Previously with Irish Short Wave Pirates - now with Licensed Radio

Declan A Walsh

Here's another angle on radio personnel's previous experience. As per the title, can you think of people that were involved with Irish pirate stations that were largely short wave based, and who are now involved with licensed radio in some capacity?

As of now, I can only think of one. Declan Meehan was with Radio Vanessa during the first half of the 1970s. He is now a presenter on Wicklow's East Coast FM. I think it qualifies as it also had a Medium Wave presence as well, but the Short Wave component was an important aspect of the station.

On that topic of stations which used more than one frequency, I would not include stations that experimented with short wave transmissions, but were largely based on Medium Wave and/or FM, for example Radio Dublin and Dublin's Coast FM (1990s).

What I am looking for is examples of people that were with largely short wave stations? I allowed Radio Vanessa (and Declan Meehan| as the short wave frequency was a major part.

So, any other current examples?

Ger Roe

Eddie Caffrey on LMFM - was the main man behind Radio Rainbow International.
He was heavily involved with Boyneside Radio at the time and Rainbow was a weekend hobby station, to exercise his technical skills.

Details here :

http://www.dxarchive.com/ireland__sw_radio_rainbow_international.html

Declan A Walsh

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Here's another angle on radio personnel's previous experience. As per the title, can you think of people that were involved with Irish pirate stations that were largely short wave based, and who are now involved with licensed radio in some capacity?

As of now, I can only think of one. Declan Meehan was with Radio Vanessa during the first half of the 1970s. He is now a presenter on Wicklow's East Coast FM. I think it qualifies as it also had a Medium Wave presence as well, but the Short Wave component was an important aspect of the station.

On that topic of stations which used more than one frequency, I would not include stations that experimented with short wave transmissions, but were largely based on Medium Wave and/or FM, for example Radio Dublin and Dublin's Coast FM (1990s).

What I am looking for is examples of people that were with largely short wave stations? I allowed Radio Vanessa (and Declan Meehan| as the short wave frequency was a major part.

So, any other current examples?

I should have said Radio Valleri! Declan Meehan went by the name of Arno St. Jude!

EDIT: I'm just after checking the timeline for Radio Valleri going shortwave and now I realise that Declan was with them when they were on medium wave but they were not at that stage on shortwave....so he has to be ruled out now!!

However, thanks to Ger, "Heady" Eddie Caffrey is at least one example.

dxhound2005

Eddie Caffrey was also involved in Radio Fax which broadcast from Drogheda. His name is on their QSL card. There is a link to a picture of him at the bottom of the page.

http://radiofax.org/

Declan A Walsh

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Eddie Caffrey was also involved in Radio Fax which broadcast from Drogheda. His name is on their QSL card. There is a link to a picture of him at the bottom of the page.

http://radiofax.org/

I see Steve Conway of 8Radio.com was involved too. You would be forgiven for thinking it was a UK station. It's described as Britain's No. 2 Short Wave Station!

Most of the names seem to be British and at least two were connected directly or indirectly with offshore pirate Radio Caroline at the time - Steve Conway and Peter Moore.

I can only imagine the amount of People here scratching their heads "shortwave what ? "

Some interesting stuff on SW particularly at night.

ford fiesta

Deleted User wrote: »

I can only imagine the amount of People here scratching their heads "shortwave what ? "

I would disagree with you. Plenty of people know what Short Wave is

ford fiesta

ford fiesta wrote: »

I would disagree with you. Plenty of people know what Short Wave is

In my experience most People I've talked to do not know Shortwave exists or the fact they can buy a radio and listen to distant stations from all over the world.

Maybe a poll would be interesting......

Declan A Walsh

Deleted User wrote: »

In my experience most People I've talked to do not know Shortwave exists or the fact they can buy a radio and listen to distant stations from all over the world.

Maybe a poll would be interesting......

Done. This is my first time doing this on Boards!

Pelvis Parsley

I am by no means any good with broadcasting history-I'm big into the radios themselves alright, in terms of the tech side of it, that said, I had no idea as to the extent with which Irish stations broadcasted on the SW bands.

As such, this is all very interesting. In brief, setting up a local MW transmitter is one thing-a lot of surplus equipment available back in the day, and could be run unobtrusively if not discreetly (selling ads and such) at relatively low power.

SW is a different beast. It's designed for international, demands high power-which no doubt those guys didn't have-and I have to wonder what the commercial or otherwise point of it was?

Still though, it's intriguing stuff. Even if it made no sense based on the fact that most transistor receivers or car radios at the time would have had no such capability anyway.

Declan A Walsh

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Done. This is my first time doing this on Boards!

Congrats but perhaps yes I have could have been just yes ? might have thrown some people off actually answering because they might know what it is but not have it/listen.

i clicked yes I have.

Can you edit to yes

yes and I listen

no

Pelvis Parsley

Declan, I've voted, but it's a false positive, as per my post above.

My teenage kids are familiar with my radios, but don't have a clue about them. They don't know what wavebands are, or RDS, "the name comes up on the screen Dad"

I'd have to think twice about my local FM frequencies for that matter. Unless I'm aligning a set or something.

Declan A Walsh

Deleted User wrote: »

Congrats but perhaps yes I have could have been just yes ? might have thrown some people off actually answering because they might know what it is but not have it/listen.

i clicked yes I have.

Can you edit to yes

yes and I listen

no

I did a few previews before I finally submitted, but still managed to make a mistake! I meant to say: Yes I do. I tried to edit the source code (seriously!) but it would not save it.

Need a lot more than 7 votes lol

I think he very title of this thread will only attract People who know about shortwave.

Declan A Walsh

Deleted User wrote: »

Need a lot more than 7 votes lol

I think he very title of this thread will only attract People who know about shortwave.

That was the original intention after all!