Radio Caroline: crank up the power!

Its happened, they've upped their power.

 

At last they have a new transmitter offering more power and better audio quality.

So its expected to improve reception, both in Caroline's target area and beyond.

Putting Radio Caroline back on 199 metres

Having refurbished our Bush VHF 54 valve wireless to a point where it is now a working radio, I have discovered that the Medium Wave band is a bit of an electromagnetic desert.

The strongest station in our area is something called Talk Sport, which mostly features two guys talking utter cobblers.

So if this old wireless is going to be more than just a piece of furniture, I need to establish my own radio station.

Bush VHF 54 refurb: some new valves

A few spare parts arrived this week, so I made some progress with refurbishing this wireless.

Its now a working set, although there is a lack of sensitivity on all wavebands.

However, I can tune in stations on all three wavebands and the tuning scale is now nicely illuminated.

Bush VHF 54: thermionic valve primer

The next step in refurbishing my Bush VHF 54 wireless is to have a sniff around the valves.

I guess that anyone starting a career in electronics after about 1970 has never had to study (or work with) valves.

So here is a quick and simple primer.

Bush VHF54: rewiring

Some of the rubber coated wiring in our family wireless was so badly perished that it just snapped and dropped off the wire when moved.

There was a real danger that one of these bare wires would come into contact with one of its naked neighbours, possibly causing damage to the set.

Therefore I just had to remove and rewire the main wiring loom to make our wireless safe.

Bush VHF54: replacing the drive cord

After being on my to-do list for the last 4 years, I've finally started work on my vintage family wireless.

This 1950s valve wireless was still working at the end of 2013, although the tuning mechanism had failed.

I bought 2 metres of cord from and eBay supplier, and set about getting it running.