Radio Caroline circa 1960’s.
(Source: ARRL News via Eric McFadden, WD8RIF)
Radio Caroline, the latter-day incarnation of the famous shipboard pirate radio station that beamed rock music to the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, has obtained a license to operate permanently on 648 kHz at 1 kW ERP. A transmitter imported from Europe has been undergoing necessary modifications to suit the MW frequency, which falls between the 10-kHz-spaced AM Standard Broadcast Band frequencies in the US.[…]
Radio Caroline circa 1960’s.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, William Lee, who shares this item from ABC News:
Radio Caroline: Golden age of British pirate radio remembered, 50 years on
They were the pirates of the open seas — bringing rock and pop music to a new generation.
And the British government was furious.
Back in the 1960s, when pop and rock were taking over the music scene, British teenagers had to turn to pirate radio stations to hear bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Barred from broadcasting from land, stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio London had taken to the water, using rusty old ships moored in international waters to broadcast to millions of eager listeners across the UK.
The government wasn’t happy and 50 years ago, on August 14 1967, the Marine Offences Act made it illegal to support the ships or broadcast from them.[…]
William note that this story can be found on multiple news sources, but the ABC has more photos.
Other sources include:
Many thanks for the tips, William! Like many Post readers, I do love Radio Caroline!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Harald Kuhl, who shares the following:
(Sources: QRZ.com and http://www.martellotowergroup.com/gb5rc.html)
Celebrating five decades of offshore radio broadcasting GB5RC
For the full report of GB5RC in 2016, click here
Thursday 3rd – Monday 7th August 2017
Following our successful activation of MV Ross Revenge in August 2016 we are very excited to be able to run the special event station again in 2017. The Ross Revenge has been the home of the world famous Radio Caroline since 1983. To find out more about our 2016 activation, please click here.
Our plan is similar to last year, however we will be on the Ross a day early, heading out and setting up on Thursday 3rd August with plans to start operating either on the evening of the 3rd or the morning of Friday the 4th. We will operate two stations throughout the weekend, closing down in the early hours of Monday morning, grabbing a few hours sleep and then dismantling everything after a leisurely breakfast before leaving around lunchtime.
We will have two stations operating for as much as possible and this year we will be concentrating on 80m, 40m and 20m with the option to retune the 20m vertical for 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m if conditions are favourable. These bands weren’t very successful in 2016 so we’d rather stick where there’s the most activity. We will have dipoles for 80m and 40m and verticals for 40m and 20m. We may have something for VHF/UHF but we struggled on there last year due to interference from the solar panels whenever the sun shone!
For more details on GB5RC in 2017, please click here ((http://www.martellotowergroup.com/gb5rc.html))
QSL Policy
The QSL card for our 2017 special event station will be a different design to that used in 2016.
Please read this carefully. Failure to follow the procedure will mean your QSL card will either be delayed or you won’t receive it.Please send cards either direct to G6NHU or via the Bureau addressed to GB5RC.
If sending direct from within the UK, please include an SASE.From anywhere outside the UK, please include an SAE and $2.
Do not send stamps or any currency other than US$. Direct cards received without envelopes or the correct postage will be returned via the bureau. No exceptions.
If you’d like to add a few extra dollars to go towards supporting Radio Caroline, they will be gratefully received and passed on to the Support Group.
Remember – If you don’t manage to work us but would still like a QSL card, you can send an SWL report as detailed below. These are best sent direct and not via the bureau.
Please do NOT send IRCs.
Direct QSLs to Keith Maton, 41 Bemerton Gardens, Kirby Cross, Essex. CO13 0LQ, United Kingdom.
SWL reports
We appreciate this will be a busy station and due to the nature of the event, we encourage SWL reports. If you send an SWL report, please make sure you list the exact frequency we were working on, the time you heard us and list the callsigns of two stations or more that we were talking to. It would also be nice to know what radio and aerial you’re using.
For more information about Radio Caroline, including how to join the support group and help keep the station on the air and Ross Revenge afloat, please see the website. Radio Caroline’s main running costs are covered by Support Group subscriptions and donations.
(Source: Southgate ARC and Mike Terry)
Caroline to be on 648 kHz with 1 kW ERP
We can now announce that our AM frequency will be 648 kHz with a power of 1000 watts. This is ERP or simply the power radiated by the aerial.
A transmitter was imported from the Continent a few days ago and is now being modified to suit the frequency. There are further hurdles, but as you can see progress is being made.
http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.htmlIt’s taken Radio Caroline 53 years to get an AM licence and it was perceived as a threat to the BBC for many years.
Ironically 648 kHz was best known for transmitting the BBC World Service in English around the clock on 648 kHz from September 1982 until March 2011 from the Orfordness transmitting station on the Suffolk coast.
(Source: The Telegraph via Andy Sennitt)
A British-born DJ from Crawley is vying to become the ruler of a tiny self-declared principality in Italy, an honour that would earn him the enviable title “His Tremendousness”.
Mark Dezzani hopes to become the Prince of Seborga, a village overlooking the Italian Riviera that unilaterally declared its independence from Rome in the 1960s, arguing that it was never properly incorporated into Italy when the country was unified in 1861.
He will go head to head with the current ruler of the miniscule territory, His Tremendousness Marcello I, a businessman and former speedboat champion whose real is Marcello Menegatto.
(Source: Mike Terry via Southgate ARC)
Caroline North is back this weekend
Caroline North is back this weekend live from the MV Ross Revenge on the River Blackwater Estuary near Bradwell, Essex.
Relayed on 1368 kHz with a transmitter power of 20kw from the Isle of Man.
According to Manx Radio’s website as well as being heard in the Isle of Man, the AM service is also audible in Southern Scotland, in the North West, in North Wales and in the West of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Also online worldwide.
Radio Caroline circa 1960’s.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Aaron Kuhn who shares this excellent article from Dazed:
The influence of pirate radio has endured despite government crackdowns and the rise of legitimate alternatives – today, it continues to thrive, both legally and otherwise
Drive around some parts of London today and you’re still liable to hear mainstream radio broadcasts drowned out by fleeting bursts of unfamiliar music. Pirate radio stations have been illegally hijacking the FM dial since the 1990s, but while the pirate scene is far smaller than it was in its heyday, the movement is still thriving on a local scale, while a vibrant array of online-only stations are inspired by the energy and spirit of the pirates. To put it simply, pirate radio never left London.
The UK’s pirate radio story starts with Ronan O’Rahilly’s Radio Caroline back in the 1960s, famously avoiding the authorities by broadcasting from international waters, but it was really the 1990s that paved the way for pirate radio in this country. Its evolution loosely follows that of the underground rave scene, which mainstream radio wouldn’t touch in its early days. “It’s the closest thing to mass organised zombie-dom,” BBC Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell said of acid house. “I really don’t think it should go any further.” Needless to say, it wasn’t going anywhere, and between 1988 and 89, pirate radio stations rapidly started to appear to serve a youth hungry for new sounds that weren’t being catered to by mainstream radio. By 1989, there were over 60 pirate radio stations operating in London alone.
While the first pirates – from Sunrise to Centreforce to Fantasy – mostly played music from America and European countries like Belgium, it didn’t take long for the British youth to start doing their own thing. “The UK kids realised people were making music in their bedrooms and they thought ‘I can fucking do that!’” exclaims Uncle Dugs, one of the UK’s leading authorities on pirate radio. Having been involved in radio (both legal and otherwise) for over 20 years, Dugs’ new book Rave Diaries and Tower Block Tales documents life as a young raver turned award-winning DJ after years on the pirate scene. As he explains, by 1991, London’s underground music landscape had become “99% UK producers and DJs,” transforming from acid house to hardcore and then to jungle. As London’s underground grew, so did its pirate presence, with legendary stations like Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse FM, Innocence, and Defection springing up by the end of 1991. “You could flick through the radio and at every .2 on the dial there was a pirate station,” Dugs laughs. “There wasn’t even space on the radio for a new one.”[…]