Special Moments 

In the 40+ year history of FRS-Holland as an independent free radio station, quite a number of eventful stories can be told. Under the title ‘Special moments’ we have selected a number…

Special moments (1)

When broadcasting for such a long period, there are always a number of remarkable events to remember. For instance that Sunday in February 1980 when an attempt was made for a first test on 6265 kHz. Everything which could go wrong went wrong. The tx couldn’t be tuned up properly, the aerial did not hang any higher than a clothesline and to make matters even worse: we got an unwanted visit in the person of the mayor of the town we were transmitting from who apparently was walking with his beloved little doggie. The transmitting gear was lying all over the ground, he approached Peter V. & Bobby S. and mumbled: “mmm, radio electric equipment.” Then he left. Seconds later Speed shouted: “pack up and go!” and we never left the location faster than on that particular Sunday.

Sunday September 20th 1981 Peter arrived at his house after putting FRS on the air. He never stayed on the actual transmitting location but only returned to change programme cassettes (in alternation with others). The 41 mb signal was so weak at his home receiver that he decided to go back to the location to retune the tx. But the signal remained weak. At 11.00 CET hours Peter had enough of it and switched off 7315. Two weeks later it appeared 41 metres had been doing very well. Only: what Peter didn’t know was that conditions were a bit weird. Up till that moment he always had received good signals at his home, so that situation was very uncommon to him…

Special moments (2)

Another date to remember is Sunday December 20th 1981, the 17th regular FRS transmission in succession and the second annual X‑Mas broadcast. What was going on? Peter had already put all transmitting equipment in his car the day before on Saturday evening. It was a very cold night and when FRSH Christmas programmes started up just before 10 CET that Sunday, it appeared the cassette machine was completely frozen . As a result the programme cassette was playing at an irregular speed… indeed it was sounding ‘just a bit different’. Some 30 minutes later a new machine was put into service.

The Free Radio Service Holland would perhaps have never made it onto the air without the indespensable help of Barry Stephens. In the late 70s British stations ruled the SW airwaves and European Music Radio, Barry’s brainchild, was the most popular station of them all. Right from the beginning FRS-Holland had close bonds with EMR and Barry. No surprise then that Peter V. stepped into SW radio via EMR: he hosted the Dutch service on EMR in 1979 & 1980. When EMR was raided October 1980, FRSH started relaying EMR on a regular basis. As a result of the raid on FRSH in January 1983, it was impossible to continue the EMR relays. Barry Stephens decided to close down E.M.R. for good and Peter arranged a Dutch relay for E.M.R.’s very final SW broadcast which took place on May 29th 1983. However: the party was spoilt because the E.M.R. tapes didn’t arrive in time at the location. The result was that the broadcast was moved to June 12th. One week earlier, on June 5th, FRSH was on the air with a repeat of the May 15th (don’t get confused by all those dates…) broadcast which had badly been affected by poor conditions. But what happened? When FRSH started broadcasting on 7317 kHz via a British relay on June 5th , E.M.R. commenced broadcasting on the very same frequency via the aforementioned Dutch relay. It appeared the Dutch OP was mistaken and switched on his transmitter a week too early !! For some 10 minutes sister stations E.M.R. & FRS-Holland were interfering with each other, a rather unique but also funny incident!

The first time that strange propagation conditions seriously influenced a FRSH 3rd Sunday broadcast was on May 15th 1983. A strange phenemenon‑ something what was totally unknown to the station‑ happened that day:… long skip. The signal was totally inaudible for more than an hour although Peter Verbruggen listened at a 300 km distance from the FRS transmitting site. He was rather confused, so were quite a number of listeners who thought that the broadcast had been cancelled. That day the terms “dead zone” & “long skip” were added to Peter’s vocabulary.
When FRS first started, the crew were hardly aware of things like propagation & 11 year sunspot cycle. It was only years later that it was realised that during and after the period of  FRS‑Holland’s start, broadcasting, conditions were very favourable to say the least. No doubt that greatly contributed to the fact the 10,000 mW signal was doing so well all over the place. One of the best periods as far as listener’s feedback is concerned was between October 1981 and March 1982.

Special moments (3)

It’s always hurts realizing your beloved transmitters are being confiscated. And it certainly gave a sad feeling knowing those two 10W built‑in transmitters in that wooden trunk changed hands in January 1983. But that’s not the end of the story. Just for your understanding: the wooden trunk in which both 807 driven transmitters were housed, was owned by Frankie Fanatic’s father. Frankie presented the Album Show during FRS‑Holland’s first months. A couple of years after the raid, he & his father watched a news affair programme on Dutch television. The programme carried a report about illegal radio stations. Imagine their surprise when the FRS transmitters in the original wooden trunk appeared on television! And that’s how the FRS people found out that the two confiscated 10W txs hadn’t been destroyed, something which was quite common with illegal broadcasting equipment at the Dutch RCD in those days. It appeared the transmitters were stored in a basement in the headquarters of the RCD in Nederhorst den Berg, together with a selected number of other transmitters. It appeared that the RCD saved some of the most unique equipment they had confiscated over the years. Not only the FRS ones in that wooden trunk but also FM txs hidden in a vacuum a and a coffee maker (just to name a few examples). In the late 1980s both FRS rigs were again shown on Dutch television, in a current affairs programme. And it was in the Summer of 1994 that the RCD‑ a division of the Dutch PTT‑ organised a very special exhibition called “On the air, off the air”. This exhibition was held in The Hague and covered the history of the RCD. Exhibits were several unique samples of confiscated txs. And yes, the FRS-Holland txs were among the exhibits. Joop ter Zee, Gerd & Peter Verbruggen visited that exhibition, now more than 20 years ago and one of the photos was used for the special colourful 1994 14th Birthday QSL-card. The wooden trunk moved back to Nederhorst den Berg but in 2005 the RCD (in the mean time they became AT) moved to Amersfoort. In 2023 the name of the agency was changed again, this time into Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur (RDI). Whether the FRS trunk also moved to Amersfoort remains unknown.

During the 1980s a number of free radio magazines regularly organized popularity polls. And FRS‑Holland scored a number of very good results. In the November 1982 poll organised by the Uk based FRS News magazine, FRS took a 5th position behind Caroline SW, Radio Nova Dublin, Sunshine Dublin & Britain Radio Int. A 3rd place behind BRI & Apollo was the result of a SW poll from Airspec News‑another UK magazine‑ in March 1983. The German KDKC magazine (Köln Dusseldorfer Kurzwelle Club) organised polls in 1982 & 1983. In 1982 FRS was chosen as the #1 station ahead of Radio Wunderland, Radio Krypton, Radio Quadro, Britain Radio Int. & Radio East Coast Commercial. A year later, in the June 1983 poll, the station was again chosen as the #1 SW station leaving behind Radio Gerona, BRI, Radio Apollo, Radio Nolan & Süd West Radio.
The 1986 & 1987 Pin‑Magazine polls were the most successful ones in FRS’ history. In both polls there were # 1 positions in the categories “Best SW Station”, “Best Listener’s Service” and “Best DX‑Show”. Finally we mention the Spring of 1995. The reborn German magazine Radio News organised a poll and in the short wave catagory FRS‑Holland was voted as the number 1 station.

Special Moments (4)

On Sunday January 17th 1982 FRS‑Holland was received in Union City, USA. Quite astonishing is the fact that the 7315 kHz/41 mb signal crossed the Atlantic after 09:00 GMT, a relatively late time for Transatlantic reception! A month later the surprise was even greater: during FRS‑Holland’s 19th transmission on February 21st conditions were absolutely wonderful and this resulted in yet another 41mb report, this time from Mar del Plata in Argentina, that isn’t exactly on the doorstep…. Remember FRS was using no more than 10,000 milliWatts in those days!

Although most of FRS‑Holland’s trms have been broadcasted within the 48 & 41 mb, also some other frequencies have been given a try. For instance on Sunday morning September 9th 1990 when a 19 mb test was running on 15046 kHz/19 metres in parallel with 6240. Two months earlier‑ on July 15th 1990‑ saw FRS’ debut transmission on 31 metres on 9985 kHz. A report from Finland proved reception during this night time broadcast was fair. No doubt FRS‑Holland’s most memorable broadcast took place on Sunday October 21st 1990 when the 10th Birthday celebrations were to be heard on no less than 5 different frequencies: 6275 & 6290 in the 48 mb, 7290 & 7490 on 41 metres and 9985 in the 31 mb. Especially on 7490 kHz, that day running at a power of 90W, reception was amazing from Italy to Scandinavia and from the UK to the Eastern part of Germany. No less than 140 letters were received making the people at the Herten Post Office rather curious. Somebody declared this enormous amount letters was because of Peter Verbruggen’s birthday leaving the charming lady behind the counter in a rather confused state.  

A matter to be discussed separately were the relays via Johan Rood’s Radio Delmare. Following the raid in January 1983, FRS‑Holland continued via a number of relay stations. The real thing started in July. On the 24th of that month a new episode in the life of FRSH began when regular 3rd Sunday relays commenced via the powerful Radio Delmare outlet on 6206.7 kHz. Six months after the start of Delmare relays, FRS‑Holland introduced a brand new 6 hour programme schedule running from 10.00‑16.00 CET. Consequently FRS was the station with the most comprehensive programme schedule during that period. 
Delmare was raided on Monday March 26th 1984 because of its 227 metres medium wave broadcasts. That raid caused a 7 month period of non‑Delmare relays between March 1984 and October 1984. During the first 5 months of 1986 Radio Delmare’s transmitter was silent for security reasons. All in all 40 transmissions were aired via the powerful Delmare outlet.The Delmare relays continued until May 1987 when Radio Delmare was again raided. This time during a FRS‑Holland relay on 6206. Strangely enough the FRS programme‑tapes were not confiscated by the Belgian authorities contrary to the March 1984 tapes: these were confiscated during the 227 m raid. They happened to be lying in the Delmare studio at the moment of the raid.

Another subject is the production side of the radio hobby. The best and most memorable FRS production is the 270 minute sound documentary “10 Years in the Life of the Free Radio Service Holland“. Joop ter Zee & Peter Verbruggen cooperated closely and that resulted in a comprehensive story covering almost every aspect of the station as well as a close look on how a free radio station on short wave is being operated. Peter Verbruggen was responsible for the script and Joop ter Zee did the technical part including mixing & mastering. Considerable effort was put into it‑ the entire job took some 160 hours ‑ but the result was worth it. If you are interested: this production on three C‑90s, on MiniDisc, CD, DVD or MP3 still is available via FRS Sales Productions. For more info send a mail to frs@frsholland.nl  or P.O. Box 2702 in Herten. There’s a special info‑sheet containing all details how to obtain this fantastic production!