General – Page 58 – Engineering Radio

Radio Ships

Radio London air studio aboard the MV Galaxy

These were broadcast platforms that were usually anchored in international waters broadcasting popular music to several European Countries including Great Britain, Holland, France, and Spain in the late 1960s through late 1980s. The reason for these peculiar operations was strict government control of all broadcast outlets and programming in those particular countries. The BBC was known to be stodgy and repressive of new music, particularly rock music from bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, and others.

At the time, there was no specific law preventing ships anchored in international waters from broadcasting to shore-based listeners, a loophole in the government control was found and exploited. That loophole has been closed in most places, so as they say, don’t try this at home.

At one time there were several ships out there in the English Channel and coastal Denmark. The first and best-known of these was Radio London or “The Big L.” It broadcast on 1133 KHz from December 16, 1964, to August 14, 1967, using a 50,000-watt RCA ampliphase transmitter. The ship itself was the M/V (motor vessel) Gallaxy, a converted WWII minesweeper formerly known as the USS Density. After Radio London went off the air, the ship was transferred from port to port until it ended up in Kiel, Germany, where it was finally scrapped in the late 1990s.

Radio Caroline was the main offshore competitor, broadcasting on 1520 KHz and several other frequencies off and on from 1964 until 1990 or so using several different vessels to transmit from.

One incident in offshore broadcasting that has always fascinated me was the burning of the Mebo II, then transmitting Radio Northsea International off the coast of Holland (this ship moved around quite a bit) in 1971. Later investigations revealed that the staff of an offshore competitor, Radio Veronica, was responsible for the firing of the ship. Apparently, in those days the competition was brutal.

I like the nice calm music with the increasingly frantic DJ (West, no East). In any case, the ship remained afloat and returned to the air the next day. The final European offshore broadcaster was something called Laser 558 on M/V Communicator. It broadcast using to CSI 25 KW AM transmitters on 558 KHz in 1983, again, off and on for several years until 2004. The CSI-grounded grid transmitters may have been inexpensive to purchase, but I’ll bet they cost a lot to run. This would be especially true if one were using diesel generators as the main electrical power provider. As a result, they were usually run at about 1/2 power. Eventually, M/V Communicator ended up beached in the Orkney Islands off of Scotland.

The only such attempt in the US was Alan Wiener’s MV Sarah, known as “Radio Newyork International” anchored off of Jones Beach on 1620 KHz. The owners figured 4 miles offshore was far enough to be in international waters, but the FCC felt otherwise, I believe at the time, 12 miles was (and still is) the territorial limit for the US. Four miles was not international waters, as the broadcasters claimed. These guys were arrested and sent to trial. After several years all charges were dropped.

Anyway, an interesting bit of radio history. Goes to show the lengths that some will go to when feeling repressed.

Computer file manipulator

It just doesn’t have the same ring as Disk Jockey or DJ. However, that would be an apt description of the person who plays the hits on most radio stations these days.

It is mostly just drag and drop the next element into the play deck if anything needs to be done at all.

I remember when DJs actually jockeyed disks, it was a sight to behold. Back in the day when everything was on vinyl except the commercials, which were on the cart, the DJ had his or her hands full. Most of the songs were in the 2:30 to 3-minute range, so while the song was playing, the next song had to be cued up on the platter, the old song needed to be put back into its sleeve and shelved (most of the time), check the log to see what was on deck, pull the next commercial stop set, answer the phone and god forbid if the Program Director called on the hotline and it rang more than 3 times. And hopefully, the head wasn’t too far away, that coffee went somewhere, after all. While all that is going on, timing, audience interaction, hitting the post, and sounding fun. In spite of what Howard Stern says, it was not easy.

Today, of course, if there is even a person in the studio, they may glance up at the computer screen every now and then to see when the next time they need to talk. Otherwise, they would be engaged in talking on the phone with their girlfriend, texting, surfing the internet, or watching a baseball game on TV.

Copper theft and how to avoid it

One of the unfortunate signs of the times is the increased theft of valuable materials. Copper, while not as expensive as it once was, still fetches a fair amount at the scrap dealer. One local telephone company has been having a difficult time keeping its aerial cables intact in certain areas. For radio stations, the situation is compounded by remote transmitter sites with lots of copper transmission lines and buried ground radials around AM towers. Reduced staffing levels also mean that the weekly trip to the transmitter site is now every two weeks or perhaps once a month or even less.

Sites that are not visited or monitored very often are prime targets for copper theft. Forget asking the local constabulary to patrol more often, the few times I tried that I was met with a blank stare.

A few common sense type things that I have learned over the years may keep your site intact:

Keep up appearances. A neglected transmitter site is more likely to attract the wrong type of attention from the wrong type of people. Clean up any rubbish, dead equipment, keep the weeds and trees cut down, etc. If a site looks well tended and is often visited, a thief may think twice about lifting valuable metals.
Along with #1, keep things buttoned up. Secure all transmission lines to ice bridges, remove any deadlines, etc. If there are ground radials poking out bury them, same with ground screens, copper straps, etc. Out of sight, out of mind, leaving this stuff exposed is asking for somebody to come along and give a tug.
Fences and locks. Towers are required to be fenced and locked to prevent electric shock hazards. It is also a good idea to fence the building, generator, and fuel tank if possible.
Post all sorts of warning signs, RF warning, high voltage, no trespassing, under video surveillance, pretty much anything to deter trespassing and vandalism.
Add video cameras with a video recording device since most theft occurs during non-working hours. Last year, the company I used to work for traded a video surveillance system for the studio location.
Compensate a neighbor to keep an eye on the place and call you if they see any suspicious activity. It doesn’t even have to be money, I once worked out a deal with a neighbor for some T-shirts and CDs. That was the best alarm system we ever had.

In the long run, keeping all the copper parts where they belong is a great way to avoid those annoying “the station is off the air” phone calls not to mention the expense of replacing damaged transmission and ground systems.

STEELYARD Over The Horizon Radar

This does not have much application for broadcast radio, other than the technical facilities are fascinating. I did once hear the slow speed version on 500 KHz distress and calling frequency, which is below the broadcast band. DUGA-3 Over The Horizon Radar (OTH) was a Soviet early warning radar system that operated on HF (between 3-30 MHz). When I was in military communications, stationed on Guam, we were often plagued with the “woodpecker” sound, oftentimes pegging the signal strength meter on whatever frequency we were using. On any typical day, at least once or twice we would have to change frequencies due to the “RAT TATATATATATATATATATATATATAT!” coming in over the top of what we were trying to do. Anyone who listened to shortwave radio or was a ham radio operator from the mid 70’s on through 1989 will be familiar with the sound.

The NATO classification for the system was STEELYARD. I don’t know if it is a coincidence or not, but the name fits the system design. There were three systems, one located near Chornobyl, inside the evacuation zone, which was abandoned intact. The second was near in Ukraine, outside of the Chornobyl exclusion zone, and the third was on the Russian Pacific coast, near the island of Sakhalin.

Basically, it operated in the HF frequency range, 3-30 MHz with a power of about 10 million watts (some sources up to 40 MW). The propagation conditions were continuously monitored with an ionospheric chirp sounder (the civilian version looks something like this). The best frequency for the target area was then chosen and used without regard to band plans or frequency planning. In fact, often the Soviet shortwave propaganda station Radio Moscow was also interfered with. The target areas were the missile launching and testing areas used by the US and Great Britain. The object resolution was about 15 km, which is not that good, but good enough to determine the origin and flight path of a potential missile.

Distant view STEELYARD OTHR array, Chernobyl, Ukraine

The remains of the DUGA-3 array near Chornobyl represent some real engineering feats. First off, the tall towers are 146 meters (479 feet tall), the short towers are 90 meters tall (295 feet) and the system is aligned in a row 750 meters (2,460 feet long). The taller towers are for lower frequencies because they have larger transmit antenna elements, thus the shorter towers are for higher frequencies.

Side view STEELYARD OTHR, Chernobyl, Ukraine

The array itself is quite an impressive close-up. The cage like devices are the radiating elements of the antenna. The elements are feed by open wire feed line from the bottom of the tower. Behind the radiating elements, you can see a series of wires, these acted as a reflector, directing the energy transmitted out the front of the array.

Considering the wind load, these are substantial towers. I would say the wind load on the face of the tower would be almost equivalent to flat plate. The towers are strongly back-braced.

The ionospheric chirp sounder receive antenna is also located at a site known as “The Circle.” An ionospheric chirp sounder sweeps the HF spectrum from one location and is received in a second location. This gives real-time radio propagation information. The Circle is about ten miles away from the STEELYARD array.

Ionospheric chirp sounder antenna, Ukraine

The other DUGA-3 radar stations were scraped after the system was turned off in 1989, this one was abandoned intact. Over the years looters have made off with most of the transmitter and receiver apparatus, wiring and associated scrap metal. Only the towers remain and empty buildings remain.

Pictures from Lost Places, more pictures and information there.