The Radio Rose of Texas by Derek Burroughs,
jr.
Chapter
7: ÓOn Ó3-5-5Ó and Ó2-2-7Ó. Technical stuff.
Revised and corrected on April 20th, 2007.
The
Olga Patricia frequencies.[1]
The original frequencies planned for this operation
were 650 and 850 kc, and both Don Pierson, Jerry Smithwick and Ron OÕQuinn seem
to have had a hand in the planning. The latter two seem to have tuned around
the dial for free spots. 650 proved to be used by the BBC Third Programme
(Daventry, 647 kc, 150kW, editor), so it was thought one should double the
frequency and find a quiet spot in that area[2].
But the evidence points to SRE starting on 355 metres, 845 kc on May 3rd, 1966.
The station opened that day at approx. 1030am with a test tone followed by
Mitch Miller's ÒYellow Rose of TexasÓ.
ÓShe's the sweetest little rosebud
That
Texas ever knew,
Her
eyes are bright as diamonds,
They
sparkle like the dew.Ó
(ÓThe Yellow
Rose of TexasÓ, first record played on Radio England on May 3rd, 1966)
There were then three music tracks nonstop (The
Animals' Don't Bring Me Down being the first record), including 3 Pams #27 ÒJet
SetÓ jingles before Ron OÕQuinn made the first test announcement: ÓRadio
England on the air on 3-55 on your meter dial, 355 on your standard broadcast
dial, Radio England on the air for broadcast purposes. Another signal with
Classical music(?) was noticeable below SRE on the occasion. It might have been
a spurious signal? The station was on 845 24 hours with RAI Italy complaining
until May 20th at 2300 per Benelux DX Club, while Oyvind Stenberg of NorwayÕs
DXLC says he heard it May 21st. Britain Radio on 1320 continued until May 25th
at 1855 also per BDXC. Rolf Mong of DXLC logged Britain first on May 16th, and
has both stations still on their original frequencies May 29th with massive
daytime signals in South West Norway.
NorwayÕs top dxer in the 60s, Rolf Mong had top
signals from the Olga Patricia on May 29th, 1966. Rolf notes
interestingly enough 850 for SRE on this occasion. How many transmitter
crystals were onboard?
The editorÕs log has them for the first time on May
21st and 22nd. As just mentioned, Italy complained about the Radio England signals
on 845, and the closure of the SRE tests on this frequency are confirmed in
ÓThe TimesÓ of June 7th which also mentions the closure of Britain RadioÕs 227
transmissions on Friday, June 3rd, due to a transformer failure. It had then
already been run on 1/4 power at least nighttime.
US Pirate Radio station blacked out. The Times of
June 7th, 1966. From ©Hans KnotÕs archive.
ÓThe Daily TelegraphÓ of May 15th stated that of the twin
stations, Radio England on 355 was Óheard more clearly,Ó and that 3000 reports
had been received. Later the frequencies were swapped with Britain Radio taking
355 from June 10th. From Norwegian DX-News, it seems SRE first came back on
June 16th, 1966 on 1317[3].
Then, on June 18th, it was on 1322[4]. An official start on that date cannot
be confirmed by tapes or reliable information. The note in ÓOffshore Radio
FilesÓ about SRE having broadcast on 1331(225 metres) does not appear to be
right. In July, a SRE Legal ID by Ron OÕQuinn announced 1322.
DX report about the new stations from Benelux
DXClub. Transmissions have been monitored until May 20th (21st?-editor)
until 2300 on 845 kc and until May 25th until 1855 on 1320?kc, and
then transmissions were resumed on 845 kc with a new call sign on June 10th,
and on June 16th on 1320, and June 18th on 1322,
according to this source, which also has its theory of why the shift was made.
SRE has gone 24 hours and Britain is 0500-2300 GMT with an overnight relay of
SRE. From ©Hans KnotÕs archive.
DX report about the new stations from -Medium Wave
Circle in UK? Transmissions were resumed on 845 kc with a new call sign on June
10th, and later on 1320, and June 18th on 1322, according
to this source, which has another theory of why the shift was made. From ©Hans
KnotÕs archive.
But the SRE frequency situation did not calm down as
far as we can remember. Signal was OK during daytime, but Radio England was
very prone to interference and night-time whistle[5].
1322 was the channel of the Radio Moscow relay from the GDR[6].
355 was a much clearer channel on the North East coast of England and in Norway
at the time than 227. Britain Radio was much clearer and further away from
other stations, and the transmitter reduced power at night, relaying SRE from
July 9th 2300-0500. On a Britain Radio tape from July 29th, Graham
Gill announces that station now on 24 hours. On February 28th, 1967 at 12.45 a part of the
aerial mast on the Olga Patricia broke, and the twin Texas owned stations went
off the air. When the SRE transmitter came back on the air in the
evening of March 16th, 1967, it was on 1322 kc[7].
Continental
Transmitters. Ad from autumn 1965, published in WRTH 1966.
Original downpayment
for the Olga transmitters on Abilene National Bank signed by Don Pierson on
Feb.17th, 1966. ©Eric Gilder. Used with permission.
The Olga
Patricia Transmitters.
1. Britain
Radio/Radio England/Radio Dolfijn/Radio 227: Continental Transmitter model
317-C serial no.9, factory tested in Dallas on 650 kc, operating in the North
Sea on 1320 and 1322 kc, sold to Trans World Radio, Swaziland in 1973,
operating from Manzini on 1170 kc from 1981.[8]
Continental
Transmitter model 317-C serial no.9, factory test in Dallas on 650 kc, April 4th,
1966. Note ÒRadio EnglandÓ handwritten after ÒStationÓ. Picture: ©Steve
Stavropoulos, TWR Swaziland, February, 2007.
Continental
Transmitter model 317-C serial no.9, hourly reading taken in Manzini on 1170
kc, February 14th, 2007. Picture: ©Steve
Stavropoulos, TWR Swaziland, February, 2007.
The Chief
Engineer of Trans World Radio Swaziland, Mr. Stephen Stavropoulos has contacted
the editor and has the following very interesting information:
I believe it was
the #9 that ended up at TWR Swaziland. (#9 has been hand written in the
manual).
We think the
transmitter was on a ship called ÒDolfynÓ as this was written on
something.
I looked in
the manual and found the factory tests conducted at 650kHz on #9. Written
on the test page is ÒRadio EnglandÓ. Date seems to be around April
1966.
TWR actually
purchased two of these transmitters and one was given to Swazi Music Radio I
think as part of some agreement as far as I understand. The transmitters
arrived in Swaziland around 1973 or so.
#9 only went
on air on 1170Khz in 1981 as we were unable to obtain a MW broadcast license
before that time. On MW we do not usually do much in the way of station ID
compared to shortwave where we have a signature tune. 1170 covers the peoples
of Swaziland, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, S.Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
We have always
used the transmitter to broadcast after sunset and before sunrise. When we went
on the air in 1981 we used a single monopole of 450 ft (5/8 wavelength) on a
base insulator to give maximum sky wave distance coverage. Over the years we replaced some
parts of the transmitter. I remember at least one copper cable was very
green with sea corrosion and finally melted/burned. Around
1993 we reduced the tower heights of the two tower array to 200ft each.
That is ¼ wave monopoles, ½ wavelength spacing with a power
splitter dividing the power between them and the phase difference giving us our
desired pattern. This was to boost the signal towards Johannesburg and
Durban in South Africa.
Greetings
Stephen
Stavropoulos
Chief Engineer
TWR Swaziland.
The
Chief Engineer of TWR Swaziland
by the 1170 transmitter in Manzini. Picture: ©Steve
Stavropoulos, TWR Swaziland, March, 2007.
Some
pictures of Radio EnglandÕs Continental #9 317-C transmitter(The
original Britain Radio rig) which is alive and well after 40 years on 1170 kc
broadcasting as and owned by TWR Swaziland. Pictures:
©Steve
Stavropoulos, TWR Swaziland, February/March, 2007.
A moving
sight, isnÕt it? These pictures show more of what was once the voice of Ron
OÕQuinn, Larry Dean, Roger Day, Boom Boom Brannigan and Bill Berry. But also of
Look Boden, Lex Harding and Dick Weeda. Radio England/Dolfijn/ÓDouble 2-7ÓÕs #9
317-C Continental transmitter, 1322 kcs. Now the 1170 kc transmitter of TWR
Swaziland. Pictures: ©Steve
Stavropoulos, TWR Swaziland, February/March, 2007.
Take a listen to TWR Swaziland ex ÒSRE on 227 metresÓ! Here is a typical recording from 1170 kcs via the dxtuners.com receiver in
Johannesburg done in the evening of January 23rd, 2007.
TWR Swaziland QSL card.
2. Radio
England/Britain Radio/Radio 355 Continental Transmitter model 317-C serial
no.10, factory tested in Dallas on 850 kc, operating in the
North Sea on 850 and 845 kc, sold to Trans World Radio, Swaziland in 1973, ended up at Swazi Radio in
Sandlane, operating there on 1376 kc, and later on 1377 kc.
ÓOn August 15th, 1983 ÓJohn
EnglandÓ wrote a letter to Bill/(Wayne? –editor) Cookson, Chief Engineer
and Station Manager of Swazi Radio at Mbabane, Swaziland. On September 29th,
1983 he received this very helpful reply: ÓDear John, We are, indeed in possession of the Continental Electronics
317-C, 50 Kw MW AM transmitter, serial no.10, which was at one time utilized by
Radio England. The transmitter is, at present, in daily use on 1377 kc. We
utilize a skywave and we broadcast with it for 9 hours daily. It had been one
of the most trouble free units itÕs my pleasure to work with. As to the other
one, it is being used by Trans World Radio(also in Swaziland). Enclosed is a
picture of our transmitter.Ó[9]
The
present Liberty Radio 1377 kc transmitter originally operated in the North Sea.
Picture from 1983: ©Wayne Cookson via ©John England.
Note: Radio Caroline South got Continental 317-C serial no.14
delivered to The Mi Amigo in April 1966. They were due to get number Twelve;
but as it was the time of the Rhodesian crisis, the U.K. Government set up BBC
Bechuanaland(Botswana)to broadcast into Rhodesia. Therefore the BBC had to get
no.12 and 13[10].
But, ÒThe Yellow Rose of TexasÓ beat both BBC and Caroline[11]!
The Olga
Patricia Transmitters in
South Africa[12]:
History
repeats itself, with new format changes.
Swazi
Music Radio 1376 kc
Swazi
Music Radio broadcast from Sandlane in Swaziland from about 1970 - 1978. They
had two medium wave transmitters and two short wave transmitters. The medium
wave transmitters were both second hand and one, a Continental, definitely came
from Radio England. I'm not sure where the other one came from. The primary
transmitter was either 50kw(but might have been used at less power)and the
backup one was low power - something between 5kw and 10kw. Wayne Cookson was an
American radio engineer who came to South Africa and recently died there.
Transvaalers from the 70s will remember his voice "This is Wayne Cookson,
Chief Engineer for Swazi Radio...".
Swazi
Music Radio (known as SMR) was established by the Kirsch brothers who ran a big
South African Media company. It was intended to compete with LM Radio[13] for the youth radio market in
South Africa but because of the transmitter siteÕs physical location the
coverage into the main capture area of the Johannesburg area was poor. Signal
strength during the day was very marginal and at night fading was heavy because
it was located in the skip region. So the SRE story was in many ways repeated.
In the mid 70s the Kirsch gave up and introduced some new services which shared
the facilities[14][15][16].
Sounds
familiar? World Radio TV Handbook 1974 with the entry for
SMR, Òyour Much More Music stationÓ. Note also the first indication of new
use for Britain RadioÕs 50 kW rig under TWRÕs entry. This was not to
materialize before 1981.
The
distance from the Frinton Essex Coast is large, but the distance to Bill
BerryÕs October 1966 slogan ÒThe
sound of the International giant, Radio 227Ó is small. Wayne Cookson via
©John England.
World
Radio TV Handbook 1978 with the entry for Swaziland Commercial Radio.
Swazi
Music Radio-format changes
Swazi
Music Radio
now became several services still using the old Radio England transmitter:
Radio
SR was mixed
English Language and Zulu and was aimed at the urban, up and coming black
youth. Much of the programming was based on Black American music and local
South African music.
Radio
Paralelo 27
a Portuguese service targetted towards the large Portuguese speaking white
population who had fled Mocambique in 1975 when Frelimo took over.
Radio
Truro an Indian
culture service which broadcast in English and Asian languages and was aimed at
the Indian ethnic population of Natal. Radio coverage of Natal was excellent.
It closed on Feb.1s
1986
as the commercial revenue was not sufficient for such a service.
Also
ÒThe Jewish SoundÓ
and paid Christian programs in English and Afrikaans used the facilities.
The
mentioned services used both medium(1377 kc after the implementation of the
Geneva Plan in 1978) and short wave(3223, 4980 and 6155 kc) transmitters. Some
reports also indicates it used 9750 kc for a while.
Radio Cidade International PO Box 1586, Alberton, South
Africa, in English and Portugese. Owned by Sr. Agostinho De Andrade. Ceased
transmissions in October 2000. Evidently revitalized.[17].
Liberty Radio ÒLiberty Radio 13.77 AMÓ. Owned by
the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God[18].
See this input from 2006:
The former Radio England/Britain Radio transmitter from 845 kc was
observed broadcasting on 1377 kc from Sandlane, SWZ, fading in around 1600 UTC
6 January 2006, via the former DX Tuners web receiver sited at Johannesburg,
SA, variously identifying as "Liberty Radio" or "Radio Liberty,
1377 k of love". Programming in Portuguese and English, with lots of music
- including a show presented in Portuguese called "Cidade Tropical" -
spiritual messages and some religious programming. Reception varied from poor
to fair[19].
Take a listen to some of the different Station IDs of Sandlane,
SwazilandÕs 1376/1377 kc station ex Britain Radio ÒHallmark of QualityÓ and Radio
355 ÒBrighter Broadcasting.Ó[20]:
1. Swazi Music Radio 1376 Pams Series #29 jingle 1973 1376.
2. Swaziland Commercial Radio morning sign-on 1376 @1977.
3. Radio Cidade Internacional November 23rd, 1999 1377.(Recorded at the South African/Zimbabwe border.)
4. Liberty Radio 1377 2006 Jan.6th, 2006 1377. (Recording via the former dxtuners.com receiver in
Johannesburg.)
Cut 1. is published
here solely for historical purposes with the generous permission of Jonathan
Wolfert of Jam Creative Productions Inc. of Dallas
protected under copyright by Pams Productions Inc.
of Dallas
All rights preserved.
Cuts 2.-4. have kindly
been supplied by Dave Kernick. Please take a look and a listening-in to his
wonderful www.intervalsignals.net site.
Still there!
The
two transmitters still exist and are on the air in Africa, and were heard by
the editor on November 8th, 2006 via the
former dxtuners.com Johannesburg receiver:
1170 kc TWR Swaziland. 50 kW Continental transmitter
#9 ex Britain R/SRE/R Dolfijn/R 227.
Local strength w Christian Contemporary Music track, great local ID,
local bible reading from TWR Swaziland.
1377 kc Liberty Radio. 50 kW Continental transmitter #10 ex SRE/Britain R/R 355
w fading-in and out non-stop Portugese "Praise" music with Portugese
sermon.
The
transmitter that started its life in Dallas, was installed on Dodge Island in Miami
in the spring of 1966, and then for just over a year sat on a pirate radio ship
off the Essex coast briefly broadcasting ÒBoss RadioÓ, then Britain Radio, and
Radio 355, went back to Miami in the autumn of 1967, and then to Swaziland in
the early 70s has the later years-in addition to local and regional coverage-
been heard all over the world on DXPeditions in Finland, Newfoundland,
Australia and New Zealand.
So,
stations and formats have passed, but the old Continental slogan: ÒWorldÕs Most
PowerfulÓ seems just right after-almost 40 years!
Continental
Electronics poster from the NAB Radio Show at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in
Dallas in September 2006.
To find out
more about the great product of Continental Electronics today go here.