station and one of the most famous names in European broadcasting.
[…]Under its new license, Radio Caroline is permitted to broadcast with a radiated power of 1 kW, not a particularly high-power service in terms of its earlier offshore activities. However, given the lack of incoming interference on the frequency, and its long-wavelength signals, the result is effective coverage that, in practice, for many listeners is larger than planning criteria might suggest.
In many ways, Radio Caroline has both kept up with the times in terms of the broadcasting technologies it uses and come full circle with its recent return to AM broadcasting.[…]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Harper (AE5X), who writes:
I thought you and your readers might be interested in this […] a cool little radio I learned about from the YouTube channel of a drone flyer I follow.
I like the craftsmanship:
Click here to view on YouTube.
Many thanks for sharing this, John!
I’ve actually been following the Muzen OTR for several months via Indiegogo thanks to my buddy and radio-enabler, David Korchin (K2WNW).
If the name Muzen sounds familiar, it’s likely because we featured the company last year in this post. After publishing the post, I was so interested in Muzen products, I reached out to a retailer who used to be a US distributor. Sadly, he no longer carried Muzen products, though he was a big fan.
The Muzen OTR is $69 US shipped. For an FM radio, Bluetooth, AUX-in speaker that’s handcrafted, with serious audio fidelity, in such a small size, I think it’s quite a good deal. On top of that 10% of the funding will go to Radio Caroline.
Even though I’m going through a serious down-sizing at the moment, John’s note prompted me to back this campaign, so I bit the bullet this morning and ordered a Muzen OTR. [In a sarcastic tone: “Thank’s a lot, John!”] Ha ha!
(Source: Southgate ARC via Mike Terry)
Radio Caroline AM service to open
Weather and technology permitting, our programmes on 648 kHz will commence originating from the Ross Revenge at 7.00 AM on Friday 22nd December.
The changed schedule for the day will be :
7am Johnny Lewis
9am Top Fifteen
10am Ray Clark – with the official launch at midday.
2pm Kevin Turner
5pm Resume normal programmesNo doubt Bob Lawrence, Martin Fisher and Jerry Wright will personalise their evening shows to mark the day.
Of course we are delighted to have found and secured what must be the best possible AM transmission site for our service. We thank Cobra Mist Ltd for this facility whilst noting that this is a private site which cannot at this time be visited.
So, another date for the Radio Caroline calendar of events and the inevitable question. Where do we go from here?
(Source: Southgate ARC via Mike Terry)
Caroline 648 testing
A test signal with continuous music and announcements reported today.
Reception reports on Facebook from the UK, Holland, Belgium, France and Austria.
Some reports from mainland Europe refer to a co-channel Romanian or Slovenian station.
I think this is at a lower power than the permitted 1 KW.
Much excitement in anorak circles!
Note that if you’re interesting in monitoring 648 kHz but live outside the broadcast footprint, you can easily listen and record via the U Twente WebSDR.