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Re: Short wave listening, a good start.
John , A fascinating story and a treasured possession from the Queen Mary, a personal reply and? a lovely QSL card.
My route into the hobby was the fault of my parents? hi hi , who owned a very nice all in one TV, radiogram and multiband radio receiver. A work of art in Carpentry, the cabinet had the radiogram and radio housed in a slide out drawer. Made by "DECCA" I do recall. To an ntrained 10 year old however, the radio was particularly annoying ...... other than the usual mundane BBC Home or Light programme there was this very boring band marked? "SW" on which nothing could be heard.? Very disappointing.? My Father advised me that it wouldn't work because it needed a separate aerial ... which he duly demonstrated using a length of wire across the lounge :-) Well the TV was soon replaced? (625 line TV helped ), and the radio receiver section removed from the cabinet into the attic and a much better random wire antenna attached with the help of a washing line post? at the end of the garden. . The SW band came alive and I was hooked. Tony, my first true Short Wave radio receiver was an H.A.C single valve regen receiver. Battery powered with separate "HT" and "LT" batteries it gave me hours of fun. Still prefer twirling a knob on a receiver than clicking a mouse on a waterfall display ....... maybe that's me getting old ? 73 Bob G4DBW ? |
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Short wave listening, a good start.
开云体育Hello Fellow Cliftonaires, ? ? Following a recent chat on the ‘twisted pair’ with John Lambert (G3FNZ) about our respective paths into the hobby. John told me how as a 15yr old he had been given a copy of ‘Practical Wireless’ by a friend. This led John to building the three valve battery operated receiver that had featured in the ‘PW………….The rest as they would say now is history.?? ? I hope you enjoy reading John’s article together with the letter/QSL (jpeg attached) as much as I did. ? A Message from RMS Queen Mary ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? By John Lambert In 1945 I returned to South East London as a 15 year old school boy, having been away for 5 years as an evacuee. I became very interested in the workings of radio sets, and one day a friend gave me a copy of a magazine called “Practical Wireless” and in this was the design of a 3 valve battery operated shortwave receiver.? I decided that I would like to build this, and checked on my pocket money but after several donation request visits to my grandparents, had enough money to purchase all the components necessary. I built the receiver, and to my delight and surprise it worked, and I spent many happy hours listening to broadcasts from around the world.? At that time the majority of the transmissions were either national or commercial broadcast stations, as very few countries had started to re-issue amateur licences. It was with great surprise, therefore, that on one occasion I heard two men talking to each other, and this intrigued me and it was some time before I understood what was going on.? The answer was that it was an interview being made for the BBC programme “Monday Night at Eight”, wherein the programme comprised a number of small snippets of information deemed to be of interest to the general public.? One of the items that was broadcast each week was an interview with a famous person whose birthday coincided with the specific broadcast.? After listening to the transmission for some time I realised that this was an interview being made for this programme, and the person of interest was Sir Thomas Beecham.? The only trouble was that Sir Thomas had been to America and was on his way home, and was on board the RMS Queen Mary in mid-Atlantic. The transmission was spoiled because Sir Thomas would insist on shouting into the microphone, which caused considerable distortion.? Also that somebody on board the ship kept removing their headphones, which resulted in all sorts of squeals and other weird noises. This particular interview was being made via shortwave radio, and had to be carefully controlled to avoid interference and signal fading, to both of which this method of long-distance transmission is very prone. I was so intrigued by the whole thing, that I had the temerity to write to Cunard’s for the attention of the Chief Radio Officer of the Queen Mary, and a few weeks later was delighted to receive a reply confirming my comments about the transmission, and was “over the moon” to receive a picture of the Queen Mary’s radio room. ? Similar to John, albeit a few decades later I too was an avid SWL. Again starting with a regenerative two valve battery operated receiver. Then acquiring an Eddystone 670 receiver on a ‘long term loan’ from the late Ken Willis (G8VR) who was a neighbour of mine at the time. Being an SWL was a rite of passage and the accepted pathway into amateur radio. Unfortunately this aspect of the hobby seems to have lost ground as manually tuning a receiver among the general population is a ‘forgotten skill’ in these days of ‘Alexa’ and digital streaming. For those of us who still have the curiosity, temerity and perseverance, the HF bands outside our frequency allocations are still fertile areas ? For example, a very strong AM signal on 3.973 MHz proclaiming to be ‘Amateur Radio on line news’. This featured a very professional presentation of news items from the ARRL, RSGB, Australian Radio Society as well as JARL etc. I have a suspicion the signals originated in central Europe (Germany?). A clandestine “numbers station” was found on 4.212Mhz. Albeit, using USB with five letter groups in phonetics. The operator with a distinct North American accent concluded with “This is top-dog out” Shortly after the transmissions resumed with much weaker signals which could be indicative of the transmitter on a different ‘beam-heading’. The station that made both Suzanne and I smile was on 9.330 MHz AM, with the station ident of WLC (World’s Last Chance). Programme content was to say the least very unusual, with very slick professional presentation, wrapped round an evangelical theme claiming the world is flat!???????? I am not joking! The transmitter is located in the state of Maryland USA and claims an output power of 500KW to a large rotatable antenna array. The station has apparently been totally refurbished including the new antenna array, all funded by the WLC organisation who broadcast 24hrs a day 365day a year! For the aeronautical fans try 11.300Mhz USB ATC main call frequency for North and Central Africa with regular ‘unauthorised chatter’ between ‘controllers’ at Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa ? And finally on 5.262Mhz USB (60m CW allocation) Scottish trawler-men off Orkney discussing the day’s catch. ? My thanks to John (G3FNZ) for allowing me to circulate his script and the image of the QSL. ? 73 es keep listening es stay safe de Tony es Suzanne. ? ? ? ? ? |
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Re: Cllfton Field Day Tent
Hello Frank,
No need to apologise .... my memory fails me from time to time ... it was a fair while ago. ? Your memory of former members corresponds closely to mine, a few others that come to mind are Harry G3UAD (who taught me Morse Code) and from the "logistics" ? team Reg Hinton, who was club secretary during my time at the Clifton.? Don't recall meeting Nick at any of the forays to Whitehill Farm,? which was then used for both HF and VHF NFD's. If I recall you were often on 4m as GJ3WMR. Memories of the Agincourt Special include forgetting to fit the finiall on the top of the main pole before heaving into the vertical position, and failing miserably to get the wooden pegs into the flinty soil at White Hill Farm. A substantial tent made originally by Henry V in 1415 ?? ....... they dont make 'em like that anymore!? 73 Bob G4DBW |
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Re: Historical insight
To add to Tony’s comments, also finding John’s reminiscing of the early Clifton years fascinating. ?
I was born in Hither Green and spent many an afternoon in Mountsfield Park...... the site of the early CARS field days. Clifton must have been on friendly terms with the park keepers , who were always chasing us hooligans out of the park for riding our bikes hi hi .? The sorry tale of the generator supply in those early years seems to have dogged CARS field day efforts throughout the years .... until the purchase of a club Honda generator rated at 600 watts . This served us well when field day was restricted to 10 watts dc input power.? If my memory is correct , didn’t ?Norman Moore ( or his father?) work at the New Cross tram/ bus garage opposite 225 New X Road? And maybe had a hand in securing the rental of the building ?? 73 Bob G4DBW? |
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Re: Some Clifton History
Hi all,
Moved by John Lambert's comments about the club's early history, I have done a little research using the Shortwave Magazine archive to find mentions of the Clifton A.R.S. A .pdf file is (hopefully) attached. I have searched from 1946 up to 1954. I compliment John's memory on the MCC results from over 60 years ago! My own introduction to the Clifton was through a visit to Norman Moore's QTH in Inchmery Road Catford in about 1972. I saw his address in a copy of the RSGB callbook.? 73 Bob G4DBW |
Bob Hammond G4DBW
