At the back of the Venmore-Rowland book the 'Post Office' section confirms that no country complained about interference from Caroline North. They claim that severe interference was caused by Caroline South to Szolnok (The level described seems a bit exaggerated to me).
I reckon London should have nabbed 1187 kHz. 255 sounds as good as 266!
I also think 1187 would have been better for Caroline earlier. With the transmitters combined they could have equalled London's original power of 17kw.
In the Summer of 1964 they could have bought some PAMS jingles, adopted a Top 40 format and had the following schedule:
6.00 Tony Blackburn
9.00 Tony Withers
12.00 Neil Spence
3.00 Keith Skues
With the equipment and personnel they already had, they could have been Big L 6 months earlier! 
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Just read Dave Hawkins full interview in Offshore Echo's, was quoting from Chris Elliot's Wonderful Radio London Story book. He joined Radio London in February 1965. So "in the early days" refers to Caroline South on 1495. Also says in response to a question on when they were on 1115 at the same time as 270 that he doesn't remember that. Interview is from 2002, Offshore Echo's 129.
The frequencies for Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline were chosen by former BBC Chief Engineer (Transmitters) and later BBC Head of Planning and Installation A.N Thomas. He retired in 1959/60 and then became a consultant for Veronica/CNBC, The Voice of Slough and GBOK. A friend of his at BBC Tatsfield had recommended frequencies for both ships, plan was for Atlanta to anchor off Felixstowe and Caroline off the Isle of Man, which would have minimum interference at night nor cause much to other stations. 1495 had some low power stations in Southern France, Spain and Austria and a 100kw station in Estonia.
Problem at first was that when the Mi Amigo sailed to anchor off Felixstowe rather than the Isle of Man they opened on 1520, intended for the Northern anchorage, which was the adjacent channel to a 20kw Belgian station thus causing some interference. They also for some weeks were on 1519 thus a 1kHz heterodyne when a Czech station on 1520 could be received. Atlanta was on 1495, the better frequency. After the merger Caroline South was on 1495, Caroline North on 1520.
1133 was on channel as I've said, 1137.5 as well as the power decrease at night, was chosen to take reduce interference to Zagreb. During daytime no issues with interference or heterodynes on there nor on other offshore radio frequencies unless you were near the coast and got sea path reception from adjacent channels. Tune through medium wave at night back then and there was more than one station on many channels and some onshore broadcasters off channel causing heterodynes.
Don't think A.N. Thomas was with Caroline when they moved to 1187. I can't remember any problems with interference from Hungary at night, they also closed at 2215, Zagreb 1133 closed at 2305. May have been in other parts of the UK.
Atlanta/Caroline had better qualified "experts" than those Philip Birch relied on when he ordered Radio London's crystals.
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Also ambiguous is Hawkins saying Caroline had grabbed the better frequency "in the early days". I assume he is referring to 1187 which Caroline didn't use until 25-Apr-66. Previous Message
So why did Radio London always use off channel frequencies? Sounds like they were total idiots or something. Previous Message
Ambiguous last sentence. Dave Hawkins said Caroline had a better mast system. For those unlike me who understand antenna mast installation and it's effects: "We used a system where the mast was actually welded to the deck plate so electrically the mast was connected to the ground plane. On the Caroline ship the mast was actually mounted on a ceramic insulator and then fed so that was the better system." Previous Message
Just checked a 7 page pdf Svenn Martinsen did on Radio London's frequencies I helped him with:
Chris Elliot's Wonderful Radio London Story: "Philip Birch said he had taken expert advice and was reasonably satisfied that 1125 was a clear channel although he expressed concerns about a 10kw Belgian station on an adjacent channel....it might be worth having a couple of reserve wavelengths up our sleeves. I am therefore having two more checked." He said they'd need two more crystals but they weren't expensive. On 21st August 64 he ordered crystals for 1125, 1040 and 1020.
The Belgian station was located in Brussels and operating on its assigned frequency of 1124. There was 10kw station in Barcelona and a 20kw station in Leningrad on the same channel. 1040 and 1020 were not European assigned channels, 1043 had a 240kw East German station on it, 1016 a 300kw West German station.
Benelux DX Club has logs of them on 1125, 1127 and 1129 from December 14th 64 to May 4th 65. All would result in heterodynes when the Belgian station or others were able to be received at a listeners location.
First report of them on 1133 is June 6th 65. 5kw Spanish station on the same frequency plus Zagreb 135kw and 4 other Yugoslavian stations, 50kw, 20kw and two 2kw. Frequency was allocated to Yugoslavia in the 1948 frequency agreement. They complained to the European Broadcasting Union and the UK Foreign Office about interference to them from Big L. I found in North Yorkshire, as it's dark earlier in Yugoslavia thus giving skywave from the reflection point, I was getting interference from them from late afternoon in the late autumn and winter.
Radio 270 first logged on 1115 June 9th 66, Radio London June 6th though both might have been on there a few days earlier. Radio 270 increased power from 2.5kw to 10kw June 15th. When on 1115 Radio London had a second harmonic on 2230 causing problems to marine traffic on/near that channel.
Radio London logged on 1137.5 June 20th, 1139 June 21st from then on split frequency 1137.5, some logs say 1137 hence the heterodyne. AFN Bremerhaven was on 1142. At some point they reduced power at night to reduce the interference in Yugoslavia. Stayed there until they closed down.
They did a test with the 10kw reserve transmitter on 1079 on December 5th. 150kw BBC Home Service transmitter on 1088
When Radio London was on 1115 my Dad told me that in a phone call they had told Radio 270 that they would "jam them off the air". His friend 270 director Tony Rylands would have told him that, would think Wilf Proudfoot was his source. Heated conversation between the two stations. Calmer heads prevailed. I did report that to the Benelux DX Club for their next monthly bulletin, don't think my Dad knew.
Radio London engineer Dave Hawkins in Chris Elliot's book: "We were always looking for a better frequency, we used to do that by using an Eddystone communications receiver at night when our own station was off the air but there simply wasn't one. Caroline in the early days had grabbed by far the better frequency." Goes on to say that they had a better more appropriate mast system. Previous Message
I always assumed they operated split channel, hence the heterodyne in the evening. Previous Message
Thereby condemning us to more years of the heterodyne!
Although that whistle did seem to appear whatever wavelength Big L tried, so maybe it was a fault with the transmitter rather than the frequency. Previous Message
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1476kHz - Al_Midlands 30/8/2024, 10:46:32
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