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Me going ashore to Whitstable on one of the Harvester Tenders. We were trying to
beat a storm, you can just see the approaching storm clouds building in the North West - IM

Leaving Shivering Sands behind from the PS Waverley on 29th September 2005

The Waverley cruising in home waters off Scotland

The story will continue in Sutch & City Part 11

Tony Pine & Ian MacRae catch up on the foreshore at West Beach Whitstable

Tony in the midst of a plumbing job at a leisure site on Seawall, West Beach, Whitstable on Tuesday 2nd May 2006

See & hear Ian MacRae & his fellow presenters on Australia's 2UE

12/112/06 - Dear Sir, Going through the 10 parts of the Radio City 299 history a few questions remain open:

1. I cannot see any of the metal guy ropes which should hold the mast. Difficult to imagine the engineer could do without them. As space on the fort was limited, I imagine, stabilizing the mast was a problem. Or not?

Answer 1 - Of course the mast was guyed ,there are some pictures showing the detail if you look carefully

2. Shivering Sands can be seen from the coast, but there are no photographs which confirm that the coast can be seen from the fort

Answer 2 - You're not looking in the right place, there are pictures of the forts with coast in background, navigate from Boat Trips pages, there you will see this detail

3. Radio City was not directly related to the history of World War II but I have been asking myself why the forts were set up in the open sea where they could easily be spotted by hostile planes. I think three miles did not make a great difference, neither for the British nor for the Germans. But admittedly this question is beyond Radio City 299

Answer 3 - Fort Fax page has all the detail of why the forts were built, we also have books CD's & DVD's for sale which are ideal to learn more

4. Why was the power of Radio City only around 2 kW (?). If any saving on installations was deemed necessary in those days then least of all on the transmitter, I think. Because any off-shore station manager or owner of the Sixties knew that kilowatts meant coverage, and coverage meant revenue from advertisement

Answer 4 - Radio City was not cash rich as our equipment testifies, the TSA was primarily London & SE of UK, but we had good reception in other parts of Britain & a good part of mainland Europe

The 299 mmw ex-US Naval rig was rebuilt & greatly modified by our 1st engineer Don Witts, later TX engineers Phil Perkins & Ian West did a fantastic job making even more of the original equipment. City never had a decent RCA like the other stations, but managed a very acceptable signal for the required TX footprint. Radio 390 despite opinion seldom ran their 10kw at more than 5, like City the huge masts did their job very efficiently making the signal sound more powerful thatn it actually was - ED

11/12/06 - Interesting story so far ten parts of Radio City. The drawings are impressive. Unfortunately, this station was in contrast to Radio 270, Radio 390 & Caroline South too weak to be received in Northern Germany. I felt, however, that there was a station in the background. Only once on a Sunday in 1966 it broke through with a fairly strong signal & was captured with a tube-powered radio built in 1937 but was impossible with any Japanese transistor. It is regrettable that no attempts have been made to revive Radio City 299 after the pattern of Radio Caroline and BigL. DVB-S MPEG-2 in a London studio could not create the atmosphere of an off-shore fort, vinyl & the adventurousness of the staff, I think. Sincerely - Gerrit Thiessen - Germany

4/12/06 : I enjoyed the new material & especially the bits about Macca.  I have lost contact with him over the years. In fact quite a few of my "Offshore" colleagues have left the studio & are now working for the big sender in the sky.  I was shocked to find out how many have passed on.  Unfortunately I have never been a great correspondent & now regret not having kept touch with my former colleagues, what I am saying here is, your web production is a 'gem' with all its history & for me, many great memories of some really good times, I hope you keep up the steady stream of memorabilia, for one reader (me) it is precious. Thanks - Ross Brown

Ross was Ross Brown on Radio City & later Freddie Beare on Radio Caroline North

1/12/06 : Remember you asked me what I knew about the 299 transmitter, when I told you Tony & Sam took it down to the station in our band wagon? I'm pretty certain that they picked it up from Southampton, which would make a lot of sense, as Reg was based there for a few years & obviously had contacts there, also it being a NavalPport & the transmitter an ex-US Naval item. Keep up the good work - Tom Long - Pinkertons Assorted Colours

30/11/06 : Interesting stuff. I'd forgotten all about that mucking about stuff after close-down. The first photo on the page is a great shot of the towers with the big mast of Radio City in 1967 - Ian MacRae

Grateful thanks to Ian MacRae now running All About Radio & Boost Digital Australia, Ross Brown of Pacific Media Unit in Australia & to Bob Bartola & Niel Edwards for their contributions to this feature

The story continues in Sutch & City Pics - Part 11