Red Sands Radio 2007

Back in 2007, I had the chance to visit the famous Red Sands Forts with a friend, Paul 2E0GTB. The forts are leftovers from World War 2 and are situated in the Thames Estuary of the coast of Kent, southern England. Originally they had anti aircraft guns on top of them and were run by the army.  They were abandoned by the UK government and just left to rot. In the 1960's,  radio broadcast pirates decided to utilise them as bases for their pirate radio stations. This was because they were at the time in international waters, and therefore did not need a government licence to broadcast. So in fact, they were not really pirates back then. Later on, the law was changed to declare the forts as being inside UK territorial waters, and so the broadcasters closed down.

The original broadcasters of the time decided to revisit these forts for the 40th anniversary of the law change, and were granted an official licence to transmit from them for 28 days on the AM, medium wave band.  Also Icom UK, helped sponsor the station. I personally had nothing to do with the station, other than being a sightseer. The forts are not open to the public and very few people have ever actually managed to get on them, so it was a great honour.  The movie Slade in Flame used the Red Sands Forts for footage about the band visiting a pirate radio station. Just before half way into the film you can see the Red Sands Buoy floating and the band climbing up the ladders to the forts. 

All photos are copyright by myself Andy (amateur call sign G0FTD.)  Permission to reproduce MAY be granted upon request / agreement.

Some general views of the Forts.

Myself and Kevin Turner (of Radio Caroline and British Forces Broadcasting), and Paul (left pic).

AM transmitter and Optimod unit.

Living quarters and Bob Le Roi (one of THE original "pirates" of the 1960's.)

The men from Icom, G4CZU, G0KFO, G8GKC, and myself on top of one of the forts. You can see in the background fort some of the original 1960's graffiti that says Radio 390.

Link to an MP3 of the last hour of broadcasting on AM.

Link to Radio 390 history.

Link to forts history.