Early days of North European offshore pirate radio on VHF/FM

[Valvepower]

Hello,

Ray Clark as part of his talk about Radio Caroline and the history of ‘pirate’ radio in Europe last Thursday in Harwich, Ray mentioned one of the first North European offshore pirate radio stations Radio Mercur who transmitted back in 1958 to Denmark using VHF/FM. I found it interesting that they adopted VHF/FM for this venture. I suppose the aerials would have been smaller than the comparable the MF aerials, however I feel the directional nature of these aerials could present problems elsewhere though.

Anyway, I really hadn’t thought about VHF/FM being used in the early days of North European offshore pirate radio. I know VHF/FM radio was quite advanced in Germany in the 19650s and I suppose this extended to the countries bordering Germany in the 1950s.

I was told long ago by an old timer radio engineer, Germany after the second world war, rebuilt their domestic radio transmitter network implementing VHF/FM radio. I suppose this is because the outcome of the damage caused by allied bombing of the traditional AM transmitters in that part of Europe.

The German VHF/FM radios, like the Grundig Marlborough 3028, have a good VHF/FM reception and would have been popular in Europe as they were in the UK. I’ve had few of these over the years… Oh-well, I bought another one of these radios at Tonbridge!

This is no more than just some random idle thoughts after hearing VHF/FM was used in the very early days of North European offshore pirate radio. I know RNI used VHF/FM in the early 70s, but that was 10 years later.

Terry.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Coincidently I have just restored a Grundig Marlborough 3028/GB for a friend. An impressive set.

The VHF/FM scale reminded me of RNI, as it is marked only in channel numbers 2-43
RNI as I remember, RNI used to announce "FM Channel 44, 100 MHz".

The service are on VHF must have been tiny compared to MW (not to mention the 49m band). I doubt it made much commercial sense.

[Pfraser]

The Voice of Peace VHF service area was indeed significantly less than medium wave, even following the reductions in MW coverage imposed by the partial collapse of the MW mast in 1980 and then the reduction of TX power from 20kW to 10kW in 1987. The FM transmitter was a Harris FM20K; thus 20kW.

Nonetheless, FM coverage was commercially successful due to the proximity of metropolitan Tel Aviv and its suburbs. Occasional, brief fading affected reception at approximately 10 miles from the ship; for example.

We did make a couple of forays on to short wave, to my knowledge. One of these unfortunately clashed with IDF communications and its prompt termination was commanded and executed. The other venture ended in a transmitter fire!

Our grounded tower was originally intended for RNI, or so I have heard. Our VHF frequency was also 100MHz.

[Rich Woods]

That’s really interesting. In the 72/3 when we lived in NE Lincolnshire, I can remember, at a time of high atmospheric pressure, managing to pull in RNI from the Dutch coast using my father’s Dynatron radiogram, fed by an FM dipole in the loft. Normally not a peep got through so it was 220m medium wave or nothing.

[Rich Woods]

God I miss RNI, what a brilliant station it was.

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by Rich Woods

God I miss RNI, what a brilliant station it was.

When you consider that the heyday of the offshore pirates (what I like to refer to as the 'proper' pirates) was 60 years ago and those of us who were around at the time still have happy memories of them, it shows how good they must have been particularly Radio Caroline, Radio London and RNI. Caroline is of course still going and remains fiercely independent although of course not as a pirate but people still remember Radio London and RNI, the DJ's and some of the programs....Are they remembered because they were pirates or because the programs were good (or both)?

[dave walsh]

Re transmissions to Denmark in 1958, I seem to recall that Bang and Ulofsen used VHF [possibly FM] frequencies to contact Sweden with vital information during WW2. I see their factory was destroyed by the occupying forces in 1945!
Perhaps that has some connection with the use of VHF/FM in 1958? It would have been more point to point and the later "Pirate" activity focussed on MW elsewhere but perhap things were more advanced in Denmark? The Beeb didn't seem to get serious re VHF Radio in GB until the early sixties despite much earlier experimentation.

Dave W

[Valvepower]

Concur with RNI – remember when it closed in September 1974.

Without veering off topic… here are some Tricks of the Trade Articles on BBCeng.info wich refers to Pirate radio on Medium Wave.

This has some pictures of the transmitter onboard the MEBO 2

https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20...e_36%20(1).pdf

https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20...e_37%20(2).pdf

https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20...l_Issue_32.pdf

https://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20...-combiners.pdf

Terry

[G6Tanuki]

I wasn't aware of the pirates using FM in the Sixties, living on the Wales / Shropshire borders back then the reception of any FM broadcast from the North Sea pirates would have been rather unlikely!!

Even if there had been FM broadcasts aimed at the uk - in particular to London - by pirate stations in the North Sea, l don't think they would have got much of an audience, given the very slow takeoff of FM receivers in the UK. Your typical pirate radio listener being a teenager listening on a cheap and cheerful 'trannie' most of which were without a FM band...

Even in 1967 when the BBC started up Radio1 as a belated answer to the pirate stations, it was only transmitted on MW, which struck me as a bizarre decision considering that it was their most popular station by far. Yet they preferred to dedicate a national FM channel to speech (Radio4) which didn’t in any way need the bandwidth that music did.

Radio1 on FM could have helped boost the sale of FM-capable radios...

[Rich Woods]

Originally Posted by Sideband

When you consider that the heyday of the offshore pirates (what I like to refer to as the 'proper' pirates) was 60 years ago and those of us who were around at the time still have happy memories of them, it shows how good they must have been particularly Radio Caroline, Radio London and RNI. Caroline is of course still going and remains fiercely independent although of course not as a pirate but people still remember Radio London and RNI, the DJ's and some of the programs....Are they remembered because they were pirates or because the programs were good (or both)?

Both and the music they played, definitely. When I’ve been lucky enough to get hold of recordings it’s one time the memory doesn’t cheat. I love Caroline and always did but RNI was to me something very special. I still can’t hear Man of Action without the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and reciting the voiceover in my head “You are listening to Radio Northsea International, broadcasting on 220m Medium Wave, 100 Megacycles on VHF and also on the 49m band shortwave, Radio Northsea International, the voice of young Europe”. Sad I know, but great times & a brilliant station soundtracking them..

[Sideband]

RNI has been recreated. https://www.rniradio.net/HowtoListen.html Somehow it doesn't sound the same in stereo but why not feed your computer output into a minimod and retransmit to an AM radio?

Actually if you Google RNI there are sites that have actual recordings of memorable moments

[Rich Woods]

Originally Posted by Sideband

RNI has been recreated. https://www.rniradio.net/HowtoListen.html Somehow it doesn't sound the same in stereo but why not feed your computer output into a minimod and retransmit to an AM radio?

Actually if you Google RNI there are sites that have actual recordings of memorable moments

Yeah, I’ve tried listening to it via the usual route (internet radio & pantry). The problem with it is that the continuous music that makes up much of their broadcast time isn’t the right sort of selection for RNI sadlly. The reason RNI was so good in the early 70’s was the mix of music and excellent DJ’s. So it’s Caroline pretty much 24/7 for us.

[Rich Woods]

I do sometimes flip over on the hour to hear Man of Action and wallow in nostalgia though I must confess.

[Valvepower]

Hello,

The archive hour on Caroline Flashback plays out the occasional restored RNI broadcast.

Man of Action stirs the ole’ emotions

Terry