The Final Raid & Death Of A Pirate Radio Station

[@philsharp758]

This has been a thoroughly engrossing series. Thank you Ringway for the time and effort you took to make it. I feel that the story would make a great low-budget movie, Bill Forsyth style ( "That Sinking Feeling", " Local Hero", "Gregory's Girl"). All the best. PS

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much

[@TexasPrisonStories]

this is my favorite channel i am a life long pirate myself so it does intrigue me and i really enjoy hearing the stories myself as well!

[@peterstean2138]

1970s dramas are really in at the moment - Dominic West could play the guy from the GPO :)

[@philsharp758]

@@peterstean2138 A dour, middle-aged, pedantic state apparatchik, I was auditioning for the role. Hey, I'll even grow the sideburns. :-)

[@jmr]

A bittersweet day. We've got the conclusion but the story is over. Keep the great content coming!

[@AdamosDad]

It's too bad it turned out this way. Here in the USA, it's perfectly legal if you do it with low power. They are called Part 15 Radio Stations. If you, do it with a proper transmitter and antenna you could reach thousands of people. I thoroughly enjoyed the series.

[@chriss4087]

Interesting you said Charlie went on to do KFM in 1984. I used to listen to KFM when pirate and I remember my dad Brian G4GVI who is now silent key mentioned repairing /tuning up their PA's and the police coming round quizzing him about his association. Funnily enough when the police came round he had no recollection of such activity!

[@andyhowlett2231]

Hi Chris. Your dad told me that story a few years ago. Apparently Charlie who lived not too far away was setting up the multiplier stages in a newly-built FM txt and got it wrong, causing a strong output in the amateur 2m band. Your dad ended up sorting it out!

[@G8HCB]

@@andyhowlett2231 ahhh so it was about the harmonics of the TX and not the PA then.

[@andyhowlett2231]

@@G8HCB Yes, the tx used a 10 MHz vfo followed by a tripler to 30 MHz and then another tripler to the final 90 MHz (or whatever). If you didn't have the right test gear it was easy to pick the wrong frequency in the first tripler and end up on totally the wrong frequency. You'd still hear an output on 90 MHz so you thought it was working OK. Spectrum Analysers were the stuff of dreams back then!

[@1983Ezekiel]

A fantastic narration, great research, compelling story... what a great series! As said before, KZbin is at it's best when it supports original content creators & here is a great example. Many thanks Lewis!

[@richardmillican7733]

Those who still remain should definitely have a reunion!!

[@garthwilson231]

Lovely documentary I enjoyed it. Continue to inform us.

[@jaymzx0]

Thanks for the hard work you put into this series, Lewis. I enjoyed every episode! It would be wonderful if stories such as these could become a regular thing.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much

[@minigpracing3068]

This was a good series! Can you image what could be done today? Use multiple locations with internet linked transmitters, switch them randomly to make direction finding difficult. Compact solid state TX that would be easier to hide... You get the idea. Pirate radio has a place in the vast sea of commercial stations, just like community owned stations have a place, but sadly little channel space is available (at least for FM here in the usa).

[@vylbird8014]

It would work, yes. FM modulation wouldn't be affected by the amplitude variation, GPS-synced pseudorandom hopping. But by the time such technology became available, pirate radio was all but dead already. Rendered obsolete by the internet and cellphones.

[@DjNikGnashers]

@@vylbird8014 I think the internet and 'cellphones' could be the perfect way to bring pirate FM radio back. Play a live broadcast using shoutcast or similar to a server online, and tune in with a mobile phone hidden in a remote location, the headphone jack of which is connected to the transmitter in the same location along with a battery and antenna. It would be untraceable from the transmitter back by the normal methods, although the ip address of the server could be obtained from the phone. I think you could hide the ip address of the encoder though, maybe even the server, making it very difficult to trace all the way back to the actual studio.

[@producermichael5108]

I'm new to radio and this has been such a fascination to watch this documentary. Thanks so much. Wonderful !

[@acestudioscouk-Ace-G0ACE]

First class work Lewis, you are a good combination of journalist and historian. A very well told story which many will appreciate. It's really good that you completed the tale by saying what happened to the guys since. It seems that the radio experience was etched into their souls as a way of life and further careers. I've found that this happened to pirate radio operators in my area. One became a radio repair man and now radio restorer and another became an exec at the BBC before being head hunted to America.

[@stumpymacgabhann]

I enjoyed the series really appreciate the time and effort you put into this. Thanks.

[@60_Degrees_North]

Wow. What a story. Thanks for sharing 👍

[@karengill8234]

Thanks Lewis great series of documented history, really enjoyed it. The still photograph of a rather tatty looking chassis with the front two handles looked like it was from the Army 19 set I was transmitting using one of those in 1965. Thanks again. G4OWW. ….

[@alastairbarkley6572]

Those miserable handles. If you ever carried a 19 set any distance by the handles, you know why they're miserable. US and Canadian manufactured 19 sets incorporated a modified tubular/cylindrical grip rather than the original (and, also, British Mk III) slim bar. A huge improvement - although, relatively, one requiring more machining.

[@karengill8234]

Yes 40 kg of sheer joy, fortunately never had to carry mine too far. …..

[@ludo9234]

Thank you for telling us about this. Very impressed with the amount of information you have found.

[@peteshulver9221]

Excellent story and brings back great memories of the 70’s and pirate radio 😀😀

[@Bugsworth]

I Always check your work. Very clear and accurate reporting of things that most of us just never think about. thank you from Nottingham. :-)

[@dine9093]

What a week! made better by the daily dose of pirate radio shenanigans. Loved it and am gonna miss it! Great work!

[@robertfletcher3421]

This has been one of the best things to hit KZbin. It has been great.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thank you so much Robert that means a lotn

[@plentygood422]

Well done loved this small series

[@boerewors79]

Great series, very professionally done. Takes me back some 45 years where I made my 1 watt AM station. 73, KE6KYC

[@neilfulcher9298]

Thanks for this very enjoyable series. Despite being born in the late 50's and brought up in the 60's, I was brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne. I don't know whether my parents radio couldn't receive pirate radio or if they chose not to listen , but my first experience of pop radio came with the launch of Radio 1 in 1967. My first experience of pirate radio was when I moved to London in the mid eighties. It was a bad one, the local pirates interfered with my reception of Radios 3 & 4 FM, the two stations I listened to most at the time. I know that the protagonists in your story did they level best not to disturb other people's listening pleasure, but some of my sympathies lie with Gordon and his merry men.

[@gary3561]

My dad used to tell me the stories of his day's at skyline radio in S.E London I even remember the house in farmfield road where I spent many of my childhood days and indeed remember his setup on the front room where he would pre record his shows so they could be played on cassette. RIP Ray Thompson 🙏

[@andyhowlett2231]

Well there it was! BTW, John went into electronics design and prototyping.

[@Mike-H_UK]

The GPO seemed to become very good at finding you. Do you think that this was all down to excellent DF or do you think that they used phone taps / following key cars when broadcasts were due etc. Two elements puzzle me about the GPO success. One was them finding the TX behind the bath panel when the house was empty by the time they arrived, if I understood Lewis correctly. The second was related to Andromeda and the removal of the TX without lying in wait for the user to return. Maybe for this they just got bored waiting... Anyway a great mini-series.

[@andyhowlett2231]

@@Mike-H_UK Sorry for the delay Mike, we've been on holiday and the wifi was so slow and drop-outy it was difficult to type proper answers. Re the disappearing transmitters, I always thought there was something odd about the bath one, but if the PO didn't pinch it, then suspicion falls on an 'inside job' and things can turn nasty. So we let it go. The Andromeda one had a kind of prequel a few weeks before when I arrived at the top of the hill just in time to see someone ( a teen by the look of him) scurrying away down the slope. I can think of one or two people that might have wanted to nick our TX at the time, but again it's best left alone!

[@Mike-H_UK]

@@andyhowlett2231 Cheers. I had wondered if someone had been tipping off Gordon, but not considered the possibility that other pirates would be stealing your equipment. Mind you, I suppose this is what pirates do on the open sea.....

[@tomlewisuk]

I have (had) very little interest in this subject but have been engrossed in this series- it's been absolutely brilliant and so well narrated. Looking forward to more stories now!

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

These days, the technology to build a cheap battery powered 20watt AM transmitter and an SD card player, would be so cheap, you could treat them as disposable. All the cat and mouse game would be avoided. Making an endever like this pretty much risk free. How things have changed.

[@TrimeshSZ]

Even then you could make them pretty cheap if you didn't care about the power level or frequency stability. The simplest medium wave transmitter I put together consisted of one of those STK power modules as a modulator and a 3-terminal voltage regulator abused into an RF power oscillator - worked best below 1MHz because the gain on the regulator rolled off pretty sharply - but it was easy to get about 5W @ ~ 1MHz out of it with about 90% mod capability (you didn't want to go much more than that because it was effectively a self-oscillating PA and if you applied too much negative mod the oscillator stopped - exactly how much was "too much" varied with the IC maker) - 2f was about -18dBc, so deeply crap, but it was absolutely a throw-away design.

[@g0nad716]

Thanks for putting some of the history together on pirate radio - great stories loved it. I wonder if there is scope to maybe follow up with history of some of the stations off the Essex coast, Radio Caroline, Radio London etc….

[@W4TRI_Ronny]

These guys put more effort and time into a pirate station than we all did running WOTA at Dekalb college in Atlanta GA.

[@datasilouk1995]

Really enjoyed this whole series. Thank you. Your narratation is brilliant and you can imagine the fun & panic in setting up and moving stuff around. Hopefully there are more stories like this.

[@raymondmartin6737]

After seeing this series I picked up the DVD 📀 of the Pirate Radio movie from 2009, just for the fun of it. I saw it in the movie theater back then. Thanks 😊 for the show.

[@deepsea83]

Really enjoyed this wee series, have to give the Radio Aquarius guys a solid 10/10 for persistence and dedication.

[@ianharvey868]

Such a sad but beautiful story told over these past 6 days! Thank you

[@Mike-H_UK]

Great mini-series Lewis. I'm almost sad that it has finished.

[@ainteasybeingwheezy]

Cheers Lewis this has been a great series i used to listen to KFM pirate/legal and ring in on a regular basis. I was just starting off learning to DJ at the time helping a couple of local well established jocks out as the grunt lumping all the gear in and out setting it up watching learning and playing a few records whilst the jock was otherwise engaged. I just wanted to be a pirate radio DJ as that was as cool as you could get many years later i got involved with community radio ended up doing a daily 3hr lunchtime slot producing for other shows etc it scratched the itch but my passion for radio has never subsided

[@gordsec]

Amazing series. Thank you for the effort in both production and research. 73

[@alzeNL]

"Its been nearly 50 years..." - oh man I feel old.. :D Anyhow, great series, this was really great - thanks for all the hard work. I could watch this you-tube channel all the time.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so so much for the kind words

[@sarkybugger5009]

Really fascinating stuff. Nice work putting this series together. Thanks.

[@dubliner1100]

What a fantastic series, one of the best on KZbin so far

[@fuzylogik]

Fantastic lewis, one of the best things i've seen on youtube for a while. real quality content keep up the good work.

[@Leon-uj7pc]

I very much enjoyed this series. It seems to me that pirate radio was mostly a UK thing. In the USA we did not have much of that going on. The US authorities used the term pirate radio stations to describe a legal radio station that switched frequencies or call signs or boosted the power output without the government's approval. Also the US Govt. did not label radio stations in other countries that aimed broadcast toward the USA as a pirate radio station, They just called them border blasters and left them be. In fact there were a lot of good programs coming out of the Mexican border blaster stations. Wolfman Jack did shows on border blasters. Of course American never had to pay the govt. for a radio or TV license. You bought a TV or radio and paid the sales tax (like you do with everything else) and that was that. Of course we never had a national radio/tv station and there were radio stations out there for pretty much everybody so there was no need for setting up a illegal station. If you wanted experimental stuff you tuned into the local college radio station. Where as in the UK, you were stuck with what the BBC put on and it seemed like the BBC of that era was out of touch. All you had over there for experimental stuff was John Peel.

[@fosterkennel649]

Great story I'm gonna subscribe to you. In the late seventies through the eighties a few of us ran FM stations off vessels and/or houseboats. Sausalito radio 98 at the gate

[@danielscotcher]

Really enjoyed this little series, I have learnt a lot about pirate radio history from this

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks Dan!

[@Wedgehog]

Thoroughly enjoyed this series. I've never really been aware of pirate radio until now, but this was fascinating. Thank you for your hard work

[@volvo09]

Loved the series! Thank you. I liked this as much as I enjoyed the history of CB series 😀

[@Colin_Ames]

This has been an excellent series, and I appreciate the effort that you put into making it. Also, I am amazed at the dedication of the individuals involved in the pirate radio movement. I lived in Coventry at the time this was going on, and was not aware of any similar efforts in that area.

[@bugler75]

Bravo!!! Excellent séries! But I’m sad it is finished! Seriously, thank you for a great channel and this particular story. Ian, France

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much!

[@kevinhodle]

Fantastic work! Thanks for the hard work and research it took to bring this highly interesting story to the rest of us!

[@welshwizard822]

Thanks, it's been a great series and very interesting. Always nice to hear at the end what happened to everyone, being the same age as me made it all the more interesting. Thanks again and looking forward to more from you in the future. All the best

[@MickHurst65]

In Birmingham we had PCRL Radio in the 80's and 90's, any chance of a series?

[@MickHurst65]

Fantastic bit of Pirate history, well presented sir, thank you.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks mick

[@timg5tm941]

Lewis I think this mini-series has seen you out-do yourself. Wonderful look back at a bunch of guys, who I think are radio heroes. Keep up the great content.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks Tim!

[@wisteela]

Absolutely fantastic series. Great that they are all still about, and it went well for the all.

[@Tank6883]

Thanks for the series. This is defintely worth a coffee or cupper. Sending your way.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thank you so much

[@stuartvaughan8599]

Great series Lewis. Brought back a load of memories!

[@daveg8htfadlibaudio250]

Good one yet again Lewis, there is so much more of this out there specially around Merseyside but the time it must have taken to get it all together and present it as you did was second to none **** Cheers Dave.

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much Dave drop us an email [e-mail]

[@djsarahjones]

Good story of classic pirates. Keep um coming ❤️❤️❤️

[@ShaunieDale]

I loved this series. Sounds like they had great fun giving the GPO the run around! Best 73s G8XJX.

[@Aengus42]

A gorgeous chillout ending to a fascinating, well researched tale. Thanks!

[@GarretClaridgeMeerkat]

well done

[@ZippletTech]

I really enjoyed this series Lewis. Very well put together and presented. A nice treat to enjoy in the evenings this week! I hope you do something similar like this again :)

[@johnnewham2235]

Love all of your vids, especially the pirate radio's of the 80's and 90's, any chance you could make a video on Radio Fax a station from southern Ireland with a power of 1kw , it was broadcast on 6205 khz and was very informative on all matters of Radio, very much like yourself, thanks for a great channel

[@boilerroombob]

Lewis congratulations on a fantastic series... nothing more I like is to find out what became of all involved.....you concluded that brilliantly well done speak soon

[@billcosgrave6232]

Excellent series! Truly enjoyed it.

[@michaelclutton8446]

Thanks for the videos Lewis, its one of the most interesting series I have ever watched regards Mike

[@RingwayManchester]

Thank you so much

[@christopherhulse8385]

The irony of all this is we need stations like Aquarius back on the air as radio in 2022 is so dull and boring.

[@russellnixon9981]

Found this fascinating, a great untold storey of pirate activity across the airwaves.

[@billtheslink4541]

Thanks so much for this. I was too young to really follow the golden age of pirate radio, but was aware it was going on. As a early teen in the late 80s it motivated me into SWLing and to get my ham license which I enjoy to this day. I do think it's weird radio is regulated by your post office. Strange.

[@alancordwell9759]

Great series Lewis, really enjoyed it! Thank you.

[@stuart7779]

great series!thanks, keep up the good work!

[@winstonchurchill6506]

They raised the jolly roger flag for the last time.cheers that man have a good weekend from sunny nottingham.....

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks mate!

[@traveleractual]

This has been a fantastic series, many thanks!

[@MickMcMadder]

Awesome job on this series Lewis, many thanks for making this entertaining content for us. The pinnacle would be to see all the Aquarius team sat around a pub table. with Gordon, reminiscing about the cat 'n mouse chases.

[@richiehoyt8487]

It's a nice idea, isn't it, but it seems to me (and this is just what I took from the story) that there was probably too much bad feeling there. As mentioned at the end, Gordon would be in his 80's now, and these events _were_ getting on for 50 years ago (50 years... kerrist!) so, assuming he's still alive, he _may_ have mellowed as he got older, particularly with retirement; tbh though, he just sounds like one of life's humourless l8o[[oxes. For their part, it seemed to me a bit of a 'greasy' move on Aquarius' part, 'Doxing' Gordon, although there doesn't seem to have been any such thing as a concept of friendly rivalry on _his_ part. _"Arr, No Quarter lads! Throw them to the shaaarks, Aye!"_ Anyway, I suppose the likelihood of his kids getting bullied at school, or him having his windows 'put in' by an overzealous anorak in those far - off pre - internet days seem a little unlikely! I'm surprised that, at least as far as one can tell, the GPO men never 'copped - on' to the fact that the Aquarius gang were able to listen in on their conversations... did they imagine that Aquarius had an especially effective network of look - outs or something? Had I been one of the players at the time, I would have espoused having 'a couple' (2 or 3) quickly built low power sacrificial transmitters, and having 'a couple' of volunteers putting their heads on the block for the odd fine, just to prevent the possibility of the opposition scrambling/multiplexing their signal on account of the likelihood of being eavesdropped - or at least employing more than one frequency or even simpler, just using it more judiciously and employing codewords... I mean, did they seriously never wonder what were the odds of their favourite 'hippies' scattering from the woods like pheasants from a thicket (or like doggers scattering upon an incursion by the fuzz) upon their approach, and the signal 'mysteriously' going off - air at inopportune times. I suppose notwithstanding the pirates' ability to listen in on the movements of the GPO raid teams, the raiders were just too 'durn' successful in taking on Aquarius', and as for Aquarius having to "allow" themselves to be prosecuted and fined the odd time, the idea would have seemed just too funny! At the end of the day, it wasn't like the stakes were the North Atlantic Convoys, and the knowledge that the ENIGMA codes had been broken, or anything! Anyway, that was fascinating and evocative listening. I don't know if Chris would ever have the opportunity, (or his listeners the interest), to do something on the quite different environment that obtained for pirates in the Irish Republic around this time (or slightly later) simply due to the bureaucratic and legislative inertia then the norm in that country. From cassette recorders, car batteries and wet string in the woods, things quickly evolved to highly slick 50KW behemoths with pretensions on broadcasting across the Irish Sea to listeners _in_ the Manchester and Liverpool areas. (Actually, I believe that as late as the '90's a million watt "border blaster" (1,000,000 watts - is that even _possible?!_ ) was beaming an FM programme into Belfast from a boggy low lying site 100 or so miles away on the border. Apparently, part of the reason for all that juice was 'cos the owner was trying to guide in 'the mothership' - seriously! Still, didn't hurt their effectiveness as a station, obviously. Finally, apropos none of the above, some absolutely _beautiful_ photography in the last few minutes of the podcast there, I thought!

[@ewhilton]

Thanks for the great series!

[@NoddyAlba]

Really enjoyed this story thank you

[@Phil-M0KPH]

A very interesting series, thanks for putting it together.

[@mattwhitehall9536]

A fantastic series. Excellent.

[@harbselectronicslab3551]

Thanks for the series....really enjoyed it.

[@therealdjflip]

Really enjoyed this series, makes me wonder how many if any were in or perhaps are still here l in Australia

[@andrewmcphee8965]

Love your work, thank you!

[@andymann1231]

Hiya mate a very good series setting up a radio station is easy these days wth affordable transmitters from china

[@xandervideo1]

This series has been brilliant; I've really enjoyed it. So many familiar situations from my own times getting chased round tower blocks by the DTI. :-)

[@Mike.Howard]

It's been a great series - brilliant work!

[@LondonCityEvents]

Great series Lewis we need more like this 👍🏻🔥 thank you 🙏 👍🏻

[@the80hdgaming]

Once again, another great video... Thank you Lewis for providing us with great content with outstanding topics... Keep them coming good sir... We'll all be waiting anxiously for your next vid... DE VA3RIW...

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much!

[@JamesMears76]

Really interesting series thank you very much

[@ProdigalPorcupine]

Great series, Lewis, and again - the filmography, especially the sunset shots, is first class! The question is; how are you going to follow this up? You've set one hell of a high benchmark for yourself! :-)

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much! There’s lots coming to follow up :)

[@erikmutthersbough6508]

Great series. I can't wait to see what you have next for us.

[@ravingdavid69]

this has been so good thanks for sharing

[@dieselbushcraft1299]

Excellent series Lewis 👍

[@zedwhyex]

Brilliant series, thanks for the hard work! :)

[@Isochest]

The transmitter or its power supply at least looked like a disembowelled 19 set!!

[@adeptpeasant6161]

Thanks for this Interesting series.

[@robertabbott7770]

When you think about it , if it were not for the pirate radio ships , then these small independent pirate radio stations . Would we have the multitude of local radio stations , and now internet radio ? Pioneers that were ahead of their time !!!! Remember Radio 1 did not exist until September 30th 1967 .

[@mickusbombickus]

really enjoyed that series ... brilliant

[@johnhagen31]

Excellent stuff! I know nothing about radio but I was there when it was all happening. To my ignorant brain it seems that pirates often interefered with many peoples' lives, not to mention emergency and serious users. So to me they'e always been the scum of the earth - if they really love radio, why not study and become a licenced ham? However, I thnk that those who monitor transmissions are fine espeially in these days of encryption for sensitive services. I enjoy your work!

[@stevemumbling7720]

I got busted on back in 1980 by Eric Gotts. Funny that I remember that name. He actually said to me "you know you're no-one in this business until you've been busted by Eric Gotts". Fortunately there was only two of the on-air team at the station at the time. Neither of us could remember who the other half dozen people involved were... funny that.

[@m7spi]

Thankyou for this informative video series, really intrestening and informative 73s M7SPI

[@bloodyl_uk]

Great stuff, thanks Ringway! :)

[@davidcovington901]

Magnificent postlude, like the end of American Graffiti but no tragedies.

[@SquirreliciousMe]

Great little series, I love stuff from before everything became so commercial and hard work - even if it was a little sketchy :-)