History - Laser 558

THE MV COMMUNICATOR

The 489 ton gross, (218 tons nett) "Gardline Seeker" was built in 1955 by Yacht and Bootswerf Abekeing and Rasmussen in Lemwerder, West Germany. The ship, then named "Tananger" was originally built to carry cattle.

In 1973 she was converted for use as a survey ship and renamed "Charterer". In 1976 the ship was again renamed, this time to "Gardline Seeker".

In late 1983, the Panamanian registered ship was renamed "Communicator". At 56.95 metre long x 8.95m x 3.17m draught ship has an ice strengthened hull and is powered by a 600bhp Kloeckner Humboldt Deutz engine. The Lloyds registry number is 5351923 and the callsign HO2573.

LEAVING PORT

The "Communicator" left Port Everglades, and via the Azores, sailed to New Ross in Ireland, where work commenced to wire up the studios.

During the third week of December the "Communicator" dropped anchor a few miles north of the Drill Stone Light Buoy in the Thames Estuary. A force eight storm greeted them, and shortly afterwards the ship moved to calmer waters, eight miles from Margate.

On the 24th December, repairs were carried out to damaged equipment on the "Communicator". With rumours that the government were going to investigate the ship, she was moved into international waters, near Long Sands, on the 27th. The East Anglian Daily Times published its first picture of the new ship on the 29th.

LASER 730

All that was need now to get the station on air was an aerial system. A helium filled balloon had been agreed by the backers as the means to hold the antenna about three hundred feet above sea level.

In storm force eight winds on 8th January, the stations engineer battled out to the Communicator to assess the feasibility of erecting a tee aerial between the two forty foot masts on the deck. The next day, Roy Lindau and attorney Glenn Kolk went out to the Communicator in a large stable vessel.

Shortly before midnight on 18th January, the long winded saga began to launch the helium balloon. At 09:35 on the 19th, the 25kw transmitter was switched on and full power was applied to the three-hundred and fifty-four feet of tinsel flex - a special mixture of copper and aluminium available in the USA, and not for export, at a frequency of 729khz (411 metres).

The aerial system seemed OK, power was lowered so that tests could be carried out to make sure that interference would not be caused to BBC Radio 4 on 720 Khz. A few minutes latter a loud crack was heard, and the transmitter was turned off at 09:40. The cables to the balloon were sagging into the sea, and the balloon was nowhere in sight.

At 04:00 on 21st January, a sheet of galvanised sheet metal was being made into a corona shield for the aerial. A short time later after a near fatal error, the second balloon was airborne. A test broadcast was made on 729 Khz, with part of Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown being the first record played. This was quickly replaced by non-stop Beatles music, a few bars of Back in the USA, With a little help from my Friends, followed by Lucy in the Sky. At 11:00 the transmitter was put back on air and the official start of Laser commenced, the first record being Baby you're a rich man.

The next day, 22nd, the balloon cable broke at 02:15, and another balloon broke loose and drifted away. It was reportedly found at Colchester in Essex, wrapped around a traffic bollard. With the loss of the second balloon, which each cost about 6000 Pounds, the backers agreed to put up another $200,000 but this would be their limit.

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