Radio Caroline goes legal

[Analoguesat]

They have been awarded a full time AM broadcast licence for East Anglia.


Former pirate Radio Caroline awarded broadcast licence - BBC News


Its only taken 53 years!

 

[Archive-8]

It's great news, hopefully they can get more areas covered.

 

[Analoguesat]

I spent hours in Cannock in the mid 80's trying to find Caroline 576. Laser 558 was an easy catch - they had a massive signal across much of central England. Caroline 576 was much much weaker.

I had stickers for both services on my cars at the time



This was before the internet & easy access to news of course - the newspapers werent supposed to give the frequencies the pirate stations transmitted on so finding frequency & power information was quite difficult.

 

[Analoguesat]

^^ Advertising pirate radio stations was of course technically illegal ;)

 

[PaulR]

You had it easy down in Cannock. The signal had to struggle to get just that bit further to me in the north-west. I had to be out in the car in the evenings in order to hear it.

 

[John Pykett]

hopefully it relaunches on satellite

 

[PaulR]

Unlikely. When they announced that they were leaving 28E and becoming an almost entirely internet based station I emailed them asking them to reconsider. I received a reply saying that they had a limited amount of money and, basically, not enough people were listening via satellite.

 

[rolfw]

Remember when the pirates started, our previous staple had been radio Luxembourg in the early sixties, have vivid mermories of trying to position our little transistor radios for the best fade free signal.

 

[Analoguesat]

hopefully it relaunches on satellite

Unlikely. When they announced that they were leaving 28E and becoming an almost entirely internet based station I emailed them asking them to reconsider. I received a reply saying that they had a limited amount of money and, basically, not enough people were listening via satellite.

Sadly Paul is right - the listening figures were really low via satellite and with almost no income it just wasnt worth continuing the service. Until someone offers to pay the several tens of thousand quid a year for a satellite stream the chances of them reappearing are remote.

 

[pgh13]

Quite ironic, this year being the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Marine Offenses bill which killed most of the pirates

 

[John Pykett]

Sadly Paul is right - the listening figures were really low via satellite and with almost no income it just wasnt worth continuing the service. Until someone offers to pay the several tens of thousand quid a year for a satellite stream the chances of them reappearing are remote.

such a shame considering i dont think radio caroline will be nationwide one day

 

[Analoguesat]

such a shame considering i dont think radio caroline will be nationwide one day

Caroline was never nationwide even back in the 60s & if Ofcom restrict them to the 50w output that is normally allowed for community stations they will barely escape East Anglia

 

[John Pykett]

Caroline was never nationwide even back in the 60s & if Ofcom restrict them to the 50w output that is normally allowed for community stations they will barely escape East Anglia

at least its online

 

[PaulR]

such a shame considering i dont think radio caroline will be nationwide one day

They have a scattering of DAB and DAB+ stations around the country.

Caroline DAB

They're always on the lookout for more local station licences if they're at the right price.

 

[Channel Hopper]

They have a scattering of DAB and DAB+ stations around the country.

Caroline DAB

I prefer the fade to DAB 'quality'. I am in one of those fringe areas from the Guidford burst.

Since Caroline has a licence , what is stopping streaming of their service becoming the defacto method of tuning in ? It's in stereo and as good as the competition

 

[Terryl]

A long wire antenna of about 570 meters would/should be able to pick it up, I get all sorts of good AM signals from world wide stations on mine. (650 meter inverted V, with loading coils of course)

 

[Archive-8]

They are Starting to tweek the am setup on 648khz.

They like the freq, but having some trouble with the antenna.

 

[s-band]

TX site Google Maps from this application form

They are Starting to tweak the am setup on 648khz.
They like the freq, but having some trouble with the antenna.

Not surprising, it's a bit short for 648kHz but at 1kW ERP the TX must be >1kW Good frequency, though.

Coverage area, from application:
By using an AM frequency, a proposed area bounded by Ipswich in the South, Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket in the West, Saxmundham to the East and Diss to the North

 

[hvdh]

A long wire antenna of about 570 meters would/should be able to pick it up, I get all sorts of good AM signals from world wide stations on mine. (650 meter inverted V, with loading coils of course)

Wow, I didn't think anyone would still have these! Is it like the one in the picture below, then why use coils instead of a terminating resistor?

 

[s-band]

Wow, I didn't think anyone would still have these! Is it like the one in the picture below, then why use coils instead of a terminating resistor?
View attachment 107635

Your Fig 8 is a Beverage antenna Beverage antenna - Wikipedia

Beverage Antenna Construction