Approaching the Red Sands forts

Icom to broadcast from WWII sea fort

This summer, Icom UK is to sponsor a unique radio station on the outskirts of Kent.

In fact this special station called Red Sands Radio will be
8.5 miles offshore from Whitstable on the North coast of Kent in an old WWII Army Sea Fort on the Red Sands.

The radio station, which will be on-air from early July, will be broadcasting to 1,000's of listeners in Kent on 1278kHz and via the Internet at http://www.redsandonline.co.uk.

As part of the sponsorship agreement, Icom UK are planning to operate an Amateur Radio special event station. Ofcom has issued GBORSR the special call sign for this occasion.

Icom will be broadcasting on HF using an IC-756PROIII in the evening and on VHF/UHF in the day. Icom UK also plan to conduct D-Star transmissions into a repeater system and the Internet. A vertical antenna will be affixed to the stanchions on the Southern Gun Tower roof to support the
communications.

The Red Sands forts in the Thames Estuary

Project-Redsand is a Registered Charity that aims to preserve the Red Sands Army Fort as they are the last complete set of its kind in the world.
Red Sands Radio is part of that task but in addition has the ambition to provide real 'Local Radio for Local People'.

Programme Director, Bob Le-Roi said, 'Icom have a mutual interest in what we are doing & we’re delighted they’re aboard. We’re offering Icom UK an opportunity to broadcast world-wide during this summer transmission period.'

He added, 'preparing the Fort for broadcasting is a mammoth task. We install generators, set up the radio station, erect an antenna system and make it habitable. It will be a big job for us all.'

Icom UK Managing Director Phil Hadler said, 'We very much enjoyed the programmes from Red Sands Radio last year, it was a breath of fresh air hearing something different, that was topical and local, that played a wide range of music. We as a specialist organisation realised how difficult it was to pull off the initiative and are pleased to be supporting the project hereon'

Radio Red Sands launches in early July 2008.

For more details of this unique station including operating times and frequencies stay tuned to this website http://www.icomuk.co.uk or
http://www.hamlife.co.uk