WAB SP60 AYLESBURY VALE

Book Number 12450

Early Days
My first interest in radio came through friends in school when I was 11 years old. I built a crystal set but the crystal was a dud and it didn't work. I was so infuriated that I pestered all my relations for old radio parts. Lofts were scoured and sheds were raided. I collected a number of bright emitter HL2 and similar pre-war valves and set about making a single valve set in a large tin box. Of course it had to have two batteries, a low voltage one to heat the valve filament (nominally two volts) and a "High Tension battery". This provided the anode voltage of 120 volts and cost 19shillings and sixpence, a fortune for a small boy on sixpence a week pocket money. (It represented 39 weeks with no spending on anything else!)
I decided that I had to convince my father that a non-returnable investment was required. My response to his enquiry as to whether it would work was a resounding 'Yes'. I regard this as the first step in my career as a professional electronics designer and manager. The battery was bought, duly installed and of course the set worked first time. I had a lot of fun with that set, winding and replacing the coils so that I covered different parts of the spectrum. Stations from all over the world were heard (mostly at night in bed when I should have been asleep!)

I was licensed as G3MAZ in 1957, while still at university, having taken the theory exam in the previous May and the then obligatory morse test during the summer vacation.

Current Activites

I am now living in a small village in Buckinghamshire, about 80km west of London. A half-size G5RV is fed by a TS830s and operation is fairly intermittent. Facilities exist for both mobile and fixed 2m and 70cm FM but modern cars have little space to install the gear and there is always the fear of interference with the mainly electronic control systems of the car.

This is a trial site and I expect to provide different information as I become more used to html and website construction.

Here is a picture of an old house in my village,

and another of my daughter and two of the four grandchildren

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updated 18/Oct/2k