Radio Carolines NewMast
Hello all you Radio Caroline enthusiasts :). As you can see from the picture on the left Radio Caroline’s new mast is coming along very nicely. We think it’s pretty impressive. What do you think?
The weather has hampered our progress recently but we were lucky on this day to have glorious sunshine, if a little chilly! We hope to get back there very soon. Our rigging team are in the happy position of being very busy at the moment but they’re itching to get Radio Caroline’s mast completed as soon as we can.
We’ve been very busy completing some very indepth rigging projects recently including a full design and build for the Utility Industry. There’s never a dull moment at Radio Structures, to keep in touch with what we’re up to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.
A view from the mast – good job riggers have a good head for heights!
Radio Structures Ltd – Radio Towers – Radio Masts – Radio Antenna
Tel: 01604 790005 – Email: sales@radiostructures.com
Great!
(Almost) Ready for the high seas?!
Best wishes,
Koos de Ruijter
well done Radio Structures for a great job you are doing on Caroline
Best wishes Caroline
Really Great to see..
Good luck you guys! Wonder if I will fall over backwards again when I look up while boarding, like I did in 1986
Will it be the full 300ft.?
Great work. Lets hope they win a licence and can stick some RF up it!
Real good job you,re doing there all. Are there also sidebeams planned?
The new Mast looks suberb already, you have all done a wonderful job, Im sure it will look fantastic once its finished – Thank You to all involved in giving the mv Ross Revenge a new mast that Caroline fans will be proud of.
Thank you for your comment, much appreciated. The side beams may well be added, watch this space
great job !! – good luck – fingers crossed
Looks like 3 x 6 metres sections on top of the just over 1 metre base. That is a total of 19 metres of the proposed just over 43 metres. (1-plus metre base + 30 metres tapered + 12 metres straight). Is that correct? For the record (again) the original mast was 84 metres (7 x 12 metres as painted)from deck level.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your comment, the dimensions we are working to were set out by the chaps at Radio Caroline, if you have a query can I point you in their direction. Glad you are enjoying our updates, we have been overwhelmed by the response we are receiving from Radio Caroline supporters, you guys are what makes the station so great
One we are proud to support with our donated time and equipment.
TRS
Riggers soon to do a fine tune on Caroline’s new mast – their version of hey ho and up she rises
Great to see a Northamptonshire company helping the old girl out you want to get the ET or Chronicle to do an article
Radio Caroline is In every way impressive.Then and now.
Good luck with the Ross Revence!
Hans Kremers Vught Netherlands
Thanks radio structures!
Looks brilliant. really nice to see a centre mouted mast again, the old masts they put up at sea did a great job but this is how it should be. Huge thanks to Radio Structures, now we need a licence and a chance to send out 50Kw again!
lets hope so!
Thanks for the reply. Peter has already described what is planned, so we have a good idea of that. My question was on what stage you had achieved in the pictures above, with it looking like 1 metre base plus 18 metres in tower sections, that is 19 metres. Cheers.
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, you are absolutely right, in the pictures above we have achieved 18 metres (3 x 6 metre sections) and the base grillage at 1 metre. We’re looking forward to sharing a further update with you all very soon
what will be the total hieght of the mast when complete?
See my February 7 post above.
So the old masts have been removed. Anyone have any photo’s of the removal process? the new mast looks good so far
Nice to see RS their contribution to Radio Caroline on the Ross Revenge, well done Radio Structures , now let’s hope for the next step the AM licence !
Will the new central mast get a coat of red and white paint like the original 300ft mast?, I think that would look great.
Loooking forward to seeing the new mast completed.
There is an explanation by Peter Moore in the Pirate Free Radio forum, and probably elsewhere, that there has to be a delay before the mast can be painted. The old mast was 275 feet approx, 84 metres (7 x 12 metres), not 300 feet (another mast myth).
Thanks Ian,
That is interesting, I had always thought the old mast to be 300ft approx, anyway, should be interesting to see the new mast once finished….maybe we could start a new rumour and say the new 200ft mast : )
Looks great. The structure is specified as durable and should lack the failure worries, principally base fatigue, that aflicted the Mi Amigo. That said, 43m is not electrically long at the AM frequencies of interest (< lambda/10 is electrically short) and will not elevate the station to the 'national' coverage that it had with the lambda/4 mast at 963kHz. I don't think that this matters too much since the powers that be at http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk are aspiring to provide 'south east regional' coverage and the core service should remain available over the internet. My personal view is that the mast should be equiped with a broadcast band 3 antenna for digital transmission, with a transmitter specified to give the fullest coverage permitted by the local topography
Radio Structures Ltd is doing a great job on the Ross Revenge. Thans a lot from a Radio Caroline fan in Holland!
please radio structures paste new photos to show us the progress – thanks
We should have some more pictures for you in the next few days… standby!
Thank you Radio Structures ! It looks great already ! I’m looking forward to see some pictures of the finished job.
And then it’s on to the next stage of course: obtaining an AM license.
I have just seen the pictures of the completed mast on the Ross Revenge at the Caroline website and I must say – Wow, it looks wonderful, well done on all the hard work, this is the best the Ross has looked since 1987.
Will the mast remain silver or get a special coat of red and white paint in due course?.
Nice pictured, nice mast. Thanks Radio Structures!!
great work Radiostructures ! – hope we’ll hear it on our tranys soon – please post more pictures
Pingback: Radio Caroline Mast Update | | Radio Structures Ltd
Hi there, Looking good, at 36m high, thats 118 feet, Some have said, it needs to be higher,But…Been thinking, what it really needs now, is when the guys are installed, why not use the topmost Two, that would go, towards the far ends of the ship, as a Capacity hat, this would really improve the signal, with less power wasted in the matching network, it would be a Sloping Marconi “T”. When I was at KCBC, our AM antenna was done like this , and worked really well.
…Does anyone know Peter Moores Email address?, so i can suggest this?…
my mail is radiorod2@yahoo.co.uk …Rod Page
Hi there, Looking good, at 36m high, thats 118 feet, Some have said, it needs to be higher,But…Been thinking, what it really needs now, is when the guys are installed, why not use the topmost Two, that would go, towards the far ends of the ship, as a Capacity hat, this would really improve the signal, with less power wasted in the matching network, it would be a Sloping Marconi “T”. When I was at KCBC, our AM antenna was done like this , and worked really well.
…Does anyone know Peter Moores Email address?, so i can suggest this?…
my mail is radiorod2@yahoo.co.uk …Rod Page
Judging from what appears to be fitted right at the top of the mast, it would appear that the powers that be have other ideas. I have thought for many years that VHF broadcasting via the e-layer might be a possibility. TV?
Pole on the top,William, for more height ?, or for an FM aerial.Also the so called Folded unipole method with the Feed shunt wires, spaced away from the mast, gives better Bandwidth, because of the Legnth Diameter ratio, i,e. makes Tower look wider Diameter, The 1602kc Radio Seagull is done like that. with spreader arms sticking out, to connect the feedpoint up
I Will try to Find Peter Moores Email, Have they got anyone who knows about AM Aerials ?, With the Mast at only 118 foot, it wont be very good without a Capacitance hat, the two top guy wires, would work really good as a hat,
Remember how many Tubing towers, fell down on the Mi Amigo, and they were Rigged with thick wire, Huge Forces pull on the Rigging and Cross Trees when the ship rolls sideways…….RadioRod
GREAT, THAT MAST! She deserves it ! THE MONUMENT OF A CULTURAL REVOLUTION ! Some of us were dj in the eighties on the Ross. Now we are the crew of Radio Rainbow International, the peace station , and member of http://www.piratesforpeace.tk who stumulates LA on free media allover the planet.. Good job people!!!