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Meetings:
Breakfast meetings from 1000-1100 are held at The Orwell Crossing Lorry Park on the last Saturday of each month:
Orwell Crossing Lorry Park
A14 Eastbound Nacton Ipswich Suffolk IP10 0DD
Phone 01473659140 Fax 01473659148
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IP100DD United Kingdom
Grid ref: TM213412
X: 621300m Y: 241200m
Lat: 52:01:31N (52.0253)
Lon: 1:13:29E (1.2248)
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2nd Anniversary Meeting
Some old memories ...
I can't resist joining in. My introduction was at an
after school electronics/radio club when I was about 12 years old, with
G3SDT (in the sixth form at the time I recollect) transmitting from one
end of the physics lab to the other on 160m AM. That led to a lot of
reading up of text books and learning to solder. My first RX was a
1-V-1 TRF using 6C4 triodes on medium wave, built on a chassis that was
once our domestic radio before the rectifier blew up, taking out the HT
transformer. That was followed by a Denco special which covered
160/80m, again a TRF. Once I got my licence the first TX was
lashed together on another old radio chassis but was rapidly replaced
by a reasonably engineered 10W AM TX with a 6BW6 PA, probably based on
a G3OGR design (I never knew there were so many ways to build a 10W TX
for topband). My first respectable receiver was a homebrew double
conversion design by G3RKK with an Electroniques front end (they used
to be based in Kirton/Trimley as I recollect). SSB TX followed with the
acquisition of an almost complete G2DAF transmitter for the princely
sum of £10. I built a valve T/R switching system that allowed me
to use full break-in on CW and instantaneous VOX with no relays -
todays rigs have just about caught up with that now. Somewhere along
the way I got on 2m AM, then built a transverter for the G2DAF TX and
the VHF DX bug bit. The rest, as they say, is history.
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My problem (as anyone who knows me will testify is that I never really
moved very far on from valves.
I think this was because everything I built with valves worked and nothing I
built with transistors worked. Luckily I had more luck with digital logic,
I still think 74LS is the height of technology!
Anyway, back to the FGPA based 6089 system -- yes really!
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It all started for me with a crystal set (with Denco coil) for my 9th
birthday, made by my father with help from ex signals coleagues at the
POED. It only got 1 station, the Home Service so 'Dilbert' got to work
and the 'rest is history'. Still got my first valve set uses IT4
valve I think, anybody got a 90 volt battery ? All sorts of TRFs
followed, and I was 'given' a Hallicrafters (can't remember the model,
or where it went) by Gus G3SJO (Soft Jucy Orange) SK many a year, valve
converters followed for 2 and 70, RF27, R109, R209, etc followed. First
TX was a 38set with a 12 ft tank whip on my cycle (very hard to ride
with a 12 ft whip!!) ODX 1 mile on 8 Mc/s to a 19 set. 1st licenced
contact 1968 with G3FIJ on 432.85 AM (you know a carrier and 2
sidebands).
CB NEVER, I worked for the 'Poost Orfice' in the same group as the RI
teams!! would not have been good form!!! Never could get my poor btrain
around 'Cods Wollop' nearly started to learn it many times. Then one
morning in July 2003, there in the Cornflakes packet was a FULL
licence, went on 80 m with my FT817 2 days later, got a terse email
from a colleague in Lowestoft questioning whether a pirate was using my
call, cos G8s 'clasBs' were not allowed on HF!! He of course was not
'reading the news' like us 'clasBs' were!!
It all started for me with a crystal set (with Denco coil) for my 9th
birthday, made by my father with help from ex signals coleagues at the
POED. It only got 1 station, the Home Service so 'Dilbert' got to work
and the 'rest is history'. Still got my first valve set uses IT4
valve I think, anybody got a 90 volt battery ? All sorts of TRFs
followed, and I was 'given' a Hallicrafters (can't remember the model,
or where it went) by Gus G3SJO (Soft Jucy Orange) SK many a year, valve
converters followed for 2 and 70, RF27, R109, R209, etc followed. First
TX was a 38set with a 12 ft tank whip on my cycle (very hard to ride
with a 12 ft whip!!) ODX 1 mile on 8 Mc/s to a 19 set. 1st licenced
contact 1968 with G3FIJ on 432.85 AM (you know a carrier and 2
sidebands).
CB NEVER, I worked for the 'Poost Orfice' in the same group as the RI
teams!! would not have been good form!!! Never could get my poor btrain
around 'Cods Wollop' nearly started to learn it many times. Then one
morning in July 2003, there in the Cornflakes packet was a FULL
licence, went on 80 m with my FT817 2 days later, got a terse email
from a colleague in Lowestoft questioning whether a pirate was using my
call, cos G8s 'clasBs' were not allowed on HF!! He of course was not
'reading the news' like us 'clasBs' were!!
-----------
I built a fm receiver with the help of an old timer ham who had all
homebrew 160 equipment. It consisted of a miniature EF95 tube and
various other bits. I used to spend all my free time after school at
his qth, watching the valaves glow and listening to the "160m sunset
patrol"
Callsigns I recall were ZS2OR, ZS2OL, ZS2GJ, ZS2OW,ZS2HJ.
I then built my own 160 transmitter using 1/2 of a ECC82 double triode
and a 6v6 final with 300v on the anode and 6.3v filament. I became a
member of the SARL and stripped old radio grams down for components.
The psu was a puzzle as I did not know how to wire a on/off switch and
I recall the big switch on, which resulted in a blinding flash and then
complete darkness as I blew the mains fuse. Those days it was a ceramic
plug in former with wire across the terminals. After the 2nd attempt,I
had a rethink on wiring the switch and I used a broom handle to throw
the switch. Suddenly the vlaves began to glow and no blinding flash. I
loaded up into a dummy load and got 10w output.
I purchased many of those ARRL electronic diy books which had cartoon drawings on the covers and on every chapter heading.
I then found 73 amateur radio magazine which became my bible.....
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However, I don't mind adding another recollection of the introduction
to radio. Like many others, it would be the taking apart of radios that
had served their original purpose - and therefor made well before one
was born!
So there were the 2v valve sets with KT2 output stages (or QPP25 push
pull variant occasionally), and all those ECH35, EF39 octal based front
ends, but just as important it would be seeing a big (well it seemed
big at the time) cardboard box full of EF80, 6F1, PCC84 and their ilk
valves sat outside the TV repair shop. At 10 years old, it took no
effort to open the door and say 'Hey mister, can I have all those
valves', and in those days, the answer to such questions would always
be an unqualified 'yes' (followed by 'now b****r off).
So EF80s appeared in every radio from then on - usually 80m. Still lots
of AM then, and the call-sign G2BSA (down in Looe) was ever present
(and a damn good signal into N Lincolnshire)
Thinking more about this sort of time, does anyone else recall those
metal cased domestic radios that always went up to 4MHz or so? - I
still easily recall listening to all that coded merchant shipping
language.
It seemed to consist mainly of 'Effing this' and 'Effing that', but
spoken in such a natural way that you couldn't help laughing. Never
heard that sort of thing on 80m - there were more important thing
things to talk about there, and that seldom included tomato plant
growing advice. Usually knowledgeable technical stuff
Another couple of years on would be about the time 10m was open in the
late '60s, and a converter was built using 12AT7s - you had to use
grounded grid stages at such an unreasonably high frequency. The band
was full of S9 signals during that peak.
Then later, as the G8 ticket was obtained, there was all that
work getting PL81s to work on 2m - and they did! (though QQV03-10s were
easier)
Ah, time to stop. This can't be healthy, and I could go on (and on, and on and on....).
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I tried to resist but ....
My first experience was at the age of 5 when I built a "radio" out of lego !!
Then came the Philips electronics sets (standard and then advanced) and
the first working item wasn't radio at all but the original
build-your-own Sinclair scientific calculator, built from the kit with
a soldering iron with a bit the size of Texas, heated up in the fire,
just like Doug !
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My introduction to radio was via a Christmas present which consisted of a crystal set and transistor earphone amp kit.
We didn't have an electric soldering iron, so I had to use one heated on the gas stove.
I soon commandeered an old broadcast radio that covered short wave and
then found the amateur bands. The vast majority of stations were on AM,
but there was the odd Donald Duck signal starting to appear. I can
still remember the comments of some of the die hard AM stations, some
what like the CW/JT comments we hear today.
The highlight of my school days was going on the bus to Padgets on
Meadow Lane in Leeds (The Lyle St or Tottenham Court Rd of Leeds)
and picking up a brand new 19 Set Mk 3 for 30 bob. A Denco BFO
coil and a 6J5 later brought me into the new world of SSB.
I thought I was the bees knees because I had The Short Wave Magazine delivered by the paper boy.
Oh, if only the world were as simple as those days.
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I, of course, am so old that I can't remember anything of my first
activity......... Several of you have mentioned things called
'transistors' - what were they?
There is a lot to be said for valves - you can see them glow (and
blow!) and they generate heat (although we seem to have gone full
circle as I seem to generate lots of that on some big heat sinks these
days!)
I do remember tuning my QQVO6-40 70cm amp for maximum glow on the
little bulb soldered to the output loop (right on the Belling Lee
connector!) Not that I worked much as there was a several hundred foot
hill immediately to the East of me in Nottingham. The DXpedition of the
decade (60s) was when G3VPW and I travelled all the way to Peterborough
(in the FAR East) to the rally one summer......
I do vaguely remember thinking that I was really 'state of the art'
when I found someone who owned hole punches for both B9A and B7G valve
bases..........
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Considering all the replies, I think I will be bringing several packs
of those jam tarts, which will be a lot easier to digest after a hearty
breakfast. I would also like to get a group photograph for my
collection as well.
Call back the past was a radio program is south africa, which featured
various sound bites and news bits from the past, which was condensed
into a weeky 30min program. As a youngster, I would lay on the lounge
floor infront of the old radiogram ( pilot brand with a turntable on
one side and a tape to tape recorder on the other side), listening to
all the radio programes. Those day we had no tv until approx 1970, when
tv exploded onto the scene. Tv broadcasts were from 6pm to 11pm per
night and one of the earliest programmes was Dallas, I think.
The radio station was called springbuck radio.
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My first *working* radio, as opposed to the two I tried to build from
PW was the one valved HAC kit. I've still got the log book I
kept, full of DX callsigns on 20m you would dream of as a DXCC chaser!
Happy days!
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I remember............ the first radio I built was a 5 valve superhet
from PW blueprint, I think FG Rayer and using octal based valves.
Had a full set of Denco octal plug in coils and yes Colin they did
work!!............. I think I was about 14 and used it mainly to listen
to Top Band before going to school. Remember vividly getting a 300V DC
belt from it, luckily I dropped it.................... taught me a few
lessons, got most of my bits from Home Radio or from various trips to
Tottenham Court Road, also remember discovering the Harlow Rally, a
village hall with piles of surplus stuff and no ready made
gear..........Happy Days..........
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PS, if you want more nostalgia.....the Phillips Ferroceptor I refered
to soon sported a 470Khz variable oscillator using an IF can and OC44
bought from Wakelins Wireless Company that used to be on Norwich Road
in Ipswich.........with this and a bit of fiddling I could resolve
those funny sounding stations on 80, 40 & 20m........the circuit
was in a copy of PW I found in the Ipswich Library...I simply used
tagstrip...it worked ! from there it was downhill all
the way....non of the F G Rayer circuits with Denco coils (Clacton?) I
tried ever worked very.........I did start building valve audio amps
from about aged 16 onwards (money in pocket then!) until I was 25 and
rediscovered Amateur Radio with the help of Mike, G8HPU....thanks Mike.
That's my bit......anyone else?
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Pretty much the same here. Lots of 'bike' radios using designs from
Rayer and others. I also discovered transmitters! Advancing the regen
contol to make the radio oscillate could give an accepableb howl on a
nearby radio.
It was a short trip from there to trying bigger antennas. Ferrite
doesn't make for a good transmit antenna. I never did bridge the 1 mile
gap to my mate.
Then home made CB 27MHz and RC rigs..........
To mix a metaphor ' 73 good buddy'
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With me it was the Ladybird book “making a Transistor Radio”.
It was only recently I found out that this was written by the Rev George Dobbs, G3RJV.
It’s a small world.
73 all,
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You may wish to think of it as a terrible warning, but it was PW that
got me interested in construction all those years ago. The first radio
that I built was a G3OGR design on a PW blueprint, and included an
acorn valve. I hate to think what an oak valve would have been the size
of!
Happy days,
yours with a reaction control and a great deal of aluminium filings,
Robin, G8DQX
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I never 'got' transistors until I read an article in Wireless World when
I was about 14 that described the design process for a 2-transistor
feedback amp. I then never had a problem with LF transistor design.
VHF, however, is a whole different ballgame...
I think I started with TTL when I was at uni. There was a surplus shop
in Manchester selling sawn up chunks of Ferranti computer boards, each
with a single 14-dil IC. None of your 74xx numbers - they just had a big
A, B, C on them and the guy had a sheet showing what each was. I built
a 4-stage LFSR out of NAND gates on Veroboard using the circuit for a
D-type flip-flop out of a Texas Instruments TTL data book I found in the
college lab. I think the GPO interviewer was a bit impressed, so that was
my career sorted:)
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I started off 'cos an Uncle, who was a Director at Midlands
Electricity, gave me a box of wires, switches, buzzers, lights and
bells, all at the age of 6! I remember building a Heathkit GR-78 full
of dry joints, which had to be fixed by a local who worked at RAF Brize
Norton.
At school went into the CCF and Signal Corps - Callsign 6 for those who remember such things.
There were Eddystone 730/4 's, 88, 19, 52, C12 and 31 sets, and some
A41's. Bliss, spent all the time playing, and the rest is history ....
Then became G8LIV whist at Leeds University (A Standard C146A I
remember), and then G4GBA after a rather interesting morse test at
North Foreland. Must have been well trained by G4DKX, G3RHP and G3NYK
amongst others :-)
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