Stuart and Keith Dobson sent me a couple of very good airchecks via the web and I was able to get a flavour for the broadcast then. I'll try and have a listen to the others from your site in the next couple of days - but I'm not sure my poor old steam powered computer can cope with all this technology!

On December 15th 1998, Dutch laws changed, and alltough unlicensed broadcasting is still not allowed, there's less the Dutch authorities can do against it, and thus they're less interested in conducting an entire operation at Easter to act against such a station. Furthermore, the vessel was too far away from the Dutch coast to create any interest from the Dutch authorities.

What a lot of people don't realise, is that the Netherlands still has an entire operation, dealing with offshore radiostations. Mart Roumen is no longer involved with -what currently's called- the "Rijksdienst voor Radiocommunicatie district Noordwest", which is based in Nederhorst den Berg (and where they keep several impounded transmitters which once used to belong to me, as a trophee). These people know the laws, and are ready to act. They know they can't act against properly organised offshore stations, but the moment they are able to act, they will. And they certainly can when you broadcast from a vessel under Dutch flag. A properly organised offshore station is a vessel with a solid, confirmed non European Union flag, with no Dutch citizens on board, and with the intention to stay outside territorial waters.

The current situation is that if you're broadcasting from a Dutch registered vessel from international waters, the Dutch authorities still can seize the ship. But they can't if you stay within the boundaries of the Netherlands. In the latter case, only the transmitter may be confiscated. And the Dutch authorities can't do anything against a solid foreign registered vessel that remains to be outside, with no Dutch people on board, and which, when she comes into Dutch territory, has her transmitters switched off.

PRESS RELEASE

The OFFSHORE 98 project postponed last year now worked on schedule over the 1999 Easter weekend.

A 30 m long fishing vessel left a main German harbour on Good Friday morning, April 2nd. The aerials where installed on the high sea. The vessel cruised under motor or on drift the whole time in international waters west off Helgoland.

Test transmissions started the same day around 1600 UTC on 6210 kHz with non-stop jingles. Also first tests on 279 kHz were carried out . On Saturday April 3rd, the shortwave transmitter was switched on at 04.45h UTC, with the opening programm starting at 05.00 UTC. The mediumwave transmitter started at 07.00h UTC and took the programm from 08.00h UTC onwards. The longwave transmitter began broadcasting around 08.30 UTC. Simultaneous broadcasting on the three frequencies went on until Easter Sunday evening with the closedown of the station at 23.00 UTC.

There were some interruptions of the transmissions due to improvements and maintenance work on the aerials. Every expert will confirm, that it is quite a challenge to operate three transmitters with aerials from a relatively small vessel under conditions never tested before. The wheather conditions were good, so in addition to taped programmes, live broadcasts from the studio were done .

As announced before, OFFSHORE 98 was planned and carried out as a single event for a non-commercial radio station truly operated from international waters of the north-sea. Only the announced ships´s name was invented by ourselves. The crew-members and a number of friends of the offshore radio stations of the past raised the money for this event.

On Easter Monday, the crew returned back on shore. Everyone of us enjoyed the challenge we took as a great experience. During the whole weekend on board, the general feeling and the cooperation of the people taking their watches around the clock in 4-hour shifts, was good.

We now highly welcome your comments and reception reports for all of the three frequencies.
THE CREW OF "OFFSHORE 98"

OFFSHORE 98, P.O.Box 2209, D-77612 Offenburg, Germany

Chris Edwards reports:

Checked around 1566, 279 and 6210 yesterday (Saturday). Nothing on 1566 here in west London, morse on 279, but a very weak signal (what's that bloody noise according to my wife) on 6210 late afternoon.

A very hastily erected and lashed up longwire aerial produced a bit better quality (or a lot of noise depending on your view) and heard an ID in German at 1600 local time (Saturday) with mention of "Offshore 98" followed by Peace by Peter and Proud Mary. Today Sunday reception is better on 6210 (6212 actually) without longwire even starts to be listenable with longwire.

Martin van der Ven reports:

On Easter Sunday morning, I managed to receive a weak signal on mediumwave 1566 kHz with my car radio. At that time I was on holiday in Denmark at the west Jutland´s North Sea coast in Vester Husby (near Ulfborg and Thorsminde). One could hear a station ID plus the German address where you could send reception reports to. There was an English speaking DJ between 11.00 and 12.00h EST seeming to have a slight Dutch accent. He played some offshore extracts and sounds from the sixties.

Hans Knot didn´t receive any signal of the station on medium-, long- and shortwave in Groningen/Netherlands.

OFFSHORE 98 from somewhere on the North Sea.

The radio project postponed last october due to wheather is now on schedule for this Saturday and Sunday, the 1999 Easter weekend.

OFFSHORE 98 will be operating on longwave 279 kHz , mediumwave 1566 kHz and shortwave 6210 kHz.
40 years of offshore radio will be celebrated in the broadcasts.

The mailing adress is :
OFFSHORE 98, P.O.Box 2209, D-77612 Offenburg, Germany
The Crew Of OFFSHORE 98

The OFFSHORE 98 broadcasts have been cancelled due to bad weather forecasts. They are postponed to a later date.

What would it mean if the liberalised Telecommunications Act would come into force for potential offshore broadcasters??? It would mean, that unlicensed "offshore radio" would become a lot more legal than it is now. It would still be illegal for Dutch citizens to be involved in offshore radio, it would still be illegal for Dutch companies to advertise on offshore stations, and also supplying the offshore station from Dutch harbours would still be illegal. However, if the offshore station and vessel would not be owned and operated by a Dutch company, what would be legal is: switching off the transmitters from the secured position in international waters, sail into a Dutch harbour and supply the vessel yourself. As the moment you enter the Dutch territorial waters and the transmitters are switched off, you'd just be a "vessel" and nothing on board (i.e. the posession of a transmitter) would be illegal. After supplying the ship IN the harbour, you could go out again and commence broadcasting once you're safe in international waters again. Advertising on an offshore station is illegal. But advertising on a cable, satellite- or Internet radiostation isn't. The ship could relay such broadcasts, as this is not being taken care off by laws.

So, there we have a dream scenario: have a small Internet, cable- or satellite-station where advertisers can advertise on (please note that Radio Monique also had a similar structure, providing programming for retail-stores and advertisers advertised on retail-store programming and not on an offshore radiostation, and none of the advertisers could ever be prosecuted by the authorities.... Radio Delmare used a local Italian station aimed at Dutch tourists for advertising, and also these advertisers couldn't be prosecuted. The only station from which advertisers were prosecuted, was Radio Mi Amigo). Have a ship relaying this programming (or at least the commercials), staff a Polish or whatever international crew on board (no Dutch) and supply the ship yourself using Dutch harbours.... it would be entirely legal...... But you can't do this before the new Telecommunications Act is in force in the Netherlands. So, if these guys really sympathise with offshore radio, they should wait till the new law is in force (not to mention that I think that -under the old law- the Dutch authorities will do all they can to close down and arrest the vessel). Because they not only want to have a reason to lobby towards Dutch parliament, they also would like to have some sort of proof and a pirate-radio-vessel chained up in a Dutch harbour would be enough evidence for them!! I already passed this information on to the people involved in "Offshore 98", but somehow I think I haven't been able to convince them.