Ship details: The Silvretta was built in 1948 by De Groot and Vliet at Slikkerveer Holland, she was 630 tons and 186 feet long. The Silvretta was purchased for £25,000 and a further £65,000 was spent on converting her to a radio ship by MeBo Telecommunications Ltd in Zurich (Switzerland). The ship was renamed Mebo … Read more
Vandaag neem ik je mee terug naar het jaar 1973. In het begin van de jaren zeventig van de vorige eeuw probeerde ook een Amerikaanse dominee een zeezender in de lucht te krijgen. Van 1965 tot en met 1973 runde dominee Carl McIntire in het plaatsje Media in de Amerikaanse staat Pennsylvania twee radiostations: WXUR … Read more
Bij elkaar telt de geschiedenis van de zeezenders ruim honderd mislukte projecten. Ik wil er dit keer een paar noemen waarover werd geschreven in de jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw. Bij een van deze projecten zou het gaan om ‘Leeds University’, hoewel ook de naam ‘Radio Rag’ werd genoemd. De initiatiefnemers zouden, vanaf het … Read more
In de hoogtijdagen van de zeezenders in internationale wateren voor de West Europese kusten werd veelvuldig gebruik gemaakt van meisjesnamen voor de radiostations. Denk maar eens aan Radio Veronica, Radio Caroline en Radio Monique. Maar ook voor de schepen zelf werd een meisjesnaam wel eens gekozen. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan Magda Maria, Magdalena en Jeanine. In … Read more
From the Radio Caroline website: Ross Revenge Charity – Update and new total funds to date When we last reported, £131,000 had been raised after the initial Crowdfunder Campaign. Since then more donations have regularly arrived and we have gratefully accepted bids for items of memorabilia that we keep discovering.Thus the total has reached £200,000.Better … Read more
Or maybe more accurately, from two lighthouses to two ships, with a detour in between. The earliest known usage of the international callsign VLC can be traced back to the year 1913 at the time when the coastal radio station in the Chatham Islands was opened for maritime traffic and for contact with New Zealand. … Read more
On two previous occasions, we have presented stories about the luxuriant French passenger liner, the “Normandie“. On this occasion we return to the story of the “Normandie”, and this time the story of its demise. Construction work on the “Normandie” began at St. Nazaire on coastal France in the year 1929. It was intended that … Read more
The August issue of the American magazine, “Short Wave Craft”, in the year 1935 tells a very interesting story about a unique radio broadcast from the Statue of Liberty. It happened this way. The French passenger liner Normandie began its maiden voyage from Le Havre in France just 68 years ago, on May 29, 1935. … Read more
A recent reception report from Robert Chester in Adelaide, South Australia, tells an interesting story regarding his involvement with a special once-in-a-lifetime radio broadcast from a ship. Robert was commenting on a previous edition of Wavescan in which we presented the story of “Radio Broadcasting from Ships in Australian Waters”. It was back around the … Read more
During the 1920s and 1930s, a multitude of small radio broadcasting stations (some formal, though most were informal) took to the air throughout Belgium, rather like what was happening in many other countries throughout the world. The stations in Belgium were installed in private homes, business locations, church buildings, and even out in the fields; … Read more