The Radio Caroline
Southampton support group meeting returned on
Wednesday 30th June at the Hamble Social Club,
Hamble Le Rice and everyone was glad to be back.
Originally we thought the restrictions would
have ended but unfortunately they were extended
shortly before our meeting so we had to keep to
the latest guidelines to prevent Covid
infection. We were grateful to the Hamble
Social club for all the work they had done to
allow our meeting to take place. Alan Beech took
the microphone to answer a lot of technical
questions put to him by the audience and Albert
Hood told us some very interesting stories from
the last few years that Caroline broadcast from
the High seas. The well stocked sales stall
was kept busy selling all the latest kit and
thanks to everyone that came along and bought
stock or made donations to go towards the work
to support the station. It was great to see so
many new faces and I hope to see you all at the
next meeting at the end of September when we
hope the restrictions will be lifted.
Southampton Group PagePhotos now added
Our Meetings are now back on
the first Tuesday in each month. So please turn up and
have a good time.
The venue is at the Farsley
Working Men,s Club.
Farsley WMC, Back Lane,
Farsley, Pudsey, West Yorkshire.
LS28 5EU
Any problems ring
Colin Liversidge 07814773197, Thanks.
The group have raised money
for the up keep of the Restoration work on the Ross
Revenge. Sometimes we have former personalities from
offshore radio visit, DVD nights, but mostly it's a get
together of Radio Caroline Supporters for a social
evening of chat and news of the restoration of the Ross
Revenge. All are welcome at the meetings which are on
the first Tuesday of every month.
Carolines Rob Ashard is a busy
man
Why is Rob Ashard managing
19 mix-minus feeds while taping a British TV show? When
COVID keeps the audience out of the studio, Rob and his
colleagues must go to them - in their homes and flats.
Rob Ashard is the lead audio
mixer for The Graham Norton Show and Ant & Dec’s
Saturday Night Takeaway. Audience interaction is
critical, and these shows have found a way to make it
happen. We’ll also discuss bringing a 60 year old
portable tape deck back to life, plus learn about DE-RIG
mixing kits.
There
is now a new voice on Radio Caroline's album channel Top of the Hour ID and presenter IDs?
It's now done by guest
presenter on Radio Caroline North, Paul McKenna. Paul
started as a radio presenter for quite a number of
stations including Radio Jackie, Radio Caroline,
Chiltern Radio, Capital London and BBC Radio 1.
He was quite a successful author
too, publishing many helpful books on quitting smoking
and slimming.
Caroline Flashback's new
presenter
Alex
Sweeney originally came from Dundee, but his
home for the last 20 Years is Bournemouth. He was a
successful club DJ from the mid 70s to mid 80s. He then
moved into commercial radio, hosting breakfast, drive
and a specialist soul show on Radio Tay for a number of
years. He then left broadcasting and become a successful
nightclub manager, managing clubs all over the UK
(including The London Hippodrome). Three years ago
he
decided to return to broadcasting at HRB in Bournemouth
where he still presents a show and from November 2020 he
has been presenting a soul show and a Saturday morning
show on Durhamonair. His new show on Caroline
Flashback is on Wednesdays at 4pm
Alan Watts support for the RNLI
40
years ago, Radio Caroline broadcast from the Mi Amigo
for the last time when a storm sank the pirate radio
vessel.
Alan Watts was an avid listener
and was so moved by the bravery of the RNLI Sheerness
lifeboat crew who rescued his DJ heroes he became a
lifelong supporter.
He has since included the RNLI
in his Will to support our lifesaving work – find out
more about leaving a legacy here:
https://rnli.org/support-us
Radio Caroline's successful
oil rig lifeboat conversion
aptly named the "Ronan O'Rahilly"
Thanks to the generosity of helper
Roland Beaney and his wife Viv from Romsey in Hampshire,
Caroline now have their own lifeboat. They purchased an
enclosed oil rig lifeboat, which was then brought
by road from Aberdeen to Essex and taken to a work shed.
Various helpers stripped out the boat and Steve Anthony
and Peter Moore removed the top. Assisted in the later stages
by Pete Crisp and Howard Beer, and rewired by George Johnson
and David Noakes. The boat was then rebuilt as shown below.
In view of the sad passing this
year of their founder and figurehead Ronan, the craft was
appropriately named Ronan O'Rahilly.
She has now been launched.
New Caroline Community Radio
Caroline Community Radio is on 94.7
FM with a power of 200W, and the presenters include Ray
Clark, Peter Phillips, Johnny Lewis and Graham Bannerman
among others. Radio Caroline owns all the broadcast and
other equipment previously owned by Saint FM. This was such
an extensive inventory that Pete Crisp and Peter Moore were
able to build the studio with plenty of items left over.
Caroline Community Radio serves
Maldon and the surrounding towns and villages with a daily
mix of music and community programming. Music programmes
presented by experienced national and local radio broadcasters
who also broadcast on Radio Caroline
Since this is not a 100% Caroline
project it seemed unreasonable that Radio Caroline should
fund all costs. The start-up costs were covered personally
by Ray Clark, Peter Phillips, Peter Moore and a range of
local firms and individuals. Surplus equipment will be used
on the Ross and elsewhere or sold to recoup Caroline's expenditure.
The station self funds from grants
and commercial advertising. Radio Caroline's advertisers
are carried at no charge on the station.
Ofcom sets out licensing plans for
small-scale DAB
Local radio listeners will soon
be able to tune into new stations following measures announced
by Ofcom
Ofcom is setting out how we will
license ‘small-scale DAB’, an innovative technology which
will provide a low-cost route for local commercial, community
and specialist music stations to take to the digital airwaves.
Small-scale DAB will expand local
digital radio coverage and ensure that listeners will be
able to tune into a diverse range of radio services across
the UK, on the Digital Audio Broadcasting platform which
now accounts for 40% of the UK’s radio listening.
They will advertise license's for
small-scale DAB in batches, starting with 25 local areas
across the UK, including five where trials are already underway.
The second round will be for north west England and northeast
Wales.
The
first round of applications for DAB plus stations is now
out and Caroline is on the applications for Winchester,
Salisbury and Basingstoke.
Caroline Archive Hour
Message from Radio Caroline
Flashback
Ray
Robinson started making and collecting recordings of the
offshore stations in 1970. That was when he was first able
to buy a tape recorder with money saved from a summer holiday
job while in high school. Since then, he has amassed an
archive of many thousands of hours of broadcasts from all
the offshore stations, and of course, Radio Caroline in
particular.
A number of these recordings, often
from momentous occasions, have been very skillfully edited
by Alan Sheead to restore their music quality to modern
day standards, while retaining all the original presenter
links, jingles, commercials and promos.
Through these ‘Caroline Archive
Hour’ shows, we will be bringing you the best of these restored
recordings, focusing mainly on those from the 1960’s and
1970’s. More recent recordings will also be played from
time to time, when their content includes music from these
two decades, in line with the format of this channel. By
listening to shows as they were originally presented all
those years ago, you will not only hear tracks that never
made the charts (and which you may well remember!), but
you will also be able to re-connect with former Caroline
DJ’s who became ‘friends’.
Enjoy exploring the archive with
us, every Saturday and Sunday evening at 8pm UK time.
....to
register and shop with over 2000 well known
retailers like Amazon, Argos, M&S, eBay
and many more. Whenever I buy something, the
retailer makes a donation to Radio Caroline.
No extra cost to you. It really does work.
£12,570.79
raised so far (28-05-2021)
Woodley Net presents the Anorak
Jukebox..
You can listen to all your favourite
anorak songs and jingles on Woodley Nets Anorak Jukebox.
Songs include Caroline - The Fortunes,
Man of Action, Because They're Young (Johnnie Walker theme),
Peace - Peter. Also Caroline and Mi-Amigo jingles. Just
added is a recording of the Caroline DJ's Xmas song from
1944 featuring Tony Allan.
Also features the 1972 Radio Luxemburg
broadcast of an Elvis Presley special. It was called "The
Elvis Presley Gramarathon". It was presented by Tony
Prince and Mark Wesley and includes a rare interview with
Elvis and also quite a few words with a young Todd Slaughter.
Radio
Caroline can be heard on DAB+ throughout the London area.
This is great for suitably equipped London car users who
cannot hear the 648AM signal with clarity and don't want
to mess with mobile device/bluetooth solutions. If you are
located within the M25, the nearer to central London the
better, simply give your DAB+ radio a full scan and then
you should find it. If you're technically minded the frequency
is 'Block 9A - centre Frequency 202.928MHz'.
Caroline is also broadcasting to
the following areas on DAB/
Brighton and Hove on DAB+.
The area is home to 275,000 people, not counting the outskirts
where the signal may also carry.
Aldershot. Previously the
Aldershot area was covered by a transmitter in Woking but
reception was patchy so another transmitter has been opened
in Aldershot in addition to the transmitter in Woking
which is still on air. Reception reports have been received
from Fleet and Farnborough and further down the M3
Birmingham area. Try doing
a search on your DAB Radio and save it on one of the buttons.
Please let me know the results of your search on the
contact button below .
Glasgow, fourth largest City
in the UK with 1.2 million residents and home to over 40%
of the Scottish population.
Portsmouth area in DAB +.
Some radios that do not support DAB+ will be unable to find
this new service. According to Solent Radio who are operating
this new service the DAB digital radio transmitter was relocated
to Fort Widley on Portsdown Hill and Ofcom have also kindly
allowed a change to the transmission antenna which will
result in an effective doubling of power. This means that
coverage should be improved in the Southsea, Gosport, Hayling
Island and Waterlooville areas.
Caroline
and Caroline Flashback are both available on Norwich
DAB+.
Caroline and Caroline Flashback are both available onCambridge
DAB+.
Listen to Radio Caroline
on Google Home Mini Device
Caroline
are on Google Home and Mini devices, via tune-in.
To listen simply say: "OK Google, play Radio
Caroline" or "OK Google, play
Radio Caroline Flashback" or even "OK
Google, play Manx Radio" for Manx Radio weekends
A powerful little helper.
Google Home Mini keeps you informed and up to date
with instant news, weather and commute updates without
lifting a finger. Master the kitchen: Google Home
Mini helps with timers, step-by-step recipes, and
conversions and substitutes. By using your
voice, ask for things like translations, calculations,
nutrition information and unit conversions, or other
information.
All the Mini needs is a
mains supply and a Wi-Fi connection. It is
a brilliant Internet Radio, just start by saying, "Ok
Google, Play (name of station)" No setting
up presets. Just say what you want and its there.
Control volume with your voice also. This also works
with Alexa devices
How
to build a AM Frame / Loop Aerial
The
picture shows a design for an aerial that
was very popular in Radio Caroline's
AM days when they were broadcasting from
the North Sea and it pulled in a good signal
over a wide area. Might be useful once more
now Radio Caroline are on 648KHz AM
How to build a Frame / Loop Aerial
This aerial replaces the long wire and is
very compact and and can conveniently sit
next to the radio and as long as the radio
has its own built in ferrite rod aerial,
no connections to the set are needed. It
is directional and after tuning in the aerial,
it can moved in different directions to
cancel out interference.
Materials needed
6 ft of 1 and a quarter inch timber 100
ft of single plastic coated wire 1 x 400pf
variable tuning capacitor 8 large rubber
door stops screws, wire clips and solder
Assembly
Cut timber into two lengths of 25 inches
and four lengths of 5 inches and assemble
the frame as per the drawing. Where the
wire goes round the corners cut 16 evenly
spaced grooves (17 on the corner where the
wire starts and finishes) the wire must
start and finish on the same corner.
Tack the start of the wire onto the frame
and start winding it on, keeping each turn
nice and tight. When you have 16 turns of
wire on the frame bring the wire back down
the same leg you started on and make secure
with tacks.
Solder the two ends of wire onto the two
terminals of the tuning capacitor, it does
not matter which one goes where just as
long as they are well soldered.
The capacitor should be fixed with araldite
or similar in the corner.
Fix the rubber feet as on the diagram.
The aerial is now ready for use. Try different
positions for the frame as all sets have
their ferrite rods aerials in different
places.
Good luck with this, we would appreciate
any comments on the construction.
IIn 1942 Radio Luxemburg broadcast
an Elvis Presley special. It was called "The Elvis
Presley Gramarathon". It was presented by Tony Prince
and Mark Wesley and includes a rare interview with Elvis
and also quite a few words with a young Todd Slaughter.
I put my Akai reel to reel tape on at the time and left
it recording the show and went down the pub for an hour.
Luckily Luxemburg reception was pretty good that night and
I got a fairly good recording. Its been on Podomatic for
quite a few years now, so I thought I'd give it a bit of
a plug. Here's the
Podomatic Link Or listen on the Woodley Net,
Anorak Jukebox
Surrey Anoraks
Society
JJust to
let you know that the Surrey Anorak's Society (formerly
the Caroline Movement East Surrey Branch) still
meets on the first Tuesday of every month. The sasradiogroup are
now back at the Home Cottage, Redhill, Surrey
.
Venue on Google
Ken James
ran this branch from 84-90. They meet at the Home
Cottage pub near Redhill railway station. Regular
attendees included Graham Foy, Geoff Rogers, Ray
Adams, Sue Buckle, Richard Buckle (Jackson), Gabe
(Steve) Conway, Benny James and Dennis Jason. Happy
days! Any queries, get in touch with Ken. email:-
khtj62@gmail.com
The meetings
have been held every month since January 1985. A
chance to have a drink, meet old friends or new
and talk about radio. Meet old land based pirate
DJs, and a few of the crew of Susy Radio - Reigate
and Redhill community radio).
They produce
their own newsletter SAS Interference (formerly
the SAS Home Pages.
The SAS
now has its own website
sasradiogroup.org Info from
Graham Foy and Ken James
ioLight
pocket professional digital microscopes
Portable microscope
1mm field of view
- 1 micron resolution
images shared to your phone
- High magnification, views
animal and plant cells clearly
- Highly portable: Used in
The Amazon, The Antarctic, Kazakhstan and on
Mount Everest
Portable microscope with XY
stage,
- 1mm field of view
1mm field of view microscope as above with XY
stage
- Suitable for
methodically scanning slides
- Ideal for counting
cells and other small objects
- Robust and easy to
clean
Portable microscope 2mm field
of view
- Designed for
counting applications, compatible with most
counting chambers
- Perfect for vets
and parasitologists counting worm eggs in the
field
- Wider field of
view and longer working distance
- Also works well
with opaque samples
Portable microscope with XY
stage,
- 2mm field of view
2mm field of view microscope as above with XY
stage
- Suitable for
methodically scanning counting chambers and
slides
One of Caroline’s
faithful listeners, Ron Hubbert commonly
called Narrowowboat Ron, is the proud owner
of a narrowboat called "Caroline"
complete with bell.
Tommy Gerrard
also has his own boat on a canal in Cheshire.
Tommy is seen doing a bit of "rust
bashing" on his boat which has the
same name as Caroline's old ship Mi Amigo.
But it looks like there is a bit of piratical
activity going on as he finds another canal
boat with the same name as our famous station
and it also has its own mast proudly reaching
for the sky. He is now looking forward to
meeting the owner of this other vessel.
Message from Tony Lake (doughnut)
Hi
There, Some of your
group maybe aware of the Tug Boat Challenge
that is now in Southampton? There is a big link
to offshore Radio of the 1960s, in that she
helped to tow all of the Sea Forts into place
in WW2. She is the Tug in the picture of the
Twin Legged Mansell Fort, I have been part of
a team who have spent their
Saturdays in Shoreham helping to put
it back to sea. She
is now next to the Shieldhall in Southampton
Docks. Back in 1990 I was lucky or unlucky
to spend 5 weeks on the Ross Revenge on the
North Sea. and then worked on her in Dover and
then Blackwater,
Regards Tony Lake
(doughnut)
Click thumbnail for larger photo
from the Sunday
Times By Jonathan Leake and Jack Grimston
15 August 2010
From pirates to poltergeists. A ghost
called Harry has apparently been haunting
a ship that once housed Radio Caroline
at sea and still does in more recent
years in the River Blackwater. The spirit
is said to have been seen flitting upstairs
and has been blamed for pranks such
as tapping crew members on the shoulder
and stealing their tea.
The
antics have been reported by enthusiasts
restoring the MV Ross Revenge, from
where Radio Caroline made its final
offshore broadcast in 1990. The ghost
stories have been logged by Kimberley
Peters, a researcher at Royal Holloway,
London University, who will present
her findings next month to the Royal
Geographical Society.
One crew member told Peters: "I've
had several encounters with Harry. My
first one goes back to 2004. Having
finished work, we were sitting in the
studio having a beer when we heard footsteps.
"I looked
up just in time to see someone coming
round the landing and going round the
next set of stairs to the bridge. When
we went to investigate, no one was there
and downstairs the doors were still
bolted."
Peters believes the hauntings could
be a psychological reaction driven by
the nostalgia of the restorers for the
ship's history. "I cannot say
whether such ghostly experiences were
real, but they were real enough for
the crew members who experienced them,"
said Peters. "Underlying it is
a very real sense of seeing apparitions,
conveying something else, like lost
heritage."
There
is now a new voice on Radio Caroline's album channel Top of the Hour ID and presenter IDs? 
Alex
Sweeney originally came from Dundee, but his
home for the last 20 Years is Bournemouth. He was a
successful club DJ from the mid 70s to mid 80s. He then
moved into commercial radio, hosting breakfast, drive
and a specialist soul show on Radio Tay for a number of
years. 
40
years ago, Radio Caroline broadcast from the Mi Amigo
for the last time when a storm sank the pirate radio
vessel. 
Listen
Here
The
first round of applications for DAB plus stations is now
out and Caroline is on the applications for Winchester,
Salisbury and Basingstoke. 
Ray
Robinson started making and collecting recordings of the
offshore stations in 1970. That was when he was first able
to buy a tape recorder with money saved from a summer holiday
job while in high school. Since then, he has amassed an
archive of many thousands of hours of broadcasts from all
the offshore stations, and of course, Radio Caroline in
particular. 
Radio
Caroline can be heard on DAB+ throughout the London area.
This is great for suitably equipped London car users who
cannot hear the 648AM signal with clarity and don't want
to mess with mobile device/bluetooth solutions. If you are
located within the M25, the nearer to central London the
better, simply give your DAB+ radio a full scan and then
you should find it. If you're technically minded the frequency
is 'Block 9A - centre Frequency 202.928MHz'. 
Caroline
are on Google Home and Mini devices, via tune-in.
To listen simply say: "OK Google, play Radio
Caroline" or "OK Google, play
Radio Caroline Flashback" or even "OK
Google, play Manx Radio" for Manx Radio weekends
The
picture shows a design for an aerial that
was very popular in Radio Caroline's
AM days when they were broadcasting from
the North Sea and it pulled in a good signal
over a wide area. Might be useful once more
now Radio Caroline are on 648KHz AM
The
antics have been reported by enthusiasts
restoring the MV Ross Revenge, from
where Radio Caroline made its final
offshore broadcast in 1990. The ghost
stories have been logged by Kimberley
Peters, a researcher at Royal Holloway,
London University, who will present
her findings next month to the Royal
Geographical Society. 