Vintage Transmitters
When Skyport Radio started in 1971 the main source of radio components and transmitters was war time 1940's government surplus equipment. This was on sale in various shops around the Soho area in Lisle Street and Old Compton Street, we however bought our first transmitters at Southern Surplus in London Road, Kingston, Surrey.
The No. 38 set was bought in as new condition for £5, in order to comply with the law the shop keeper had cut the wire to the transmit relay and covered it with a rubber sleeve, it took us a while to find that one. The second transmitter was a No.19 set bought some months after when it was realised that the No.38 had a range of about 1km!
Here are some other suppliers adverts for ex-government radio equipment from around 1970-72, click on any image on this page for a readable version.
Details of these old rigs can now be found on the Skyport Radio page
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"Pirate" Radio in the 1930's
In 1928 Hilversum started to broadcast Sunday concerts which were to last until 1930, this being only the start of what was to be a “pirate” era in some respects. Radio Toulouse commenced broadcasts in English in 1929 and these continued until 1931. In October 1931 IBC, the International Broadcasting Company started transmissions over Radio Normandie which had a 10kW transmitter located at Fecamp on the French coast. These broadcasts were received over all of Southern England. Later power was raised to 20kW and on a wavelength of 269.5m commercial programmes were aimed at a receptive audience.
Typical programme hours were Sundays: 7.00am to 11.45am 1.30pm to 7.30pm and 10.00pm to 1.00am. Weekdays: 7.00am to 11.30am 2.00pm to 6.00pm and Midnight to 1.00am. In March 1938 the wavelength changed to 212.6m and later to 274m. Programmes were mainly recorded onto discs in London and featured fifteen minute sponsored slots. Live programmes also went out.
In May 1932 Radio Luxembourg started tests on 1250m and complaints were received of interference with aircraft radio transmissions. In the Spring of 1933 programmes commenced on Sundays only to start with. In January 1934 a change was made to 1304m and later 1293m. By the end of the decade programmes were going out from 8.15am to Midnight Sundays, and for about eight hours, spread over the day, on weekdays. There were other stations, Poste Parisian an IBC station broadcasting on 312.8m with 60kW mainly on Sundays. Radio Lyons, 215m with 25kW on Sundays from 6.00pm to Midnight and for two hours on weekday evenings. Radio Toulouse, 328.6m, Radio Mediterrane, 235m broadcast from France. In addition other countries tried similar projects, Radio Ljubljana 569.5m, EAQ Madrid on 31.65m, to the Empire, Radio Eireann on 531m were among them.
In the mid 1930's only on rare occasions did more than 35% of the population listen to the BBC compared with a Luxembourg audience of 45.7%.
Many of the smaller stations were forced to close through lack of advertising but by 1939 the major stations had some 300 firms on their books. With the outbreak of war the stations closed, except for Radio International which had taken over the 212m transmitter at Fecamp which stayed on the air until 1940 entertaining the British troops for thirteen hours per day. The war over, only Radio Luxembourg recommenced English broadcasts.
Many comparisons can be made with the 1960's but one thing is sure,
it wasn't the BBC that provided the majority with their radio entertainment.
Gerry Bishop from his book "Offshore Radio" 1975,
ISBN 0 904603 00 8 (please reprint if Iceni read this)
RNI original sticker from 1970-71
Some photos from 1974-76, they really belong in the respective albums but it will take a while to re-code so they are here for now;
Swinging Radio England 254 Studio 1974
Radio England 15W 807 transmitter, note the built-in inverter heatsink at the back, this solid state power supply avoided the noisy rotary transformers used previously
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Office photographers leave Kingston Crown Court 1976
Mark King and Allen Reeve Leave Kingston
Crown Court 1976
Skyport Radio Monitoring Station 1976
Scheveningen Harbour September 1975
The Norderney Moored Behind Amsterdam
Centraal Station in September 1975
Nothing to do with radio, some USSR nostalgia added
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