Radio Caroline 1990 op haar laatste zeebenen

[Gast]

 

 

Radio Caroline op haar laatste zeebenen, immers nadat op 19-8-1989 de Nederlandse overheid een einde maakten van de uitzendingen van de NL talige Radio 819 kwam er tegelijkertijd een einde aan een unieke combinatie die zijn oorspron g had op 15 juli 1973 toen voor het eerste Radio Atlantis Vlaams/NL talige uitzendingen begon vanaf de Mi Amigo. Deze combi wer ook de redding van Caroline dat na augustus 1967 haar eigen “broek niet omhoog kon houden”.

Zonder Atlantis-Mi Amigo-Monique-558/819 geen Caroline maar zonder Caroline zeker weten ook geen NL talige uitzendingen meer vanaf een radiozendschip in internationale wateren na 31-8-1974, ze waren afhankelijk van elkaar.< Immers de pogingen van Delmare,MiAmigo1979en Paradijs faalden>.

 

Toen in november 1987 de 84 meter hoge zendmast aanboord van de Ross revenge overboord ging betekende dat feitelijk al het begin van het einde, met kunst en vliegwerk lukte het om met bescheiden vermogen in 1988 Radio558/819 gericht op Nederland/Belgie in de lucht te krijgen, totdat op 19-8-1989 de NL overheid zo ongeveer de gehele radioinboedel van de Ross op volle zee in beslag nam.

 

Met veel, heel veel doorzettingsvermogen slaagde men er in 1 van de zenders aan de praat te krijgen tot 5 november 1990 echter zonder inkomsten van onderhuurder s was ook Caroline bezig aan haar laatste jaar als ware zeezender.

 

In oktober 1989 kreeg Peter Chicago de 558 weer in de lucht en bij gebrek aan deejays aanboord presenteerde hij op geheel eigenwijze ook op 558. Luister goed en hoor hoe hij dmv bepaalde opmerkingen aan Caroline insiders van de organisatie duidelijk maakte dat het 1 en ander niet goed verliep.

 

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1 jaar na de inbeslagname van 19-8-89 werd op Caroline teruggekeken op die zaterdag, een programma van 90 minuten waarna de zender op 558 weer uitging ivm de zeer geringe hoeveelheid dieselaanboord voor de generatoren, het geld was op. Waar vroeger diesel in vele duizenden liters via de tender aanboord kwam bleek dat in 1990 de diesel per enkele honderden liters kwam en slechts enkele uren perdag de zender aangezet kon worden.

 

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Circa 3 weken voor op 5-11-1990 het laatste programma voor Caroline vanaf de Ross in internationale wateren hier een uur met Nigel Harris die vanaf 1976 met het station verbonden was en hedentendage nog steeds.

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Op 5 november 1990 klonk tussen 23 en 24 uur het laatste uur van Caroline gepresenteerd door Neil Gates. Lang bleef onopgehelderd waarom het op die dag zo abrupt eindigde, jaren later legde ik op een Engels forum de vragen hieromtrent voor aan Neil Gates, hieronder een kopie van de “briefwisseling” die duidelijkheid geeft.

Het leest mischien enigszins warrig daar het om vraag en antwoord gaat in de tekst, maar het 1 en ander wordt wel duidelijk wat er precies is gebeurd en waarom men niet meer kon zenden na 5 novermber 1990.

 

 

Paul de Haan 4-11-11:
Its 21 years ago today Caroline made its final broadcast as a true offshore marine broadcaster from international waters of the North Sea. The final hour was from Neil Gates who made mention of the fact Caroline would be back early morning 6 am. We all know there was not going to be a brand new day for Caroline the following morning. What happened that night? Who decided suddenly that the station wouldn't return the following day. Not enough diesel? If so they knew that was the case and could have mentioned their close down not to reappear again. This is my scenario: onboard Ross Revenge they knew they would stay of air and not be back as a true offshore station. But in a true Caroline tradition you will not close the station down, that has never happened before. Caroline was always forced to close down. Is my scenario correct? Who can tell?

Reactie Multimax 4-11-11:
The diesel did indeed run out I'm afraid. There was enough to keep the ship lit for a few nights but not enough to go on air for more than a short while. The transmitter was damaged a few days later as it was switched back on without a proper warm up cycle, so it stayed off air. There was several tons of diesel waiting to be delivered to the ship on a tender on the Medway which was never sent out while the ship remained at sea.

Paul de Haan 4-11-11:
So, thats new to me, they tried to start the transmitter to go on air again without the proper warming up proces after Nov 5 1990. Why did they start up without proper warming up? Who did it? They knew the procedure to start the transmitter in the proper way. Questions and more questions. Was everyone onboard on the same level at that time on the subjest of closing down or to continue? You will not find answers to these questions in the Harris or Conway book. Conway was not onboard in Nov 1990.

Reactie Multimax 4-11-11:
Sorry Paul, just noticed your question about the transmitter. There was a shore side event, I think the following weekend and a crew member decided it would be nice to be on air at the time albeit briefly. Following the raid, various safety interlocks were bypassed in order to make the transmitter work so it was possible to switch on plate voltage without a warm up.

Reactie Tom Clarke 4-11-11:
The transmitter fault is a new one on me. So far as I know, Chicago had set it so all you had to do was throw a single switch, which switched it all on, warm up cycle and all, as if he or Bradgate wasn't there, one of the djs could switch it on.

Reactie Multimax 4-11-11:
I can add that the people on the ship had no intention of quietly disappearing. They were determined to go back on the air one way or another.

Reactie Neil Gates 4-11-11:
Yes the account of events in Multimax's posts in this thread are 100 per cent acurate. You may wish to listen to Cruisin'531 from 7.30 this evening!

Reactie Neil Gates 6-11-11:
When I closed the station down at 1am on 5th Novemeber I fully expected Rico to re-open at 6am.
After comming off air that night I left the carrier on and went to join Alex Rodgers in the messroom where he was watching horror videos and after about an hour I went to bed leaving Alex to continue watching his video. When I got up out of bed at about 10am I was suprised to find the station off air, the carrier still on, and Rico in bed. I went and asked Rico why we were off the air and he told me that when he went to pump diesel from the main tanks into the day tank in the engine room no diesel flowed, there was none left apart from the small amount in the day tank. After making this discovery and realising that we would be out of fuel very soon he thought to hell with it and went back to bed.
Offshore Echoes are mistaken about the transmitter being switched on for 2.5 hours the carrier was on all the time. I switched it off at sometime just after 10am after my conversation with Rico. I then turned off the generator to conserve the small amount of fuel left on board for the comming hours of darkness and sat and waited for the phone call from land asking why we were off the air. It did not come and infact we were still waiting for contact from land when we decided to go back on the air for a short time on the Friday evening at the time the Thanet branch of the Caroline movement were due to hold a firework event in Broadstairs. We were becoming quite desperate by this stage as we only had enough fuel to keep the ship lit for one more night. We were going to use the broadcast to ask those onland directly why we had heared absolutly nothing from them in the days since we ceased broadcasting and what they were going to do about the situation as we didn't have so much as a working torch. Rico turned the tx on to warm up. Unfortunatly when he flicked the plate supply switch off it went with a ban.

 

 

Paul de Haan

 

 

31 mei 2015 bewerkt door Gast
opmaak

[Drumbeat]

Sad listening to the November 1990 recordings, but what a great station Caroline was. The best. (And I know you agree, Bella!)

1 juni 2015 bewerkt door Drumbeat

[bellatrix]

Indeed ! A great FREE station.