The Radio Northsea International
Tribute Pages
An in-depth look at the story of Europes most
popuar and controversial radio station.
The Radio Northsea International
Tribute Pages
The Conservatives defeated the Labour Government in the General election. Initially, on board the Mebo 2, spirits were high and a sense of victory brought about a party atmosphere among crew and djs alike. But feelings of elation were to be shortlived. In a recorded interview, Alan West said:
"When the jamming continued after the election...we thought - oh well, this is it, they'll switch it off now and we can carry on as if nothing had ever happened. Unfortunately, it didn't work out like that. Nothing ever seemed to be working out the way we wanted it, and the jamming carried on. I think we were even more angry then. We felt we had been used and duped, and that we'd probably blackened our names forever in the process. I think everyone became very dispondant then. And I think we were happy when Mebo decided to move the ship back to Holland " |
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The station resumed broadcasting under the RNI name. The 31 meter band transmitter was tested on 9.940mHz, but transmissions bled through to the medium wave signal. Once again, the cat-and-mouse tactics were being tried with the medium wave transmitter in a bid to dodge the jamming. A move to 1385 kHz was made, yet still the jamming followed. The station went back to 1230 kHz.
At this point the Rochester transmitter took over from that of the higher powered Canewdon site. Meanwhile, on short-wave the 49meter-band transmitter was brough into service on 6210 kHz in the afternoon of July 2nd, 1970. The next day another station could be heard along with the RNI signal. Purporting to be Rogaland Radio, a Norwegian maritime station. An annoucement could be heard stating that they were broadcasting an S.S.B. upper side-band signal on 6210.4 kHz, and the intention was to clear the frequency of unauthorised out-band broadcasting, thereby improving reception conditions for ships wishing to communicate with coastal stations on the frequency.
Curiously, the International Telecommunicatons Union (I.T.U.) lists Rogaland Radio as being allocated 516 kHz, and 1729 kHz. Meanwhile on the 14th July 1970, the British Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications announced that the jamming was to continue. At 10:55pm on 23rd July RNI ceased transmissions.
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A crane ship assisted the Mebo 2 raise her anchors, and the ship set off back to the Dutch coast. Broadcasting resumed at 07:00am. The jamming station remained silent, and RNI's signal albeit a little weaker, could be heard clearly once more. The FM transmitter had been re-tuned to 102 mHz, but all other frequencies remained as before. There were yet more problems, with stations' medium wave transmitter interfering with Hilversum 3, and so at 1:45pm, on 30th July the station was off the air once again. Transmissions resumed on 3rd August 1970, on short-wave at 6.205 mHz and 9.940 mHz, and on the medium wave-band at 1385 kHz. The following day, the FM service returned on 96 mHz. All transmissions were, at that time, in English. |
On 17th August, a severe storm blew up during the night putting the medium wave transmitter off the air for almost a week. When transmissions resumed, the FM service had been changed back to 100 mHz. Interference was heard on 1385 kHz, and on 24th August, when RNI closed down for the night, the medium wave frequency was changed yet again. The station was back on the air by 08:00am the following morning on what was to be her final change of frequency - 1367 kHz, 220 meters. At last, RNI had found a clear channel for her medium wave signal. Breathing a sigh of releif, those on board the Mebo 2 began to look forward to getting back what they did best, and a more settled way of life.
But stormy weather lay ahead, for Radio Northsea International . . . . |
