Hi!, my name is Brian and currently have 70 turns on the coil.
My interest in radio started in the late fifties when I was drawn for some reason to a little family electronics shop in the town of Dover. Here I discovered the crystal set, and even more exiting to me, the components to build my own. My earliest recollection of being interested in anything electrical, however, was of proudly walking about the junior school playground around 1950 I guess, clutching a battery, a piece of wire, and of course a connected lit bulb. Rediculous now but at that age it was magic! How I afforded the battery I don't remember as my pocket money was probably about sixpence. Two and a half new pence in todays money.
It was about 1956 that I passed a radio ham's house on the way home from school, who had a pair of ex army headphones in the window for sale. I naturally returned home exitedly clutching my new aquisition and wondered what I could do with them. As luck would have it I had a friend living on my estate who was equally smitten by electronics which resulted in our rigging up a telephone between our respective houses. Firstly from my front bedroon window, across various peoples front gardens and on over the back gardens of the row he lived in to his back bedroom. His row of houses were staggered foreward from my own obviousely. This was unsatifactory according to the neighbours involved hi, so moved the wiring to follow the back fences all the way around. Luckilly we were both backing on to the bare hillside.
The wire we came across one day whilst walking across a field on the outskirts of town. Didn't occur to us then of course, that a farmer had other plans for said wire. Bet he was cross to find it missing Hi!
Once the crystal set was discovered, it led on to the transister of course. 'Babani' construction books were aquired and construction ensued. I never did get into valve radio construction as working with mains voltage put the wind up me basically. I did however adorn my room with reclaimed domestic valve sets from the rubbish tip, as this basically made my room look cool!
Early sixties saw me expanding my interests, which included space flight. I followed every move regarding the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs either on radio, or later, early seventies, nipping out of the shop I worked in to see the latest launch on the tv in the tv shop window.
Radio was always part of my life, and I got through a few in the sixties and seventies. However, I’ve always had an insatialble thirst for knowledge re 'What's it all about' so to speak. Therefore I went through the UFO thing, the Ghost hunting thing and basically anything supernatural/other plains of existance related. Photography also claimed a year or so of my time, which resulted in my utilising the bathroom as a temporary darkroom., much to the anoyance of her indoors (xyl) *chuckle*.
In 1985 I ran out of excuses to avoid taking the radio hams exam so after a couple of months of evening classes I aquired my ticket. Initially, I bought a transmitter kit for 2 metres. This was meant to carry one crystal, but I reasoned I could get some more made up at a crystal factory near me and fit them around a rotory switch. This gave me all the simplex channels for two metres. Trouble is I can't remember now what I was recieving on *sigh*. must be going scenic in my old age. Probably another kit for rx
Like most people of the time I then progressed to the legendary FT-290 for 2 metres. later I also got the 690. Both of these are still in my junk box. In '87 I decided I wanted some hf action so I took and passed the cw test, which entailed taking a trip over to the Isle Of Wight.
My first venture into hf tx'ing was with another kit, this one made by 'Howes'. 20 metres it was, about a watt out, cw only. I knocked that up to ten with another 'Howes' pa kit. Now I could talk to the world Hi. Well I did get as far as Israel anyway. To recieve I built yet another 'Howes' kit. Super regen' if I remember right. Before that I used to get ssb by taping a home made bfo to a normal transister set over the if coils section. Worked very well actually.
Anyway, in later years I went up market , relatively speaking, with an FT-ONE, Yaesu's 817, 857 and 897, and Icom 718. The Ft-897 being my last aquisition for hf. Recievers have been many, and most have not survived to the present day. Either toes up or sold like the 857, VR-5000 and the Kenwood DM-700 for instance when times were hard.
The last couple of years or so has seen me reverting to shortwave listening mostly, this as a result of experiencing various problems associating with transmitting, such as lack of antenna space, equipment failures, local qrm and qrn etc. Prior to my semi retirement so to speak I was heavily into hf data modes. I prefered this aspect of radio for two main reasons. One I was always seeking something new and exiting to play with that incorporated my other toy, the computer, and there always semed to be a new mode appearing on the rf scene. And two, I am not particularly comfortable with making small talk on the voice modes, ie rag chewing as it's known. Data was, and still is I guess, my bag.
2012 did see me back on 20 metres, due to reviving my FT-897 and associated kit. However, the 897 has finally called it a day, so being basically financially embarrassed hi, it’s back to swl’ing for the foreseable.
As of 3 April 2013 my IC-718 is normally tuned to 14.233 mhz usb to give me the ‘heads up’ as to digital sstv (EasyPal) activity. Pics are decoded on a notebook, which is also used to monitor my chat box./shack cam. My Satellit 750 is permanently tuned to 14.230, and received pics are are uploaded to the relevant page via a notebook. A PCR-1000, driven by Ham Radio Deluxe, is either tuned to 14.233 (digi sstv) when action indicated by the 718 or 14.236 (digital voice). If nothing doing with either mode the receiver is used for general shortwave listening. This receiver is driven by Ham Radio Deluxe and used to upload digital sstv pics using KE5RS’s widget.
.Brian 03 April 2013
