I have some comments on the thread “Aerial Mebo II RNI” on the (literally) dark side.

Ray Dio was correct in the antenna length at 44 metres. The lattice mast was 42 metres topped by a 2 metre pole and a capacity hat.

Paul Rusling was correct in that the antenna was shunt fed (as was that of Radio London, as he said).

Ruud was correct in that the antenna was designed for 1610kHz. It didn’t have a capacity hat for that frequency.

But I have never heard of Ruud’s information from Nico Steenbergen that half power was used when there was too much salt spray or salty water in storms, and I am not sure reducing from 35 to 17 kilowatts would make that much difference.

RNI went off the air during the 2-3 April 1973 storm-surge due to water forced down from the forward deck hatch on to the switch-board in the lobby, two floors down, between the two studios.

Then the captain ordered everyone to the bridge, and to put on lifejackets, while we listened to the marine radio carrying the Veronica rescue and tried to see the Mi Amigo, which, worryingly, had appeared to have gone dark (it only suffered a broken window and some flooding).

My article on this is in Offshore Echoes number 47, April 1983. Members of the International Service on board were Brian McKenzie, Graham Gill, Mike Ross and myself.