1990

The cover of  ‘FRS Goes DX’ issue number 91 being published February 2nd 1990 spoke volumes:

Disappointing 1990 start 

“Several problems Prevented FRS-Holland from introducing its brand new programme schedule January 21st. In the mean time preparations are continuing to bring back the station on air as soon as possible. The new jingle package is almost finished. A new German deejay, Johnny Best, will replace Danny Kay who was forced to leave the station because of personal circumstances. Contrary to what some people suggest, FRS-Holland is still looking for a suitable and reliable transmitting location to secure monthly 3rd Sunday transmissions.” 

Also February would be an FRS-less month: no 3rd Sunday broadcast. A second test was conducted to reach the land of Uncle Sam on February 11th. Between 06.00 and 07.50 CET a 150W signal went out on 6240. Unfortunately also this test was without the results the FRS people were hoping for. Looking back the main reason could have been the fact the aerials were hanging too low badly affecting the radiation pattern.
Listeners had to wait till March 18th before hearing the first 1990 transmission, aimed at listeners in Central & Western Europe. It was a brief 60 minute test with the 150W FRS transmitter tuned to 7307 kHz. Joop ter Zee presented the show which was received in good quality- speaking in FRS terms- from Oslo to Munich and London to Berlin …. In his show he informed the listeners about FRS’ upcoming re-commencement of scheduled transmissions. And: there was something special to celebrate preventing Peter V. to be on air that day. It was one of the very rare- perhaps the only- occasion(s) that Joop ter Zee started up a broadcast.

Finally on the air

Sunday April 22nd DXers all over Europe could hear ‘Peace’ from Peter loud and clear at 09.54 CET. It was the first regular FRS transmission into the 1990’s and FRS was happy it could keep its promise made in ‘FRS goes DX’ magazine #92: “In April we will be defenitly on air.” A new set of jingles was finally introduced. And: Joop ter Zee came up with a new show. No more Sound Alternatives after almost 8 years!

A new and most welcome voice in the FRS family was that of Johnny Best better known as ‘JB’. Many German listeners knew him already from a couple of other shortwave free radio stations (for instance Radio Victoria) and looking at the April mail a lot of faithful FRS listeners were quite happy knowing he had joined the FRS-Holland ranks! In his very first Show Johnny introduced a couple of new items such as Free Radio News in brief, a Free Radio Spot and a listeners’ corner.

June 1990; new jingles

Was the April transmission quite successful, no doubt the June one was disappointing. The 120W transmitter, which was going to be used, was not operational and power had to be reduced to some 30W which is in most cases more than enough to put out a good signal. However, the very bad conditions ruined most of the broadcast. Besides: it was intended to use 7307 but due to utility a move to 7310 had to be made, causing interference problems with Radio Tirana in the early afternoon. The June 17th broadcast lasted for almost 5 hours and for instance in the UK the FRS signal was very weak.

Time	Programme	Presenter
09:54	Opening: station IDs & theme tune
10:02	FRS Magazine	Peter Verbruggen
10:45	FRS Golden Show	Joop ter Zee
11:15	FRS goes DX	Peter verbruggen
12:00	German Show	Johnny Best
12:45	Mailbox 2727	Gerd & Peter
13:15	Short SW Parade	Joop ter Zee
14:00	Mark Stafford Show	Mark Stafford

In the mean time a complete new set of voice overs were introduced in the usual setting with Peter Verbruggen being the responsible person for the lyrics and Joop ter Zee doing the mixing part of the job with the help of FRS’s CD production library. The voice overs were recorded in the USA by Nolan, his voice would become the familiar FRS voice as far as jingles & promos is concerned.

Evening & nighttime tests on 31 metres

In July there was quite some activity starting on July 1st with tests on 7310 & 7440 kHz. A week later saw brief tests on 9985, 7305/7310 (very brief) & 7480 KHz. Power was 40W and in particular the 7480 signal did very well. At the end of the 1980’s a new phenomenon surfaced in SW free radio land: evening and nighttime transmissions, mainly from Saturday into Sunday. As these transmissions became more and more popular among the listening audience, FRS-Holland decided to give it try. Running the risk of being caught during a nighttime transmission is relatively small and that’s the reason the Saturday July 14th transmission (into the 15th) was carried out with own equipment. In the early evening an 31 mb aerial was constructed and at 21:54 UTC the first FRS nighttime and at the same time 31mb transmission took to the air. Power on 9985 kHz was 40W and on 6240 150W. On the latter frequency an extremely strong signal was radiated. Skip on 9985 was more than 500 km’s . Reports from as far as Finland and Moscow/ Russia were received for the 6240 and 9985 outlets.

More tests in high frequencies

On Sunday July 22nd a morning test went out on 9985 between 10.40-11.30 CET. It was a (partly) repeat of the July 15th programmes. The 40W signal could be easily picked up in Spain, Scandinavia and Switzerland indicating that 31 metres was an excellent choice to realize solid long distance reception. Friday August 10th saw a 45 min. test from 00:00- 00:45 CET on 6245 (80W).
A further experimental test was radiated Saturday September 8th/ Sunday 9th 23:54- 01:30 CET when FRS was on 6240 with 120W in parallel with 15046 kHz/ 19mb using 50W. Sunday morning the test was repeated on 6240 & 15046 kHz from 10:00- 11:30 CET. Among the more than 40 reports, there were a number of taped ones and that brings us to an interesting topic. Sinpo’s on a written report are a very personal matter for each listener. He puts his own interpretation on a received signal. A taped report is, from the station’s point of view, more objective because it isn’t open to misinterpretations. The recording is a very good means to hear how the signal was. Anyway, before any misunderstandings will arise: the overall quality of the SINPO reports for FRS transmissions has always been satisfactory. FRS has a large collection of off air recordings tape and in its archives.
Just for the record, this 4 minute compilation contains off air recordings from May 23rd 1982 on 7315 (ILLS-Chris & Peter; QTH unknown), February 19th 1984 on 7315 (FRS goes DX; made in Duisburg,Germany), January 30th 1983 on 41 metres (Peter Verbruggen about raid 2 weeks earlier; QTH unknown) and October 12th 1986 on 6830 kHz via UK based IRRS (FRS goes DX Peter V.; QTH unknown).

Activities between two broadcasts

So far no complete answer has been given as to the question what has to be done between two broadcasts to run the station properly ? Peter V. is the ideal person to answer this question…

“From time to time new ideas have to be worked out, new jingles must be recorded not to forget taking care of a representative info package, qsl’s and stickers. Most important however remain the programme-recordings and the close contacts with the listening audience. In my humble opinion every serious letter from the listener deserves a personal answer from us. Of course there also are people only interested in a qsl. But frankly speaking: the majority of our mail consists of sincerely interested listeners writing interesting letters containing criticism, opinions and personal info. That’s great!”

10 Years in the Life of FRS-Holland documentary

In September the preparations for the FRS Birthday transmission ánd the 10 Years documentary started continuing till the end of October 1990. Peter produced the script for what would become a lively 4½ hour (!) documentary entitled ’10 Years in the Life of FRS-Holland’. Joop and Peter did the voice-overs and several FRS deejays gave assistance to complete this fascinating story. Joop was responsible for mixing and mastering. Many, many hours were spent to come up with the definitive FRS Story at least: for the first 10 years. The story starts in the late 70s guiding you- in chronicle order- through the 80s. Facts, background info, contributions from numerous FRS presenters, jingles and programme extracts from the large FRS programme library…these were the main ingredients. By the end of October 1990 the documentary was finished and a promo spot was recorded.
The full 270 minute documentary can be purchased from FRS Sales Productions on CD/mp3 etc. For details send an email to frs@frsholland.nl .

10th Anniversary On Air celebrations

The FRS 10^th anniversary should have been celebrated in August 1990 but due to several circumstances it was decided to wait another two months. Looking back not a bad decision! Propagation conditions on October 21st happened to be superb. To secure a fine signal in the UK, FRS contacted a very reliable UK station. Much to our surprise the OP agreed, we knew that he usually wasn’t in for relays. A second relay would come from the European continent. The original idea was to include the 10 years documentary within the birthday programming. However, the documentary lasted no less than 270 minutes and together with the presenters’ programmes that would be much too long. Therefore we decided to do put out the documentary on a different date.
Preparations for this special anniversary started during Summer. In ‘FRS goes DX’ magazine 97/98 from July/ August listeners were invited to participate by sending taped messages . Former presenters were approached as well to share their memories.
Several collegue stations sent taped congratulations.
October 14^th all former and current Dutch FRS deejays got together in Joop ter Zee’s studio and the FRS Birthday Party was recorded. Two video camcorders were shooting video footage. On Saturday October 20^th at 17:00 hours, one day before the actual anniversary broadcast would go out, a familiar voice contacted Petrer Verbruggen via the phone making an offer Peter could not refuse. Less than 1½ hours later Speed & Verbruggen drove in a car loaded with transmitting equipment to a secret location. The person offered to do the complete 4½ hour broadcast from his location. At 19:00 hours FRS was testing on 7490 kHz. A few calls learnt that it was a powerful signal. That evening it was decided to use 7308 the following day. On Sunday October 21^st the official start would be at 09.55 CET. As we were willing to occupy 6240, a popular frequency, that transmitter would already be switched on at 09.25 putting out non stop music. Bad enough 6240 was already occupied and the relay OP switched to 6245, much too close to Vatican Radio. At 09:40 CET there also was a FRS signal on 7310. For us a surprising mystery! The signal had a two minute delay compared with 6245. At that moment we realized that if the mysteryn station would stay on 7310, there would be interference with the proposed 7308 outlet. To avoid any problems, a quick decision had to be taken and at 09:48, only 7 minutes before the programmes would commence, 7490 was decided to be the definitive 41 mb channel. At 09:55 CET FRS officially started with programmes on 6290 from the UK and in addition 6245, 7310 and 7490. Already 8 minutes later the 6245 signal moved to 6275. At 10:19 7310 went silent but the signal continued on 7290 till 13.00 hours. All other signals would sign off between 14:30 and 14:39. Our own transmitter on 7490 was putting out 90W, the 6275 outlet 120W, the 6290 UK based outlet 20W. And the mystery relay on 7310 & 7290? It happened to be a friend of the one relaying us on 6275 we found out later that morning: he put out 40W. As an extra Bobby Speed used the 7490 signal on his receiver as modulation input for carrying out an extra channel being 9985 kHz. Power was 40W. The favourable propagation that morning plus the use of several frequencies made that Sunday an unforgettable Sunday with more than 100 letters being received from 13 countries. Apart from the aforementioned FRS Birthday Show with Bert van Leer, Gerd, Frankie Fanatic, Bobby Speed, Fred van Es, Peter Verbruggen and Joop ter Zee, the voices of Mark Stafford & Johnny Best were heard.
A week later, Sunday October 28th, a 2 minute message was aired a number of times on 6225 informing the listening audience the intended broadcast of the ’10 Years in the Life of FRS-Holland’ had to be postponed (see below).

FRS 10 Years documentary aired

All was settled on Tuesday November 27th: the just finished new FRS documentary should be aired on Sunday December 2nd 10:00-14:30 CET on 6275 kHz. That Friday (November 30th) the tapes were forwarded by EMS (special messenger). A ‘guarantee’ that the package would be delivered next day before 09:00 CET! The next day we received a telephone call the tapes didn’t arrive. And that meant ‘Goodbye December 2nd broadcast’.  And so it happened that the definitive FRS 10 years documentary went out on Sunday Decenber 9^th 1990. What we did that Sunday was in FRS terms ‘Just a bit different’… The 4½ hours were aired over four different transmitters from 4 completely different sites. Output powers ranged from 100 to 200W. Every time another transmitter would take over, the responsible OPps called with each other to achieve smooth change overs. Afterwards there were hardly any comments from listeners making remarks about varying signal strengths… On Sunday December 23^rd FRS would ring out 1990 with a 4 hour broadcast on 7558 kHz. Response on this broadcast happened to be rather disappointing. Perhaps a bit too much following the previous festive broadcasts… That month German presenter Stefan Kramer made his debut show taking turns with the other German presenter Johnny Best.

What kept FRS going…a few reflections

December1990 FRS-Holland had survived just over a decade in which many other stations disappeared. What kept FRS going despite several set-backs and, when will be the end was an interesting topic late 1990. What was PV’s opinion?

“I think there’s not just one reason. There are several. We do something of our own free will and we have our own responsibility towards the programmes. We’ve done things which were good in our own eyes, at least at the moment we did those things. We have always been our own master. So we made our own decisions developing from FRS as it was in 1980 to FRS as it is in the year 1990. The enthusiasm towards the medium radio also played and still plays an important role. We love to make radio on SW for an international audience. A third motive is the listeners’ response. Generally speaking we are not in the position to complaint about the response in the past 10 years. More than 3500 letters says more than enough…” We didn’t lack DRIVE, that’s for sure. And the fact we were truly serious with our intentions is proved by the finances: running FRS costed us –lots of money, just think of all those relays in the past 7½ years.”

And what was Joop ter Zee’s personal view in back in 1990 (audio)?

Technical information

Here’s some technical info relating to the situation in the late 80s and 1990: every FRS presenter recorded his programmes in his own private studio. These shows were re-recorded on the actual programme cassettes in Peter V.’s studio. Important is the use of an equalizer and a compressor/limiter. The equalizer cuts off parts of the frequency range which are unnecessary for SW broadcasts. The output of the equalizer runs through a limiter/compressor and the final result is an extremely compact sound. The original 10W rigs contained 3 valves: an ECC 82 & 6L6 for the modulation and a self -oscillating 807 for those 10W of power. It were transmitters meant for mobile use, running at a 400V high tension coming from a so-called inverter which was linked with a 12V DC car-battery. The 1990s FRS transmitter had a power of 150W as already mentioned. It had no built-in modulator like the little 10W rigs. A seperate modulator took care of a loud and clear sound which definitely was and is very important when broadcasting on shortwave. Returning to the subject of the two 10W transmitters which were confiscated during the January 1983 raid: the wooden suitcase, containing these first FRS transmitters, hasn’t been destroyed but has found its niche in a building which is (was) part of the HQ of the Dutch radio investigation service. In the eyes of the RCD officers that suitcase with the transmitters was very unique All equipment which is to be seen in a sort of pirate museum was being used to educate new officers being under training. See also Fact Files –> the first transmitters.

Mark Stafford

What was Mark Stafford’s opinion about FRS-Holland, not speaking as a FRS deejay but as an insider in the world of SW Free Radio?

Finally

At the end of 1990 a kind of mid term review could be made…. Get ready for the following FACTS all relating to FRS’ broadcasting life ……

• 10 years of FRS-Holland meant…
• More than 3500 letters from a total of 23 countries including Argentina, Austria, Belgium Denmark England, Eire, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Northern-Ireland, Russia,   Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Czechoslovakia, the USA, Wales, and West Germany;
• 300 programme cassettes;
• Almost 100 regular 3rd Sunday transmissions on more than than 20 different frequencies via at least 15 relay stations, 12 presenters and only one engineer…;
• Between a 100 and 150 jingles …;
• 8 different qsl’s in 10 colours ….;
• Only 2 stickers and countless info-sheets;
• More than 2000 IRC’s making us not rich.
• This documentary came about with the help of several FRS deejays, from past and present. Programme-extracts were selected from the FRS archives containing 300 programme cassettes comparable with more than 50 kilometres of tape. Info-sources were Peter Verbruggen’s personal logbook, formerly produced FRS histories and the ‘FRS Goes DX’ magazines.
• It took an estimated 175 hours to produce the story so far. The text for this documentary was compiled & produced by Peter Verbruggen; mixing, technical realization and final edit by Joop ter Zee.
  Copyright 1990 FRS-Holland.