January 1987 started much better than 1986....

Yes, indeed! The readers of the German PIN Magazine voted FRS as the number 1 short wave free radio station. The station received four certificates related to as many different catagories. Watch them along with the 'all categories results'. Transmissions via the IRRS were suspended mainly because the IRRS people had to deal with a number of problems preventing them to relay FRS-Holland. The first 6205 broadcast took place on Sunday January 17th. That day conditions tended a bit to long skip but in general most of the FRS listeners could pick up a good signal. Also the February (start was 30 minutes too late) and March transmissions went out to everyone's satisfaction. The 3rd Sunday April transmission clashed with Easter, a good opportunity to do something special deviating from the usual schedule. Already at 07.00 CET Delmare was on with a strong carrier. In those days FRS-Holland had to deal with interference from HCJB Ecuador during the first half an hour of the transmission. That particular morning the 6205 signal was so exceptionally strong that there was no sign of any HCJB signal although the station was on! FRS programmes commenced that morning later than usual at 12.45 CET lasting till 17.45 CET. Because of an eye injury Johan Rood returned too late from a trip to West-Germany. Most of the Oldies Shows were repeated Easter Monday ...

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“Well, I returned from a short three day trip and suddenly the bell rang. I opened the door and in front of me stood Johan Rood. Some 10 minutes later I realized Delmare was raided while relaying our tapes earlier that day. As I didn't listen myself I wasn't aware of the fact that at approx. 12.40 the 6205 was switched off. It was a shock for me because I had some kind of feeling it would be the definitive end of relays via Delmare."

At that moment Peter didn't know he would be right: Delmare's second raid within a period of 3 years was the final blow. Radio Delmare was raided at 12.30 CEST during the Danny Kay show. THe big transmitter was confiscated, the anrenna was put under seal and (postive): all studio equipmet was left untouched. And so the whole story from February 1983 and May 1986 repeated itself all over again .... Peter Verbruggen started looking for new relay possibilities. Of course it was an advantage he knew quite a number of station OP's but on the other hand: it had to be a station with a strong transmitter and willing to put FRS on air on a regular basis for at least 3 or 4 hours. And the combination of these two requirements wasn't obvious as most stations didn't want to take that risk. Advertisements were published in a number of free radio magazines including 'Weekly Report' and Radio Telex. Sunday June 21st FRS was relayed for two hours via a Dutch station using high power. The 6220 signal was superb and almost 50 letters reached FRS' mailbox. Bert van Leer left the station after having presented the Musical Express for just over 3 years. He remained involved in the station on the productional side (jingles). July 19th another 2 hour relay was planned on 6205 but after 55 minutes the modulator broke down, the end of a very brief transmission. ... The week before, Sunday July 12th, FRS put out a 90 minute test with an own 10W spare rig: that rig was in Peter's studio during the January 16th 1983 visit of the authorities but it was hidden at a part of the attic they didn’t seek. 6260 provided fair reception that July Sunday. Another interesting: Frankie Fanatic made a video recording of the actual broadcast but sadly wiped out the tape a few weeks later… Too bad!