Shacks

Here John M5AHI tells of his introduction to amateur radio and the equipment he presently uses. John inhabits a leafy dell near Oxted, which therefore is not ideal for radio communications. So … over to John.

“My first introduction to radio was making a crystal set and then a one valve set, using reaction, whilst at prep school. In the 1940s I was a regular visitor to Lisle Street where the Government Surplus market was rampant. There I acquired a Collins TCS transmitter but only used it on a dummy load.

As my brother–in–law had a boat I made up a transmitter based on a commercial design. It had a PA of an 807 and was modulated by a single 807 with a Collins Modulation Transformer. The crystals were ground by myself on tungsten carbide to achieve the close tolerance required by the registration authorities. As I was an unlicensed manufacturer the GPO came round to inspect it. I had used radio stations with a Collins BFO to check the frequencies. The system passed but I had to install a safety switch to turn off the transmitter if the case were opened. The receiver was a Marconi CR300.

Licensed transmission was only achieved after I passed the morse test when I had retired from my occupation. I acquired a Labgear LG300 and proceeded to restore it as the modulation transformer was blown. It had an 813 PA modulated by two 805s. There was no lack of modulation power!

I also acquired a Collins KWM2A transceiver and a Yaesu FT101ZD. I had also bought a Racal TR55 which was xtal controlled and converted it to VFO operation. I put in a 7360 frame deflection valve as a balanced mixer and the results were phenomenal.

Presently my aerial is a long wire attached to a tree with a Kenwood Antenna Tuner plus Power Meter showing SWR. I have a large dummy load and an R382 wavemeter.

John inside with the Yaesu FT101ZD and outside his shack showing the aerial

These two pairs of pictures, the top from 2007 and the lower from 2008 gave me reason to look back at last year’s Feedback - our society newsletter - to see what’s changed over the year. I concluded that I’m now a bit older and a bit wiser – at least one of those is moving in the right direction! In 2007 I reported on the aftermath of the January storms and my entry in the 432MHz AFS. The AFS was much the same as last year - rather poor conditions, but this time activity was boosted by a French contest and with portable stations coming on the air at intervals as they reached their hilltop sites to brave the February elements.
I was also rather late on, so only made 25 QSOs, with the best DX being 230km in IO93.”
The other pair of pictures is somewhat happier. At least this year I was able to take my HF vertical tribander down ahead of the recent storms, thereby avoiding last year’s bent mast, which also stretched my 80m inverted-V.”