GPA spotted on roof 1988 Forest Hill/Honor Oak (Ground Plane Antenna)

[teckniqs]

I managed to spot what looks like another pirate aerial on a block which is now TX site for community station REPREZENTS 107.3. (1-49 Greystead Road).
These aerials are still very commonly used by many London stations today.

....Does anyone know what station this would have been in 1988?

Greystead 1.jpg

Greystead 2.jpg

[FMEnjoyer]

I may have an idea. There was a station from SE London that I phoned up once and they said they were using 8Watts and a ground plane antenna and they said their block was not that high. I mean it is a long shot, I think they were on about 98.3 ro so, though you know what remembering frequencies are like. I could just about pick them up with some ninja antenna positioining in East London, they remained weka with quite low mod most of the time but you know when a DJ's voice sounds friendly, it draws you in so I listened quite a lot.

I am just going to go hunting on another post I made a while back and come back and edit on here.

"Interesting Joy radio that freq rings a bell.. do you have any info were they from SE London by any chance using low power?

edit ... amazing !!! It is the lost station I was wondering about for years thanks for reminding me. I allways remember the slightly odd frequency.

http://www.joyradio.co.uk/about.html

I think I phoned them once and they said they were using about 5W and a ground plane antenna around New Cross area and the details check out. They seemed like a friendly bunch of people running that. Always nice to recall the past and be reminded. They got out really well for the power."

Is New cross near here, long shot but might have been related ? ALthough Joy seemed fairly big and well established and this station I rang up seemed more hobby oriented. I will look em up in a book I have. I may have this all wrong Teckniqs but thought I would put it out there.

Radio liberty, Maze FM 96.8 - a real possibility for the station I rang....Sorry this is so vague I just cannot recall clearly the station I calleds name. Stage FM possible but I recall them being quite big (soul music) Breeze FM 96.9 (Dance) this could have been the station I rang.

I do recall it was somewhere high 96's to high 98's frequencies.

[teckniqs]

Haha I know the person who used to do that Joy FM station, he later became a regular DJ on London's Dream FM from around 1993 onwards but I remember him mentioning it to me and who built the rig (a guy called Tony Miles apparently from South Wimbledon)

.....No New Cross isn't very far away from there probably about 2 or 3 miles at a guess.
But one thing I can confirm is although that lowrise block isn't a tall building it's on very good ground with breathtaking views into London.

[FMEnjoyer]

97.85Mz a very specific frequency and that alone makes them stand out. I suppose 1/2 a mhz can make the difference of interfering adjacnet and with a manual tuner back in those days no one cared really.

[radionortheast]

Lot of radios, transmitters won’t tune in half steps, did once think about it, its away to avoid in car transmitters, might avoid foreign stations too, suprized the transmission power on this was so low, my 3w with a gp aerial would get out really well

[teckniqs]

Lot of radios, transmitters won’t tune in half steps, did once think about it, its away to avoid in car transmitters, might avoid foreign stations too, suprized the transmission power on this was so low, my 3w with a gp aerial would get out really well

In 1988 most transmitters could be tuned by any steps you turned the VFO coil at and weren't PLL.

[FMEnjoyer]

I think under optimal conditions, high site perfectly tuned GPA antenna 5W could do 20miles with a very good receiver at the other end and a well chosen frequency, use the best possible coax to get every mW to the copper wires.This is why i am so interested in 500mW, at least as a thought in my own head anyway,as it could be fun to see how far you can get using tiny power, just optimized antennas, dx style anorak reception skills etc

[radionortheast]

I could hear 4w on the ford 4000 rds at a place 22kms away, the dipole was in the loft. Later on I moved frequencies, gp was in the same place, with a dipole before on a different frequency would get a lot of white noise to the north over hilly terrain, nice to have your own music and try, making your own playlists.
With the gp on a different frequency there was no loss of signal it only went weak, stereo sign coming up crackles over the top of it, something to see.
Even when I got an outdoor aerial I couldn’t get the same signal I got on a high channel, by this time didn’t go far south anymore, with not been able to get it to go north, I lowered to half a watt.

[FMEnjoyer]

When you say high channel, you mean on a higher frequency up the band ?

As i understand a dipole is just slightly superior than a GP in radiation angle, in most situations but the GP is an easier match as you don't need a balun, dipoles on VHF were always a bit of a problem when I knew less than nothing and wired them direct with RG 50phm coax. Also using a boom is a pain, you can make GP's with an SO-239 for the cost of an SO-239 and 5 pieces of 80cms wire, wire ones are not for permanent installs though no wind survivability with just 2mm copper wires fine for RX and lofts and a stick it up on a pole for a for a few hours.

Good antennas for some situations. They have less potential for rf common mode on the coax as well but a choke is still suggested often by hams anyway.

[FMEnjoyer]

22kms from a loft, that must be a distance record, congrats, just goes to show I imagine car radio on a hil though.