January 1983 raid

During all those years of shortwave broadcasts, FRS‑Holland was involved in a number of raids, either directly or indirectly.
January 16th 1983 is certainly the most memorable date because is was on that day that the Dutch RCD in co‑operation with the German Bundespost, raided FRS-Holland just after the close down of the regular 3rd Sunday broadcast at 14.05 CET. At the moment that station OP Peter Verbruggen switched off the 10W tx which had been operating that morning on 7320 and later on 7315, an RCD officer who had been hiding some 10 metres next to the transmitting equipment, came out of the bushes and called in for assistance. A few moments later he was joined by a colleague and a police officer. Two 10W transmitters, two aerials, a new auto‑reverse cassette machine, one rather expensive & heavy 350 amps car battery and two inverters were confiscated. But that was not all: they drove to Peter’s house where another two brand new 40W rigs were taken plus 4 inverters. Peter’s studio equipment was left untouched because of his kind cooperation. There are a few remarkable details surrounding this black day in FRS’ history:

During this broadcast a new auto‑reverse cassette deck was used to reduce the risk. Normally 3 cassette changes had to be made during a regular 4 hour broadcast, with this new deck only one change was necessary (4 hour broadcast using 2 C-120 cassettes);
January 1983 was the first time a heavy 350 Amps car battery was used to ensure power would remain at a maximum during the whole broadcast. It was not only the first but also the last time that battery could be used…;
FRSH’s January 16th 1983 programmes should have been aired on two frequencies: 6250 & 7315. The 48 mb transmission had to be cancelled minutes before the broadcast was due to commence….a rope broke and there was simply no time to fix the job in time. What was left was the 41 mb tx normally tuned to 7315 but that morning Peter forgot the 7315 X‑tal and was forced to use a spare one being 7320. The 7315 X‑tal was put in the tx at 12.00 when programme cassettes were changed; 
Last but not least: the evening before the raid two brand new 40W txs were successfully tested in Peter’s studio on the attic of his mother’s house. Those txs had been kept on a secret place for some months and were moved to Peter’s house for the purpose of testing them out. It was a pure coincidence they were at Peter’s house during the day of the raid! The January 16th transmission produced 50 letters from 10 different countries. Exactly two weeks after the raid FRS-Holland was back with a special 90 minute broadcast informing its audience about the raid. Apart from this raid, FRSH was also indirectly involved in the raids on Radio Delmare in March 1987 and Radio New Wave on October 16th 1988.