FRS History 1990-1999

Early 1992 FRS offered a new big size red & blue car sticker.

Slow start of the year & collector's items
Apart from an USA test, it would take no less than four months before the first 1992 broadcast would be made. First we look at the test: March 15^th it went out on 6283 with presenters Joop ter Zee, JB and Peter Verbruggen. The actual output was no less than 700W from a transmitter purchased a few weeks earlier. Four USA reports came in. Looking at the comprehensive FRS programme library, only very few original programme tapes are missing. Reasons for missing are the raids or in the case of February 27^th 1983 not being returned to the FRS headquarters. There must be at least one example of tapes which were recorded but never went on air. A proposed two hour relay on Sunday March 15^th had to be cancelled because the package with programmes arrived after the weekend. Miscommunication meant that the  next two weekends no further attempts were made to put them on air and in the end it was decided to leave it that way. In some way those programme cassettes have become true ‘collector’s items… 

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“Bobby Speed and I drove already early that Sun morning to Belgium. Arriving at the site, we found out it couldn’t be used because of FM tests. Luckily we could use an alternative one very close to it, still in the direct vicinity of the Belgian-German border. We had to erect the aerial on the roof of a hotel. We tested at 09:25 CET and our monitoring post in Hoogeveen received a fine 6275 kHz signal despite a relatively low hanging aerial some 2 metres above the hotel roof.” 

However: conditions that day were poor and response was very disappointing. Certainly when looking of all the efforts being made for this 6 hour broadcast. It were the best FRS Shows since a long time with the perhaps one of the best ever FRS presenting team consisting of Tony Mitchell, JB, Stefan Kramer, Peter Verbruggen and Joop ter Zee… JB would be doing his final FRS show as he explains in the first of the next two sound clips...

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FRS goes DX bi monthly; nightly Transatlantic tests
As from May 1992 onwards ‘FRS Goes DX’ became a bi-monthly magazine and that would remain until the final edition in the second half of the 90s. In the mean time the magazine had developed from a simple newssheet to a serious magazine and...FRS goes DX became 10 years old! In the night of Saturday June 6th into Sunday June 7th FRS carried out a night time transmission via well known powerhouse LWR- Live Wire Radio from the UK.  Between 01:15- 03:15 CEST the LWR signal went out on 6232, followed by another nearly 3 hours on 6224 from the FRS site. Looking at the early morning times, response was quite good with some 25 letters including reports from Newfoundland and New York, Lithuania and Russia (some 1500 km east of Moscow!). Saturday July 25th  another 3 hour night time broadcast took place with the 150W FRS transmitter. Already after a few minutes technical problems – the modulator broke down- forced FRS to quit. Another transmitter with an built-in modulator was switched on but only after 20 minutes problems with the high voltage meant a definitive end of this nightly adventure. Apart from the first 20 minutes, these tapes have also become ‘collector’s tapes’. For the unofficialcelebration of the 12th anniversary, the FRS people had something special in mind: 4 hours of shows were recorded which would be aired from the magic forest: the site which was used until the raid during the period August 1980- January 1983.  FRS used the 10W spare transmitter from the old days which in the mean time had been converted into a 20W rig. The broadcast took place on 6285 and was unsuccessful. Therefore a repeat was carried out on September 26th into the 27th, this time not a mobile one. That same day the broadcast was widely promoted during the annual Bürscheid meeting. However, skip made reception impossible in most parts of the usual FRS reception area. A lot of effort had been for nothing.

12th anniversary
Following a relatively modest 11^th birthday in 1991, FRS felt it was time to do something extra and the official 12^th birthday celebrations took place on Sunday October 18^th 1992. FRS decided to use 7425 kHz within the 41 mb and the idea was to have a second transmitter operating on 6200 kHz 48 metres. That transmitter would broadcast three times for 15 minutes a non-stop short message to make listeners aware of the 7425 programmes. During each session the message, inviting the listeners to retune to 7425, was repeated some 10 times. The messages were aired at approx. 09:25, 10:25 & 11:25 CET. 

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The same location which was used during FRS’ 10^th anniversary two years earlier was used and on Saturday 17^th just before 20:00 hours a short test emanated on 7425. The following morning a strong and well modulated signal could be picked up by many FRS listeners. Programmes lasted from 09:35 till 14:00 CET. Thanks to the 6200 messages many DX-ers retuned to 7425 resulting in no less than 70 letters, the best broadcast since the October one in 1990! A special Birthday QSL was issued for this festive broadcast. It shows the heavy Lorenz tx, power supply, a separate 200W modulator plus audio equipment. Only 90 QSLs were printed; certainly a collector's item.

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Holiday Season
The 1992 Holiday Season was- looking at the number of broadcasts- quite eventful! Sunday December 20^th a 4 hour X-Mas broadcast was put out from two different locations. The first two hours on 6210 via the FRS site with 150W followed by two hours on 6200 with 200W. Apart from this, there was more FRS activity over the Holiday Season. X-Mas Eve saw an extra broadcast between 18:00- 21:15 CET on 3910. That one was repeated X-Mas Day 09:00- 12:15 CET on 7380 kHz. Yet another 76 mb broadcast on 3915 was made that same evening between 20:00- 00:30 CET. It was a complete repeat of the December 20^th programmes via a Scottish relay. Boxing Day the Scottish station repeated the shows on 6280 and 15045 kHz but due to TV interference the relay only took an hour and both transmitters went off air.  Finally on Sunday December 27^th between 05:00- 08:00 CET FRS tested with just over 500W to North America. Response was nil!  

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