"Yes, we had in fact - or I had - laid my eyes on a second hand VHF transmitter. That came to nought I'm afraid. It was a bit late in the day and the shareholders would not allow us to spend money on that."
My comment: Red Sands would have been the best offshore location for a VHF/FM service, especially directing the signal westwards up the River Thames while including a good bit of Kent and Essex. However Northfleet would have been 30 miles, Greenwich 45 miles and Ealing 60 miles, so maybe not an all-London service. However, then, there were far less high-rise buildings to block/divert the signal path.
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There was no use of the FM transmitter when Caroline was on the Cheetah 2. Conditions on there were not good.
https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/odds31.htm
There were plans for the Cheetah 2 to anchor off the North Wales Coast and broadcast as Radio 390 North. They would then broadcast as Radio 390 South from Red Sands Fort with an FM service in parallel as a listener survey had found a demand for it. More here.
http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page263.html
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Scandinavia were using FM as their main broadcast platform way before the British isles so as you say, several offshore stations used it. There were very few FM stations in this part of the world back when RNI was on FM and there were none above 98 MHZ so RNI on 100 MHZ was a clear channel so DX reception was ideal. Allocating the top half of the band 2 FM band to Radio telephones and two way PMR and was a crazy move which held back the roll out of FM radio in the UK for many years until they could be cleared again.
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RNI on FM - Ian B 4/5/2023, 15:49:04
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