THE RADIO ATLANTIS STORY PART II

By Roland C. Pearson.

Before commencing the second episode of the Atlantis Story there are a number of corrections to make to the data we published in Part I. Firstly some additional information has come to hand about Atlantis' ace engineer, Andy Anderson - he tells us that he joined the radio-ship on December 7th last year, while she was in Cuxhaven, and that his first broadcast was actually on December 25^th. Delete all reference to Dave Jones (see page 16 "Monitor" No-5), there was obviously some confusion with Derek Jones! One Flemish Service DJ whose name was missed out of our last issue was that of Paul van Leeuwen, although he was only to host a few programmes during the month of January. The date of the first show from Frans van Brugge was February 18th, and not as previously stated. Also, some further details are now available on the test transmission that the station conducted on 201 metres. The exact frequency used was 1493 kHz, and testing started at around 13.45 GMT on the afternoon of February 3rd, with live programming from Steve England and Gerard van der Zee; but as this wavelength proved unsatisfactory they returned the following day to 270 metres.

Radio Atlantis Flemish Deejay Tony Houston (Photo Hans Knot)

From March 3rd the good sounds of 'Music Radio 74' were to be heard on the new wavelength of 227 metres (1331 kHz), and Programme Director, Steve England, had many changes and innovations in store for us during the coming week .One of the original team-members, Johnny Dwyer, did his final show between 03.00-06.0O GMT on March 6th, before taking his leave of the station. When the tender arrived on 1 March 14th it brought out Dave Rogers, the new D.J, and also a visiting Monitor reader, Eddie Austin. The following evening Eddie's voice was heard at 18.06 GMT announcing that the station was going off the air to permit engineering work to be carried out on the transmitter. It was not until March 17th that we heard a programme from Dave Rogers (21.00-23.00 BST), apparently he had been suffering from the effects of seasickness after his long stint on land. From 05.00-06.00 BST on March 18th Eddie Austin could be heard doing his first prograrrme, for the station.

Soon after his arrival on the M.V. "Jeanine" Dave Rogers was made News Editor, and he wasted no time in introducing a comprehensive news service. The service came into operation at 20.30 BST on the 18th, with newscasts being presented on the half hour until the final one of the day at 02.30 BST. An ominous development on March 20th was the appearance of an intentional "jamming" signal on Atlantis. It was activated that night just before 23.30 BST, but thereafter it was switched on between 23.01 and 23.03 BST, a few minutes prior to the closing down for the right of Genoa Radio, which was also operating on 1331 kHz. This fact, together with the results of various DF bearings that were taken at the time, indicated that the "jamming" station was probably sited in Northern Italy. The offending transmitter was on 1329.5 kHz, and by emitting an unmodulated carrier was creating a 1½ kHz heterodyne!

March 23rd saw the start of what was to become a regular Saturday night feature on the station. This is "The Nightmare Affair", broadcast between 23.00-01.00 BST, it is a pre-recorded presentation compared by a couple of zany characters who call them selves Scott Mitchell and Gabby Hernandez Omilado- without a doubt the most humorous and original programme since the famous "Aunty Mabel Hour". We are permitted to reveal that the voices of both Scott and Gabby belong to the same person .... an ex-Radio City DJ!! Two disc-jockeys from the Flemish Service departed towards the end of the month, they were Moses van der Berg, whose last programme went out on the 26th (10.00-12.00 BST); and Frans van Brugge, his final show was broadcast between 15.0016.00 BST on the 28th. Their replacements were Victor van Rein & Ellie Prins, both of whom appeared on March 28th, Victor being heard from 08.00-09.00 BST, followed by Ellie between 09.00-10.00 BST.

To mark April Fools Day a joke was played upon the listeners who had tuned in to hear Ellie Prins' 09.00-10.00 BST morning programme. His entire taped show was played backwards, and as if this wasn't enough, Steve's hilarious 'Gorilla Pills' advert was repeatedly superimposed!! A further frequency change was made by Atlantis on April 4th. This was done in order to avoid the continuing night-time "jamming" of the station. They moved one channel IF onto 1322 MHz, but unfortunately it was a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire, because a powerful Russian propaganda station located in East Germany was already on this channel, making reception impossible after 18.00 BST. Their error was soon realised and they returned to 1331 kHz, plus the "jamming", on April 7th. Among the team on board the "Jeanine" is an American called Dean Crowson, his main purpose there is that of ship's cook, however, in the early hours of April 11th he was persuaded to sit behind the microphone and have a go at DJ-ing, so adopting the name of Rick Rock he made his broadcasting debut between 01.00-03.00 BST - he is now heard fairly frequently in his new capacity!

Because of the persistent "jamming" the finding of a fresh wavelength became a matter of urgency. The problem was resolved on April 17th with the move to 312 metres (962 kHz) in the middle of the Medium Wave Band. Even this latest wavelength is not completely free from interference, for as darkness approaches an annoying whistle builds up in the background, this is due to a North African station (believed to be in Tunisia) operating on the non-EBU channel of 960 kHz - thus causing the generation of a 2 kHz heterodyne. It was obvious that the only way of overcoming this was to obtain more power out of the Radio Atlantis 1 kW RCA BTA1R1 transmitter. Andy had already increased the HT supply to it and was getting an output of between 1½-2 kW, but this was nowhere near enough to drown out the interference. The solution lay in a piece of equipment known as a linear-amplifier, which when attached to a transmitter greatly enhances its performance. An order had been placed for one weeks earlier to meet just such an eventuality, and construction was under way. Two days later, on the 19th, John Harding, broadcast his first show from the boat, for the record, it was transmitted between 03.00-06.00 BST.

Derek Jones and Dave Rogers by the well painted funnel now with 312 frequency on it (Photo:- Steve England)

There was good news for listeners in this: country on May 4th - this was the day that the International Service was extended. It now opened one hour sooner at 18.00 BST, and furthermore, continued until 07.00 BST on weekdays (O8.00 BST on Saturdays & Sundays). Steve promptly filled the extra morning time with a breakfast show called "Snap, Crackle & Pop". Here in south-east England the programs; is rapidly gaining popularity, especially at weekends when many thousands of listeners tune in. The linear device was delivered to the "Jeanine" in an unassembled condition on May 16th. Also on the boat at this time was an old 10 kW RCA BTA10J transmitter, that had seen service with Capital Radio, and before that it had been used by Radio 270; as this was in an advanced state of disrepair it was decided to gut it and use the cabinet which measured 5ft. wide x 5ft. deep x 9ft. high to house the new amplifier - and so work started immediately to achieve this end. When asked about the Linear Andy Anderson told "Monitor":- "The way we designed it it was for a minimum of 10 kilowatts output. There's a chance that we might get it to 15 or 20 kW. When I first put it on it will probably be lower than 10 kW. I'm going to bring it up gradualy otherwise I'm going to ruin valves - and they cost about three hundred quid each." A 20 year-old Canadian named Rob Day(alias Robbie Ronson: See page 4) came outt with the tender "En Rust" on May 23rd, he was to spend ten days aboard the radio-ship as a relief DJ and newsreader. He did not have long to wait before doing his first record show, twenty-four hours in fact, and anyone listening on the 24th would have heard him in action from 05.00-07.00 BST.

The exact position of Radio Atlantis on the map is 51degrees 32’ 55" NORTH 3degrees11' 30" EAST, or it was until June 6th. Shortly after 20.00 BST that evening their transmitter was put off the air by valve troubles. Meanwhile a storm was getting up that during the night produced a Force 8 wind that was to break their anchor chain. Unable to broadcast the ship's crew had instead opted for an early night and were soon fast asleep in their banks, blissfully ignorant of what was happening outside. Imagine their amazement at waking up the next morning and finding themselves looking at a strange coastline a mere two miles away? In fact, they hadn't the slightest idea where they were! A message was flashed to the station's owner, Adriaan van Landschoot, who quickly took off in his private aeroplane to search for them. Flying up and down the coast he eventually found them a couple of miles from West Kapelle, in an area notorious for its treacherous sandbanks. They had drifted over 20 miles northwards during the storm! Adriaan then arranged for the tender to come out and tow them back to their correct anchorage. Incidentally, Adriaan is making quite a reputation for himself these days as a pop star, he records in English under the name of Ad Rolls - his discs are frequently played on the air, so the next time you hear the singer with that name you'll know who he really is!

The linear was finally ready for testing on the evening of June 10th. Normal broadcasting ceased at 18.00 BST to allow Andy to make the necessary connections, and the big moment came at 23.00 BST when he switched it on. It produced a massive carrier, but when music was added it proved to be somewhat distorted and very undermodulated. At 23.15 BST the test terminated because the high power involved had blown all the insulators. However, these are trivial teething problems and will be remedied in the near future. Radio Atlantis will then take its rightful place alongside Radio Caroline and R.N.I. as one of the big three on the North Sea! Finally, our thanks to Dave Owen for making the "Monitor" promo currently being aired over the 312 airwaves - it was a real "Grade A" job, Dave!

(First printed in Monitor issue number 6)