Jump ship to:

After packing the tent away the following morning, there was another long drive ahead, and so we were on the road again shortly after 10am. By 11am, we were passing the East of London, and yet more unlisted FM channels were being picked up by the car radio, set to ‘Seek’ mode. Some of the slogans matched those from the previous afternoon, but further titles were noted including Pressure, Bassline, GFM and Hyper FM, with unidentifieds on 99.6, 101.6 and 107.0 MHz. A rock music programme was noted on medium wave 819 kHz, Radio Free London.

As we headed east through Essex, both Radio Caroline 1503 and Radio Northsea International 1575 were loud and clear, as were Chelmer FM (Chelmsford), Dream 100 (Colchester) and another LPAM station – URE – University Radio Essex, on 1404 kHz. Caroline was carrying rock music, advertisements for local Southend businesses and the Caroline Support Group Netherlands and trademark announcements such as "Ladies and gentlemen, the legend lives on – this is Caroline". RNI, as was the case on all its broadcasting to which I was tuned, carried an authentic 1970 format with music from that era from the original playlists.

We returned to the Stranger’s Home campsite in Bradfield, where we had enjoyed our stay two years previously, and pitched the tent. Now in fact this site wasn’t quite as handy this time, with the offshore RSLs being at Clacton-on-Sea and Southend-on-Sea. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t research or appreciate that Southend was such a distance from the north-eastern corner of Essex. Although it didn’t really make any sense, we couldn’t wait for the next day, so that night we took a run down to Southend to visit the pier and take a first look at the legendary Ross Revenge. As we disembarked the pier railway, there was the Ross, looking splendid illuminated against the night sky. I took a few photographs before catching the return train back down the pier and taking Jimmy to the funfair in Southend. It ended up being yet another late night, especially after logging TLR 107.2 (Thanet Local Radio - Margate) and CTFM 106.0 (Canterbury) on the way back to the site.