I have to be honest and say that after both our previous RSLs

I have to be honest and say that after both our previous RSLs (Restricted Service Licence), several key personnel swore they’d never do another broadcast or work with persons A or B (or even C) again, but like all good ‘marriages’ a short time apart and memories tended to focus on the good times and tentative talks between Paul Graham and myself (not that Paul & I ever at any stage fell out) about R.S.L. No.3 started in late November 2000.

At our first meeting, we agreed August 2001 as our preferred date and I outlined my ideas for the format, which basically re-visited an idea Graham Vine and myself had had back in 1999 to perr into four 'windows in time' 1971 through to 1974, one 'window' or year, each week.

About three weeks later, Paul telephoned to say that August was a non-starter as he was to do a second Radio London broadcast from Clacton Pier and the Pier wanted it during their peak month - August - and the dates had therefore already been booked with the Radio Authority.

In the first week of January 2001, another telephone call from Paul announcing that he was now required to do an RSL in Maidstone by his employers the Wireless Group, in June 2001, and would therefore have to drop out of the RNI project altogether.

A couple of telephone calls followed to Tony O'Neill, chairman of the LV18 Trust, followed by a meeting, at which Tony & I agreed to go ahead with the R.N.I. RSL, and, as in past years, use the LV18 as it's base. Tony would take over from Paul selling adverts and I would do the records/personnel side. It was agreed that, as Tony would be in sole charge of the financial side of the broadcast, any profit from the 2001 broadcast would go to the Trust and be used towards the restoration of the LV18. The dates of the broadcast though would have to be May 13-June 9, to fit in with the LV18 Trust's own plans.

At that meeting, Tony spent a great deal of time enthusiastically telling me about the refurbishment & future plans for the vessel - basically to have her as a working radio museum on a new mooring in Harwich with easy access, a permanent studio and transmitter, re-wired and re-painted. 'The Friends of the LV18' that already included the likes of Gwynne Bodsworth, Mike Barrington, Paul 'The Vicar', Paul 'Mystery Man' Bonnet and John Platt, had already got quite a 'few wheels in motion' and I felt that this ever expanding team could achieve their goals, and I duly offered my services.

As can be seen from the pictures below, the LV18 suffered a bit of storm damage last winter:


New mooring ropes are taken onboard	Denzil painting the helideck	Gwynne preparing part of the helideck for painting
(pictures taken January 2001)

Work also commenced in transforming the bridge of the LV18 into a permanent studio. The 'Mystery Man' gave the area a coat (or two) of white paint and Henry, a joiner by trade, known as 'Big' Henry due to him being 6 foot 8 inches tall has constructed the framework for the equipment.

Left - 'Mystery Man' on painting duty - a bigger brush might have been the order of the day!

Right - Phil Mitchell with Henry measuring up in the studio (or is Henry measuring Phil?)

Over the week-ends of Feb 17/18 and Feb 24/25 a considerable amount of work has gone into preparing the vessel's deck/fittings reading for painting. The old paint work has been blasted down using a powerful jet wash, supplemented by good old fashioned banging & scraping.

Henry (seen in action below) has completed the console desk & Phil has been purchasing the studio equipment.

Over the week-end of Feb 24/25, the vessel's old boiler was stripped out and a brand new one fitted.

Work to repair the LV18's aerial and take down the partially erected tower was attempted on Wednesday, Feb 28. Unfortunately, the pulley rope tangled and then jammed, causing the aerial to rotate 180 degrees. This, coupled with the adverse weather conditions (howling wind and drizzle) the attempt was abandoned. A second attempt will be made on Saturday March 10.

The section to be removed can clearly be seen here. Tim Kent tries unsuccessfully to free the pulley rope.

Tuesday March 7th, Paul Graham rang to advise that the Radio Authority had declined to allow us the dates May 13-June 9, due to the close proximity to the LV18 Trust's 'Mi Amigo' broadcast. Just what I wanted to hear when I was on nights! Friday, March 9th, I rang the Radio Authority who after initially offering me October 2001 listened sympathetically to my desperate pleas and said they would consider alternate dates and to contact them early the following week.

The attempt to remove the second/back mast was successfully completed on Saturday March 10, as scheduled. It did however take a little longer than expected (from around 0830 to 1330).

During the w/c March 5, the 'Task Force' had been on the vessel and a lot of scraping/banging/chipping on the vessels paint work had been down and, as I found out on Saturday March 10, the front deck had been painted green (see picture below). Karl also took great delight in demolishing the LV18's old freezer (see below).

On March 13th, I contacted the Radio Authority who, to cut a long story short, very kindly allowed us the dates of June 3-30 for the broadcast. I have to say, they were very good to us and I learned a lot from them.

The next priority was to complete the purchase of the equipment for the studio for the Mi Amigo broadcast (Mar 31 to Apr 27), for which I had agreed to provide all the music and do a daily show. Phil Mitchell, who ran the broadcast, managed to purchase 2 Technics turntables and 2 CD players (though Dave Kent) , and 2 minidisks (through John Platt). John Platt, out of his own pocket, bought the back mast (which had previously been on a semi-permanent loan). John Day built a new transmitter and Mike Barrington constructed and erected a new aerial (between the front mast and the back mast). Paul McLaren managed to borrow an optimod from Radio Caroline and a mixer (although Phil & I had to drive into deepest Hertfordshire on a rainy Tuesday evening to get the mixer). The week leading up to the broadcast, everything was fitted and tested!

For my purposes, the Mi Amigo broadcast was brilliant, as it was almost a trial run for R.N.I. and I could do a lot of observing and learning (and boy did I learn a lot, particularly about people!). The format was 'classic rock', although my interpretation of rock seemed to differ from everyone else's (but then being a heavy metal fan it would!).

The Mi Amigo broadcast was, in my opinion, a good broadcast. The atmosphere on board seemed better than the 4 previous broadcasts I had been involved and I loved playing rock music. John Day's transmitter was brilliant & Mike's aerial was the best yet. However, it had it's problems - mainly financial - and of course, it was terminated 2 days premature when the Pier owners cut off the power, which at the time seemed inexplicably harsh - big brother gone mad - but as I would later learn (when hearing the other side of the story), the broadcast was lucky to have lasted 26 days!

One casualty of the Mi Amigo broadcast was Gwynne Bodsworth. It was Gwynne's decision to leave (and as far as I am aware had nothing to do with me or Phil), but I would like to place on record how disappointed I was to see him leave and acknowledge just how much he achieved for the LV18 project. If it was not for Gwynne, there would not have been a Mi Amigo broadcast and, being a man of his word, he allowed me the use of all the studio equipment and the transmitter (which he had bought) for the R.N.I. broadcast, when a lesser man could have 'said no'.

What followed seemed as a catalogue of 'one step forward, two steps back' stages.

I had planned to spend May preparing the music for R.N.I. and keeping the web pages up-to-date. Instead I spent most of the time trying to sell adverts to ensure R.N.I. could go ahead and in this connection would like to thank Captain Haggis, Graham Vine, Phil Mitchell, Pete Salberg & Harwich Mayor Bill Mixter for all their assistance. I am not a salesman, but the 'buzz' I got after Jan at Clacton Factory Shopping Village and our friend at Card Corner signed up was 'something else'.

Phil Mitchell took care of all the jingle prepation (over 100) and all the ads production (all 99 of them). I think by the end of May he must have been fed up seeing me approaching his front door with either misidisk or script in hand (I know I would have been), but he didn't show it! He was also the person to whom I could confide all my problems to. Also thanks to Tony Currie, Bob Leroi, Kevin Turner & Paul McLaren for voicing several ads each.

Ben Meijering was another without whose assistance R.N.I. 2001 in the envisaged format, could not have happened. After initial assistance from Liz Poole, Ben tracked down the RNI charts for the weeks in question, a task he had to do twice after our dates were changed. He then recorded some 14 CDs of 'cloggy classics/chart' songs.

The final hurdle to be overcome, which at the time seemed like that massive wall that horses had to clear in the 'Horse of the Year Show' (if you can remember that far back) was, with 14 days to go there was no access and no power to the vessel. What I then learned, after contacting Hutchison Port (owners of the Railway Pier) shocked me. Their side of the story almost left me speechless and I can only wonder why people like Phil & myself were 'kept in the dark' for far too long over the real situation. Still, I will be eternally grateful to Hutchison Port for the very sympathetic hearing they gave me and then for allowing limited access (DJs and crew only) to the vessel and then re-connecting the power. Obviously this meant that 'the listening public' would not be allowed access, but at least they would still have a broadcast to listen to.

After 2 press releases were hastily rushed out. Saturday June 2 was spent assembling the studio and carrying all the singles, LPs & CDs onboard and before we knew it, 0600 June 3 was upon us, 'Man of Action' was playing and RNI 2001 was on air.

I have been as honest as I can in compiling this page. I have not tried to hide or disguise the truth. I have merely reported it, as I have seen it. I have made several new friends over the last few months, found out who I can rely on and who I can't. Some people have gone up in my estimation, some the reverse. I may lose one or two friends if they read this, but I then maybe I don't see them as friends anymore. True friends are people who you can rely on and who do what they say they are going to do, not those who just smile politely to your face and are derogatory behind your back or who hide behind feeble excuses, having put in little or no effort. Anyone reading this that has been involved in offshore radio for a reasonable period of time, may have already experienced what I have gone though - or maybe even worse....... but then with a wry smile on their face may just say - welcome to offshore radio Colin! (God - this sounds like Jerry Springer summing up. What a shame I didn't have Xena to help in this RSL - she'd have kicked a few butts!)

But finally Cyril ..... I think it is fair to say I have experienced almost every emotion known to man in the lead up to this RSL. To anyone who has organised an RSL - The Bopper, John, even Capt Hewie, I now know what you've gone through. However, life is richer for the experience and someday I will look back on this and laugh about it, but whatever happens from now on - despite almost seemingly impossible odds, hurdles, barriers and even self-doubts, I and my FRIENDS made it happen!

One personal high, has been the number of people who have visited this site. The 2001 Main page has, by June 21, had almost 2,800 hits, so to everyone who has read this 'soul searching' story - thanks.


Gwynne in action with the jet blaster, hosing down the helideck	Yours truly, scrapping away (and proving that I do actually do some work!)	Denzil on duty with the power blaster, watched by Gwyne, Tony & Mike
(pictures taken February 2001)


Mike Barrington stripping out the old boiler.	Mike, with assistance, taking the boiler out of the galley	Gwynne & son Will with the new 'fatso' boiler
(pictures taken February 2001)


The Tower has been partially dismantled	Getting it down is another problem though!	Bottom section is down and disconnected

The bottom section is finally free and placed on the deck	The pulley rope holding the upper section twisted. Tim goes up the mast to free it	The upper section is finally lowered down & job completed!


Re-securing the remaining areial.	What a mess on the helideck!

The aerial is lowered.	Tim removing the 'T' end.


Phil Mitchell - Who did a great job as Station Manager of Mi Amigo	Yours truly (delighted at being able to play some 'decent music' on air at last)	Graham Vine, proving he can smile!